From: gts (gts@optexinc.com)
Date: Tue Aug 06 2002 - 09:09:42 MDT
Lee Corbin wrote:
>>True altruists do not exist, in my view, but it's certainly true that
>>our genes make certain that most of us we feel good when we *act* like
>>one of these mythical creatures.
>>
>>
>
>How do you explain Ridley's example of tipping in a restaurant
>that you know you'll never visit again, or my example of letting
>someone out ahead of you from a crowded parking lot when traffic's
>really bad?
>
I explain both behaviors as being motivated by the desire for the
subjective experience of reward that accompanies socially constructive
behavior.
As I wrote previously, we are a social species. In terms of genetics, to
say we are a social species is to say that we carry genes that promote
constructive social behaviors.
If we carry genes that promote constructive social behaviors then we
should expect to feel a sense of reward when expressing those behaviors.
And this appears to be the case.
The sense of reward, by the way, appears to be focused in a part of the
brain known as the nucleus accumbens. The experience of reward happens
when this part of the brain is flooded with the neurotransmitter
dopamine. In lab animals, rewarding experiences are associated with
behaviors such as eating, mating, and finding shelter. Researchers used
tiny probes to measure the flow of dopamine into the nucleus accumbens
of live rats as they expressed these behaviors.
It's my contention here that socially constructive behaviors are among
the behaviors that stimulate the release of dopamine in the nucleus
accumbens of homo sapiens.
-gts
>
>
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