2023-07-21 06:00:00
PSYCHOLOGY – Comparing concrete values (height, weight…) or abstract values (qualities, skills…) is a faculty inscribed in our brain. But beware that this does not prevent us from moving forward!
Comparing one’s fate to that of others is not unique to humans: primates also have a sense of fairness. Having taught Capuchins to do a job in exchange for a reward, the Dutch ethologist Frans de Waal showed that when the reward given is not the same (cucumber or the tastiest grape), the monkey who feels aggrieved throws away the cucumber it would have accepted if there had been no element of comparison. This experience does not surprise Professor Marc Vérin, neurologist at the CHU Pontchaillou in Rennes and president of the Institute of Clinical Neurosciences in Rennes. Because the ability to compare abstract values (qualities, skills, etc.) or concrete values (goods, remuneration, reward) is inscribed in the brain.
Although there is no area of comparison strictly speaking, « a network (the “salience network”) in connection with the circuit of emotions, is responsible for selecting what is relevant for us and this circuit makes it possible to compare…
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