From Scientific Amercian:
Whether you subscribe to the Ten Commandments, the Golden Rule or some instinctive moral code, society functions largely because most of its denizens adhere to a set of norms that allow them to live together in relative tranquility.
But, why is it that we put a vast amount of social resources into keeping stealing, murdering and other unfair (not to mention violent and illegal) acts to a minimum? Seems it all comes down to the fact that most of us don’t cotton to being punished by our peers.
“The reason why punishment for norm violations is important is that it disciplines the potential norm violators,” says Ernst Fehr, an economist at the University of Zurich and the senior author of a paper on the issue published [last] week in Neuron. In the new study, Fehr and colleagues uncovered activity in two areas of the brain underlying the neural mechanism involved in conforming to society’s values. MORE
Crime and Punishment: Why Do We Conform to Society?: Scientific American
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