Brain Scans Show Rejection Causes Pain Similar To Physical Pain

Researchers at UCLA have demonstrated with Functional MRI (fMRI) scans that the pain of rejection looks similar in a brain scan to the neuronal activation pattern seen with physical pain.

In the first of 3 rounds, experimenters instructed UCLA undergraduates just to watch the 2 other players because "technical difficulties" prevented them from participating.

In the second round, the students were included in the ball-tossing game, but they were excluded from the last 3/4 of the 3rd round by the other players.

While the undergraduates later reported feeling excluded in the 3rd round, fMRI scans revealed elevated activity during both the 1st & 3rd rounds in the anterior cingulate. Located in the center of the brain, the cingulate has been implicated in generating the adverse experience of physical pain.

"Rationally we can say being excluded doesn't matter, but rejection of any form still appears to register automatically in the brain & the mechanism appears to be similar to the experience of physical pain," Lieberman said.

When the undergraduates were conscious of being snubbed, cingulate activity directly responded to the amount of distress that they later reported feeling at being excluded.

The researchers also detected elevated levels of activity in another portion of the brain, the right ventral prefrontal cortex, but only during the game's 3rd round.

Located behind the forehead & eyes, the prefrontal cortex is associated with thinking about emotions & with self-control.

"The folks who had the most activity in the prefrontal cortex had the least amount of activity in the cingulate, making us think that one area is inhibiting one or the other," Lieberman said.

The psychologists theorize that the pain of being rejected may have evolved because of the importance of social bonds for the survival of most mammals.

"Going back 50,000 years, social distance from a group could lead to death & it still does for most infant mammals," Lieberman said. "We may have evolved a sensitivity to anything that would indicate that we're being excluded. This automatic alarm may be a signal for us to reestablish social bonds before harm befalls us."

"These findings show how deeply rooted our need is for social connection," Eisenberger said. "There's something about exclusion from others that is perceived as being as harmful to our survival as something that can physically hurt us & our body automatically knows this."

There are interesting legal ramifications to this report. As the cost of fMRI & other objective measures of pain become more advanced don't be surprised if fMRI & other tests are used in legal cases to buttress claims of pain & suffering to win legal awards.

This will be seen as unfair to those w/higher pain thresholds & less sensitivity to rejection & to treatment that others might perceive as unfair & painful.

Is it fair for people who suffer differing degrees of emotional pain from the same experience to receive different sized legal settlements because they're not equally prone to feeling emotional pain in response to traumatic experiences?

There's another ramification to this report: humans are wired to not want to be rejected by other humans. As the authors state, this is probably a consequence of human evolution.

Well, suppose it becomes possible for people to modify their minds to reduce their need for acceptance by others. This would have all sorts of consequences for behavior.

A great many human activities are performed (for both good & ill) in order to win acceptance from others. What would be the net effect of a reduced desire to be accepted?

My guess is that among many other effects it would tend to reduce altruistic behavior & would reduce the incentive to avoid doing things that are inconsiderate of others.

The ability to edit memories, change one's personality, change very basic desires & to change what causes pain or pleasure could provide us w/many benefits.

But it could also create changes in human nature that undermine civilization. When it becomes possible to reduce one's feeling of empathy or to stop oneself from feeling guilty over acts committed against others some malevolent & foolish people will choose to do so.

This could be done out of a motive to reduce suffering. Some who feel very rejected & in pain from rejection will decide to eliminate the pain response that occurs when one is rejected. Imagine the consequences if more people became indifferent to the approval of others.

The ability to do brain reprogramming is going to force the issue of what constitutes a rights-possessing being. Ayn Rand's claim that rights are a product of our ability to think rationally is just not an adequate explanation.

It's part of the explanation but only a part. What we feel pain or pleasure over in dealing w/others plays a large role in causing us to treat others fairly or unfairly.

It seems inevitable that our minds will become much more mutable in the future. Once that happens we'll have to face the question of how to decide whether each person who opts to have mind modifications done still possesses the minimum set of qualities that are necessary for a human to possess to safely live in a society, respect the rights of others & carry out responsibilities that are expected of anyone who is a member of that society.

This is far from the only report that suggests there are qualities of the human brain that help support the functioning of humans in societies. See, for example my previous post on altruistic punishment for another example. Also, see the post Emotions Overrule Logic To Cause Us To Punish.

By Randall Parker at 2003 October 14 02:55 AM