The Human Brain Hates Inequality

It's official: homo sapiens don't like income inequality. According to a recent study by researchers at the California Institute of Technology, human brains respond better when poor people receive money than when rich people do -- yes, even the brains of the wealthy themselves.

The typical volunteer in the Caltech study was given either $50 -- what the researchers termed "a large monetary endowment" -- or no money at all. He was then hooked up to an fMRI machine that monitored the rewards center of his brain and was "presented with a series of potential money-transfer scenarios." No one could have foreseen the results.

Expectedly, participants who started out poor had a strong neural reaction in their rewards centers when they received money; conversely, they didn't react at all when others were given extra funds. But researchers were taken aback when they tried the experiment on participants who started out rich. "In the experiment," explained Colin Camerer, co-author of the report, "their brains liked it when others got money more than they liked it when they themselves got money."

In short, our brains aren't purely self-interested. This finding lies in complete contradiction to the Ayn Rand-esque philosophy of political conservatives like Glenn Beck, whose bewildering keynote address at the Conservative Political Action Conference last month condemned America's "cap on willingness to search for success" and admired the state of competition in the wild (his suggestion to "Go watch the lions eat the weakest" was met with raucous applause).

Caltech scientists were surprised by the revelation that our brains show signs of altruism. "We economists have a widespread view that most people are basically self-interested, and won't try to help other people," said Camerer. "But if that were true, you wouldn't see these sort of reactions to other people getting money."

But if rich people are so happy to see the poor receiving money, why their near-ubiquitous condemnation of efforts to redistribute wealth through progressive taxes and higher employee wages? The contradiction is glaring: while wealthy individuals may enjoy watching the poor climb the economic ladder, the pleasure ceases when they're asked to lend a helping hand.

Photo credit: Patrick Denker