A couple weeks ago, I wrote a blog arguing that the social component of video games seems to be increasing empathy and somehow blocking the contagiousness of violence….
As lead researcher Luis Moya Albiol told Science Daily:
“We all know that encouraging empathy has an inhibiting effect on violence, but this may not only be a social question but also a biological one—stimulation of these neuronal circuits in one direction reduces their activity in the other.”
It is also worth mentioning that this is not the first time researchers have discovered these kinds of binary relationships in the brain. In her now classic book, Animals in Translation, Colorado State University professor of animal science Temple Grandin argues that most mammals seem incapable of feeling fear and curiosity at the same time—meaning the presence of one inhibits the other.
Steven Kotler
