Compliance to Social Norms - Article Example

Humans cannot exist without interacting with their own kind and doing the same in a systematic manner; they have developed social norms. Hence, if anyone breaks these norms society discerns them immediately. Nevertheless, if consequences (punishment, apartheid, threat) of breaking norms become insignificant then people do not regard them in their social setting and that breaks the neat social order system in a society. To prove the same, recent research by Manfred Spitzer (University of Ulm) and his colleagues (University of Zurich) showed how the brain functions whilst complying with or rejecting social norms.

The experiment included Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (FMRI) in the f brains of 24 male subjects in a two-person monetary exchange scenario. One scenario included the prospect of retribution for the unjustified division of money between persons A and B and the other was free of it. The fear of punishment and the idea of power (to person B) made subjects act justly, but the second scenario without threat enabled the money holder (person A) to act in his own interest. Interestingly, the Orbitofrontal cortex of the brain was liable for assessing the prospect of retribution and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex was liable for self-interest i.e. greed for money.

Yet, these brain activities were only observed when the prospect of threat was present. The powerful position of person A and the dependent position of person B changes the ‘sense of fairness’ if fear of punishment is removed. Similarly, if person B has the power to castigate person A, the power game changes and B is in a superior place to A. Social status and power are key elements for a person to be a subject of punishment and loss (Zink, 2008).