Q: "What happens when Harvard scientists use a brain scanner to look for the devil inside?"
A: Michael Hutchence rises from the dead.

The English Major: Q: "What happens when Harvard scientists use a brain scanner to look for the devil inside?"
A: Michael Hutchence rises from the dead.

See? No good can come from this.

Every single one of us has the devil inside!

tsalaroth: The English Major: Q: "What happens when Harvard scientists use a brain scanner to look for the devil inside?"
A: Michael Hutchence rises from the dead.

See? No good can come from this.

Visual evidence of the devil inside.

I'm fairly certain that Happy Bunny is in my head flipping off the MRI technician.

Proof Intel is really Hell?
Such unhappy looking employees.

I'm definitely one of those "Grace" people. I've found things before (Tiffany's ring, wallet full of cash and cards, etc) and I never thought about just keeping it without doing all I could to find the owner.

No Walter Bishop reference?

/fail
//Fringe will return when the Yankees win
///Sox fan
////my slashies are soaking wet

So, wait, I'm confused...does this mean that tinfoil is the evolution that the devil uses to keep God from letting the doctor MRI your brain waves?

Zoinks! 2009-11-04 05:09:44 PM
Every single one of us has the devil inside!

Thanks. Now I can go in peace.

They find an overrated band?

What about people that found the wallet and returning it never crossed their minds? Sociopaths?

This study proves just jack.

kth: This study proves just jack.

Prove, no. But it is evidence that humans are predisposed to ethical behavior. It's hardly the only piece of evidence. Consider, for example, the fact that, during WWI, 42% of soldiers did not fire their weapons at the enemy (How We Decide, Jonah Lehrer). Seriously. Artillery and aircraft provided a different element to the war- when you don't see that you're killing someone, you don't feel the same instinctive restraint.

Modern military training focuses on desensitizing people to their internal ethical voice.

And it makes sense. Humans are social animals, evolved to depend on the society we form. Actions which break the bonds of society negatively impact our own chances for survival.

I'm just here for the INXS references.

My ex is getting a brain scan?

Zoinks!: Every single one of us has the devil inside!

came here to say this.

t3knomanser: kth: This study proves just jack.

Prove, no. But it is evidence that humans are predisposed to ethical behavior. It's hardly the only piece of evidence. Consider, for example, the fact that, during WWI, 42% of soldiers did not fire their weapons at the enemy (How We Decide, Jonah Lehrer). Seriously. Artillery and aircraft provided a different element to the war- when you don't see that you're killing someone, you don't feel the same instinctive restraint.

Modern military training focuses on desensitizing people to their internal ethical voice.

And it makes sense. Humans are social animals, evolved to depend on the society we form. Actions which break the bonds of society negatively impact our own chances for survival.

I was (clearly inexpertly) making a reference to the show Will and Grace. "Just Jack" (jazz hands) was the one-man show their friend performed.

/I fail.

kth: Will and Grace.

Ah. The only thing I know about that show is that it existed. I'm a bad person for sit-com references.

Is this magical "brain scanner" an fMRI? Because that would be about as scientific as a mood ring.

I'd love to see the model for the study. I guessing alot of the "honest" people on the coin-flip question had no less inclination to cheat, but were more inclined to believe they would be caught. Just my own opinion, of course. But I'd like to see that they allwoed for that before reporting that some people are just inherently more honest than others (implying that dishonest people bear less responsibility for their actions).

Benevolent Misanthrope: I'd love to see the model for the study. I guessing alot of the "honest" people on the coin-flip question had no less inclination to cheat, but were more inclined to believe they would be caught. Just my own opinion, of course. But I'd like to see that they allwoed for that before reporting that some people are just inherently more honest than others (implying that dishonest people bear less responsibility for their actions).

That would suggest they engaged in a decision making process and exerted control, i.e. Will. The article says they didn't take additional time or engage the control structures in their brains, thus they exhibit Grace.

I'm inclined to think the two are coupled. That is at some point the Gracious people engaged in the process you described (Will) when encountering temptation. After enough repetition, Will became habit, or Grace as the researchers describe it.

Its noteworthy point out the theological definition of Grace

- "the free and unmerited favor or beneficence of God"

It depends on how you understand God, but this is seems somewhat different than a habit.

Cucullen: Benevolent Misanthrope: I'd love to see the model for the study. I guessing alot of the "honest" people on the coin-flip question had no less inclination to cheat, but were more inclined to believe they would be caught. Just my own opinion, of course. But I'd like to see that they allwoed for that before reporting that some people are just inherently more honest than others (implying that dishonest people bear less responsibility for their actions).

That would suggest they engaged in a decision making process and exerted control, i.e. Will. The article says they didn't take additional time or engage the control structures in their brains, thus they exhibit Grace.

I'm inclined to think the two are coupled. That is at some point the Gracious people engaged in the process you described (Will) when encountering temptation. After enough repetition, Will became habit, or Grace as the researchers describe it.

Its noteworthy point out the theological definition of Grace

- "the free and unmerited favor or beneficence of God"

It depends on how you understand God, but this is seems somewhat different than a habit.

and you've tied this back to Will and Grace. Awesome.

duckpoopy: Is this magical "brain scanner" an fMRI? Because that would be about as scientific as a mood ring.

Supposedly, yes, it was an fMRI - care to explain what's wrong with that?

There's another HUGE HUGE hole in this study, as far as I can tell after a cursory read-through of the paper and methods text. Here's the thing: Anyone with a working short term memory would make the decision about whether they're going to cheat all at once at the beginning, not each damn coin flip, so the ongoing brain scans throughout the process would not show delays for decision making at each possible choice point; the people who chose not to cheat at the beginning will not revisit that decision every single damn time the experimenters think they might have an opportunity to do so.

At best this study's results might show that people are capable of choosing to ignore (or temporarily turn off) their dishonest tendencies. Counter to the conclusions the authors seem to have designed their experiment to "prove", it does not even come close to demonstrating a disjoint between moral behavior and conscious decision making.

Will is a straw man. The signature described for the "will" hypothesis is a load of bull (pausing? really? as if I'm going to sit and debate in my head every coin flip whether I want to lie.). To reiterate, you'd make the decision at the beginning of the series, then you'd stick with it. This has a lot more to do with confirming what is already widely known about human decision making - once somebody make a choice (whether voluntary or not) the tendency is to stick with it.

I hope these morons have their all their grant proposals turned down for the next decade.