HAPPINESS BOOK CLUB
The most complex thing on the planet is between our ears – our brain. Billions of cells and trillions of connections between them govern everything we consciously see, hear, feel, say and do, and a lot more we’re not conscious of – and it’s the things we have less conscious control over that Eagleman shares in this ‘beginners’ guide’. Our brain needs other people around to function at its best. Connecting and collaborating conferred survival value as a species, so we evolved to come together in families, tribes and groups and, when we feel cut out, it activates our brain’s pain matrix just as when we experience physical suffering.
Our instinctive drive to form groups has a dark side. Our brains have evolved to judge who is a likely friend or foe. This unconsciously impacts our behaviour. Scientists have found that our brain’s social network, the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), is active when we interact with people who are in our group and less so with those ‘not like us’. In an experiment where participants were shown pictures of social ‘out’ groups, such as homeless people or drug addicts, the mPFC was found to be only as active as when we look at an inanimate object.