Amygdala

Amygdala & Hippocampus interface

• Amygdala learns fear and Hippocampus learns detached facts(fear learning)
• Example:
• Rat got shock in cage A but not cage B

US & THEM

SS112 Session 10 - 5.2 Nationalism and State Building

SS110 Session 20 - Groups I: Basic Research About Groups

• 50 millisecond exposure to the face of another race activates amygdala
  • if exposure is long enough for conscious detection (about five hundred milliseconds or more), the initial amygdala activation is followed by PFC activation and amygdala damping; the more PFC activation, particularly of the “cognitive” dlPFC, the more amygdala silencing. It’s the PFC regulating discomfiting emotions.
• In isomorphic sensorimotor reflex, watching a hand being poked with needle as if that is yours. The reflex is stronger if it is a same-race hand.
• Test of bias against them: IAT test
  • honest + friend v.s. deceitful + troll → press button
  • honest + troll v.s. deceitful + friend → take longer time to press button
• Experiment: mimic movement increases chance to help pick up a pen
• Bias for Us&Them is arbitrary. We link arbitrary markers to meaningful differences in values and beliefs.

How kids learn dichotomies?

• example: a teachers said, "Morning, boys and girls," Kids know divide this way is better than "Morning, those of you who have lost a tooth and those of you who haven't yet."

US

Groups: multiple rounds game → more cooperation

• Cooperation flourishes when games have an uncertain number of rounds. + care of reputation

Is the goal that your group do well, or simply better than Them?

• Depends. if it is zero sum game or not.