Apparently ruthlessness is genetic. Nature News says so. Emphasis mine:
Researchers at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem found a link between a gene called AVPR1a and ruthless behaviour in an economic exercise called the 'Dictator Game'. The exercise allows players to behave selflessly, or like money-grabbing dictators such as former Zaire President Mobutu, who plundered the mineral wealth of his country to become one of the world's richest men while its citizens suffered in poverty.
Ebstein's team wondered whether differences in how this receptor is expressed in the human brain may make different people more or less likely to behave generously.
To find out, they tested DNA samples from more than 200 student volunteers, before asking the students to play the dictator game (volunteers were not told the name of the game, lest it influence their behaviour). Students were divided into two groups: 'dictators' and 'receivers' (called 'A' and 'B' to the participants). Each dictator was told that they would receive 50 shekels (worth about US$14), but were free to share as much or as little of this with a receiver, whom they would never have to meet. The receiver's fortunes thus depended entirely on the dictator's generosity.
About 18% of all dictators kept all of the money, Ebstein and his colleagues report in the journal Genes, Brain and Behavior 1. About one-third split the money down the middle, and a generous 6% gave the whole lot away.
There was no connection between the participants' gender and their behaviour, the team reports. But there was a link to the length of the AVPR1a gene: people were more likely to behave selfishly the shorter their version of this gene.
It isn't clear how the length of AVPR1a affects vasopressin receptors: it is thought that rather than controlling the number of receptors, it may control where in the brain the receptors are distributed. Ebstein suggests the vasopressin receptors in the brains of people with short AVPR1a may be distributed in such a way to make them less likely to feel rewarded by the act of giving.
Though the mechanism is unclear, Ebstein says, he is fairly sure that selfish, greedy dictatorship has a genetic component. It would be easier to confirm this if history's infamous dictators conveniently had living identical twins, he says, so we could see if they were just as ruthless as each other.
And then there is this gem in the comments section:
To test this theory, would it be possible for someone to submit hair samples from the Clintons?
Nice...oru simple experiment..oru logic defying conclusion. Requires a gigantic leap of logic to go from people giving money away in a game, to being masochistic villains in real life. But I believe Nature News. They are always right. So, I want an antidote to this gene stat. To shorten my overlong AVPR1a genes. Maybe they will have a swanky gene delivery system soon. Something that does not involve needles. I'm feeling particularly anti-needles this week. Someone in the lab dumped needles in the broken glassware container, and I (unable to say no to the Boss), had to spend one hour gingerly fishing out used needles from the midst of broken glass. If I had a shorter AVPR1a gene, I would have told him to go fly a kite. But what to do...genetically spineless.
BTW, I think that the Hebrew University spending money on studying the genetics behind ruthless behaviour is weird.
Also, why is the antonym for ruthlessness not ruthfulness?
Researchers at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem found a link between a gene called AVPR1a and ruthless behaviour in an economic exercise called the 'Dictator Game'. The exercise allows players to behave selflessly, or like money-grabbing dictators such as former Zaire President Mobutu, who plundered the mineral wealth of his country to become one of the world's richest men while its citizens suffered in poverty.
Ebstein's team wondered whether differences in how this receptor is expressed in the human brain may make different people more or less likely to behave generously.
To find out, they tested DNA samples from more than 200 student volunteers, before asking the students to play the dictator game (volunteers were not told the name of the game, lest it influence their behaviour). Students were divided into two groups: 'dictators' and 'receivers' (called 'A' and 'B' to the participants). Each dictator was told that they would receive 50 shekels (worth about US$14), but were free to share as much or as little of this with a receiver, whom they would never have to meet. The receiver's fortunes thus depended entirely on the dictator's generosity.
About 18% of all dictators kept all of the money, Ebstein and his colleagues report in the journal Genes, Brain and Behavior 1. About one-third split the money down the middle, and a generous 6% gave the whole lot away.
There was no connection between the participants' gender and their behaviour, the team reports. But there was a link to the length of the AVPR1a gene: people were more likely to behave selfishly the shorter their version of this gene.
It isn't clear how the length of AVPR1a affects vasopressin receptors: it is thought that rather than controlling the number of receptors, it may control where in the brain the receptors are distributed. Ebstein suggests the vasopressin receptors in the brains of people with short AVPR1a may be distributed in such a way to make them less likely to feel rewarded by the act of giving.
Though the mechanism is unclear, Ebstein says, he is fairly sure that selfish, greedy dictatorship has a genetic component. It would be easier to confirm this if history's infamous dictators conveniently had living identical twins, he says, so we could see if they were just as ruthless as each other.
And then there is this gem in the comments section:
To test this theory, would it be possible for someone to submit hair samples from the Clintons?
Nice...oru simple experiment..oru logic defying conclusion. Requires a gigantic leap of logic to go from people giving money away in a game, to being masochistic villains in real life. But I believe Nature News. They are always right. So, I want an antidote to this gene stat. To shorten my overlong AVPR1a genes. Maybe they will have a swanky gene delivery system soon. Something that does not involve needles. I'm feeling particularly anti-needles this week. Someone in the lab dumped needles in the broken glassware container, and I (unable to say no to the Boss), had to spend one hour gingerly fishing out used needles from the midst of broken glass. If I had a shorter AVPR1a gene, I would have told him to go fly a kite. But what to do...genetically spineless.
BTW, I think that the Hebrew University spending money on studying the genetics behind ruthless behaviour is weird.
Also, why is the antonym for ruthlessness not ruthfulness?
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