Men have taste for revenge

I, Science 20 March 2006
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JANUARY: Men appear to take greater pleasure than women in exacting revenge on their enemies, according to a paper in Nature.

A team at UCL set up a tactical game for 32 volunteers called The Prisoner's Dilemma, in which players can co-operate or double-cross each other as they see fit. Four actors also infiltrated the group, and played with certain agendas set by the researchers.

Participants were subsequently placed in an fMRI scanner to monitor their brain activity, and shown images of their fellow players receiving mild electric shocks. When 'fair' players received a shock, both sexes showed a similar empathetic response in the fronto-insular and anterior cingulate cortices, brain areas that relate to pain.

When 'cheating', untrustworthy' players received a shock however, activity in these areas dropped significantly in men, suggesting a lack of empathy with their suffering. Furthermore, men demonstrated a rise in activity in the nucleus accumbens, an area associated with receiving rewards.

"Men expressed more desire for revenge and seemed to feel satisfaction when unfair people were given what they perceived as deserved physical punishment," said Dr. Tania Singer, the lead researcher on the team.

"This investigation would seem to indicate there is a predominant role for men in maintaining justice and issuing punishment."