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June 09, 2011

The propensity for violent over-reaction

From China comes this terrible story about a 21-year old man, the child of wealthy parents, whose car hit a 26-year old peasant woman riding a bicycle. Although the woman supposedly suffered only minor injuries, the man then proceeded to stab her eight times, killing her, before fleeing the scene. He apparently thought that she might report him to the police and also seek compensation from him. He was executed for the murder.

When I read such stories, I wonder what makes some people, when confronted with a relatively small problem, lose all sense of perspective and escalate things into a major tragedy. What made this young man think that committing a murder would be better than dealing with the complications arising from a traffic accident?

One sees this all too often in the US where someone suffers some personal setback, such as losing a job or spouse, and then goes on a rampage killing multiple people, often members of their own family and even their children.

These stories make me wonder whether only some people have the propensity for extreme and irrational violence or whether everyone's brains contain these impulses and that they are only held in check by the more rational parts of their brains. Is what distinguishes one from another merely the amount of self-control we are able to exercise?

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Comments

Hey, that's exactly what I study in my lab!

The inhibiting process in the brain is generally thought to be in the dorsal/lateral prefrontal cortex, and the impulsive behavior originates closer to the brainstem (the ventral striatum for good, appetitive sorts of things like sex and food, and the amygdala for bad, anxiety-inducing things like legal ramifications of injuring someone). Essentially, the strength of reactions in each of these parts can vary across individuals.

However, a just as important element is the meanings individuals ascribe to these reactions, i.e., you can have a massive anxiety reaction to injuring someone that your PFC can't keep in check, but committing more violence in reaction to that still depends a lot about your culture, upbringing, and what you've learned is acceptable behavior. This sort of stuff is all encoded neurologically, of course, but that's way more complicated than the impulse/control mechanisms.

Posted by Evan on June 9, 2011 03:44 PM

Great questions! It's a complex universe we live in. When will science tell me where my thoughts and actions come from? I do like to gain more understanding of myself. There is much influence based on upbringing, social interaction and the paths we choose.

Posted by Aaron on June 9, 2011 11:44 PM

Thanks, Evan, for the insider's view!

Does culture, upbringing etc., build up (so to speak) a person's PFC or does it contribute to another part of the brain that acts in concert with the PFC?

Posted by Mano on June 10, 2011 08:14 AM

This is a very interesting subject and something I would like to read more about. I consider myself to be a rational and educated individual who is comfortable with responsibility and making decisions and leading others in the workplace. I'm simply attempting to give you a picture of my personality. I'm also a caring individual and outside of work I often put others first before myself and have an altruistic nature.

I found myself in a situation where my, now ex-wife, had an affair. I didn't react well to this and found the event difficult to accept. It was the level of deceit that eat away at me and after being at work for a short while I decided that the only way to conclude this episode was to take my own life. I have two young children and a promising career but still decided to act very irrationally and did so with some confidence and commitment. I took a paracetamol overdose and I was told by the doctors that I was lucky to survive.

I guess the point of my story is this: I consider myself to a very rational, reliable and confident individual, who people often rely upon to resolve problems and diffuse conflict. Yet when something happened to me that I wasn't expecting and that I wasn't in control of my reaction was very extreme and what I believe to be out-of-character. So I do think that there is something to be taken from such research and I share the school of thought that we all have the capacity to act irrationally in some form or another. Rather than attempt to attack the guy who had the affair with my wife, it seems that my preferred option was to attack myself.

Posted by durham on June 10, 2011 09:30 AM

durham,

Thanks for sharing that story. I have long realized that it is almost impossible for someone outside of the situation, especially one involving depression, to really know what that person is experiencing, so will not pretend that I can understand what was going through your mind.

All I can say is that I am glad that you seem to have managed to work yourself out of what must have been a truly awful state of mind without destroying yourself or harming others.

Posted by Mano on June 10, 2011 12:07 PM

Mano,

Thank you for your response. I was happy to share my experiences since I have learnt a lot about myself afterwards and I have a better understanding of my natural responses to personal grief. This will only help me during my life in the future and should I face anything traumatic again I know my reactions will be different.

I am very happy now and extremely relieved that there are no lasting consequences of my actions.

Posted by durham on June 10, 2011 03:52 PM