For bullying, acting violent is as good as eating chocolate

In school and childhood, in general, you either do bullying or suffer, and usually those who don't have the habit of teasing others end up wondering why there are so many people out there who just seem to enjoy doing harm and act aggressively.

New research on the subject has sought to relate bullying behavior to the brain reward area, which is activated when we do something we find very good and enjoyable, such as eating chocolate or drinking a glass of wine in a cold day.

During the study, researchers manipulated this brain region so that the willingness to bully was either encouraged or reduced. The idea behind all this is basically to understand how children can perform acts of cruelty - so far, among the theses that explain childhood bullying are domestic violence, abuse, low self-esteem and escape into inner anger.

Sadism in rats and humans

The new findings, however, suggest that children who practice bullying do have a sadistic side that gives them pleasure as they perceive the suffering of others. In a comparative study, the researchers looked at the brain activities of mice that behaved aggressively with younger mice.

What was found about the mice was that the most aggressive mice were those who felt physical satisfaction after assaulting the younger ones. For the study's owner, Scott Russo, this research is critical because it is the first to be able to really prove that aggressive behavior activates the brain area linked to the reward system, which gives us pleasure.

Having explanation is not justified, huh!

In complementary tests, it was also proved that it is possible to alter brain activities so that the individual diminishes his aggressive behavior. This was made possible because bullying was found to be associated, in neuronal terms, with intense activities of neurons in the basal region of the brain, which release a substance known as GABA.

The artificial alteration of these neurons, in the case of rats, showed practical results, since the animals stopped behaving violently and started to act more docile, including.

It is always worth remembering that while this kind of research finds that the brains' brains work differently, the aggression itself cannot and should not be so easily justified, let alone on the grounds that it was "on instinct." Defecating is also an instinct, and if we control ourselves well, we can control ourselves as well.