People who show-off in public, taking wild risks they would never dream of taking when on their own, are driven to do so by their brain chemistry, a new study has shown.
Researchers from the University of Southern California believe they have proved that nature, not nurture, is what drives some of us to take stupid chances in social situations.
The team found that the striatum, which forms part of the brain's reward centre, and the medial prefrontal cortex, which affects our reasoning, become more far active when we are amongst our peers.
Participants in the study were entered into lotteries and were found to display far higher brain activity in these regions when they beat a peer compared to when they simply won alone.
The participants who won within a social setting then went on to take greater risks, displaying more competitivebehavior in the following lotteries.
Georgio Coricelli of the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, who led the study, said: "These findings suggest that the brain is equipped with the ability to detect and encode social signals, make social signals saliently, and then use these signals."
And he believes that a winner-takes-all mentality in group environment may spur this phenomenon.


据英国《每日邮报》9月7日报道，一项新研究发现，人脑中的化学物质能够刺激人在公众场合进行炫耀，并使他们做出一些疯狂的冒险举动。而这些冒险举动是他们在独处时绝对不可能做出的。

美国南加州大学的研究人员业已证明，使一些人在社交活动中做出愚蠢冒险选择的是我们的本能，而非（后天）培养的。

该研究团队发现，在人处于群体中时，作为大脑犒赏系统中枢组成成分的纹状体与影响人们逻辑推理的内侧前额叶皮质会变得异常活跃。

在对参与研究人员进行随机试验时，研究人员发现，与独自获胜相比，当这些人在击败一个对手时，他们脑部的纹状体和内侧前额叶皮质就会表现地更为活跃。

随后，这些在社交活动中取胜的人会继续冒更大的风险，在接下来的随机试验中表现出更具挑战性的行为。


负责该研究的南加利福尼亚文理学院的乔治阿•科里切利说："这些发现表明，人脑有察觉和编码社会信号的能力，它使社会信号变得更显著进而采用这些信号。"


同时，他还认为，在群体环境中，"赢者通吃"的心理可能促使了这一现象的产生。

• driven [´driv(ə)n] drive 的过去分词 (初中英语单词)
• chemistry [´kemistri] n.化学 (初中英语单词)
• california [,kæli´fɔ:njə] n.加利福尼亚 (初中英语单词)
• stupid [´stju:pid] a.愚蠢的；糊涂的 (初中英语单词)
• reward [ri´wɔ:d] n.&v.报答；报酬；奖赏 (初中英语单词)
• ability [ə´biliti] n.(办事)能力；才干 (初中英语单词)
• reasoning [´ri:zəniŋ] n.推理，评理 a.推理的 (高中英语单词)
• amongst [ə´mʌŋst] prep.其中之一 =among (高中英语单词)
• behavior [bi´heiviə] n.举止，行为 (高中英语单词)
• detect [di´tekt] vt.发觉；侦察 (高中英语单词)
• environment [in´vaiərənmənt] n.郊区；周围；条件 (高中英语单词)
• phenomenon [fi´nɔminən] n.现象；奇迹；珍品 (高中英语单词)
• setting [´setiŋ] n.安装；排字；布景 (英语四级单词)
• competitive [kəm´petitiv] a.竞争的，比赛的 (英语四级单词)
• taking [´teikiŋ] a.迷人的 n.捕获物 (英语六级单词)