RRU in the Media: Researchers use neuroscience to analyze US President

In a recent article for The Globe and Mail, Megan Shipman, research fellow at Cascade Institute and David Mitchell, impact lead at Cascade Institute, explore how neuroscience can be a tool in analyzing world affairs. 

The research pair explains that rewards shape our behavious. We repeat behaviours that reward us, and refrain from ones that punish us. In neurochemical terms, dopamine – the feel-good neurochemical is released when we’re rewarded.  

Shipman and Mitchell explore what this phenomenon could mean for Trump’s actions. 

Here’s some of what they wrote:  

“Dopamine prediction error, as this phenomenon is called, helps explain why behaviours tend to escalate, sometimes in harmful ways: a reward we’ve come to expect doesn’t cut it anymore. 

Mr. Trump, who feeds on reactions, has been conditioned to provoke even more extreme reactions to get the payoff he’s looking for. Each successful escalation raises the reward expectation threshold. And each greater reaction reinforces his increasingly dangerous behaviour.” 

Read the full article on the Cascade Institute's website  

Image by Nelson from Adobe Stock.