Can zapping people’s brains reduce violence? Controversial study sees potential
Study participants read short accounts of assault and rape. They were then asked: Would you do that?
The study participants read short accounts of violent behavior: In one, a man smashed a beer bottle over someone’s head; in another, an assailant raped an acquaintance.
They were then asked: Would you do that?
The day before, half of them had had the frontmost region of their brains, responsible for such high-level functions as impulse control and moral judgments, electrically stimulated; the other half had not.
The people whose prefrontal cortex was stimulated reported roughly half the likelihood of committing a violent act like the ones they watched, scientists at the University of Pennsylvania
