The Conversation

At this time, it seems indisputable that the corruption It is one of the worst damage that can be caused to democratic societies. The misuse of authority, rights and opportunities granted by the exercise of power is against law and moral principles. But the reality is that this happens repeatedly.

When (and how) is this amoral impulse born in the brain? Are we beings with an innate trend to corruption?

Let’s anticipate the answer by avoiding fatalism: corruption is not a disease and certainly not inevitable.

Neuroscience began to explore how political power and institutional context influence brain activity associated with corrupt or immoral decisions.

In a healthy brain, the temptation to adopt corrupt behavior should create a conflict between duty and action. Thus, stimuli that encourage corrupt behaviors – as to obtain personal benefits abusing an advantageous situation – would be fought by deterrent factors such as the fear of possible punishment.

Given this dilemma, can we predict what makes the balance to lean to one side or the other to each individual?

Reward and self -control

There are data that indicates that “falling into temptation” or succumbing to corruption requires intervention of various brain systems. The circuits that regulate the reward, self -control and moral assessment of personal behavior are the most affected.

Among them are the circuits that reward a certain behavior, and motivate us to repeat it. These are areas that release neurotransmitters in the brain in response to money or status.

As a result, each time a corrupt action (for example, a bribe) is successful, the connection between neurons that encourage behavior repetition is strengthened. And this breaks the balance between impulse and brain control that succumbs to corruption.

In a way, satisfaction with the success obtained will block the ethics evaluation mechanisms.

Specifically, there are structures responsible for long -term planning and inhibition of impulses, whose proper functioning should help us resist the tempting reward and bet on other future benefits, such as building a good reputation or ensuring a long political career. But the activation of immediate reward circuits blocks these ways.

Moreover, the brain is adept at the saying “when in Rome, do like the Romans,” which can be devastating in the fight against corruption. The reason is that our social behavior has been selected over millions of years of evolution to fit into a group, adopt their rules and thus obtain their approval.

Getting out of this requires a lot of emotional strength, creativity and often pay the price of loneliness.

Therefore, if “dubious” conducts are adopted in our surroundings, there is a danger that the brain adopt them as their own. Since Solomon Asch’s experiment showed years ago, social pressure influences individual judgment, even when the correct answer is obvious.

Then, in environments that normalize corruption, the pressure of the environment activates the areas of the social brain, increasing the motivation to emulate group behavior, even if contradicting individual ethical principles.

If exposure to corrupt practices is perpetuated over time, we have desensitizing: repetition attenuates the response of nerve areas responsible for identifying danger and silences the sign of “moral alert” in our brain.

Prevent with non -permissive contexts

The best way to prevent corruption is to change the social context in which the human brain operates.

We are social beings, who need the approval of our reference group. If we do not require accountability or live in permissive institutional contexts, we are normalizing corrupt behavior and attenuating internal suitability mechanisms.

This gives rise to a phenomenon of “rationalization” that allows for inadequate conduct to be reinterpreted to the point where it begins to be perceived as “necessary” or at least “less severe”, normalizing addicted behavior.

A series of evidence show this “mental adjustment” about corruption. Among them, research based on neuroimaging techniques shows that power holders modulate their “upward” personal gains assessment.

Lack of empathy and ethical cost

Neuroscience has also shown that when decisions are made in power positions, brains process the ethical costs associated with a more benevolent corrupt act.

Lack of empathy is another problem, as this is a skill that contributes to social consciousness and reduces the propensity to cheat. Corruption distorts the priorities of the community, exacerbating inequality. And the brain leans into anything that supposes a personal benefit, becoming more “selfish”.

In short, prolonged power tends to reinforce attention to its own goals and weaken neural networks of self -control. This configures a less sensitive brain, in which all signs that allow reciprocity between people are disabled.

Undoubtedly, all this evidence can provide new tools to prevent corruption. Strengthening ethical norms and control networks can help “resist temptation” by restoring the mechanisms that are inhibited in the corrupt brain.

For the common good, it is vital to implement the most effective forms of social disapproval.

_{This article was originally published on the academic news site The Conversation and republished here under a Creative Commons license. Read here the original version (in Spanish).}