Social Influence Video, Reading, and Experiment

The Brain #24: Aggression, Violence, & the Brain
This video compares animal behavior to human. More specifically, the aggression and violence that exists in both. In 1960's an experiment was set up where the scientist planted electrodes into a bull's brain. These could be activated by radio transmitter to see if stimulation of the bull's mid brain could short circuit the rage signals. When the bull was in mid charge the button was pressed and the bull's aggression ceased immediately. Another more obvious experiment was performed with cats. The hypothalamus was implanted with electrodes. The switch is turned on and the cat acts with much rage, and when this is turned off this behavior halts. This shows that the hypothalamus controls aggression. Experimenters needed to prove this through humans. This is proven through Mark Laribrus. He is an easy going guy and he's easy to get along with. He was accused of assaulting and killing his 2 and half year old daughter. He was laying on couch and his daughter kept crying and it finally got to him so he hit her didn't know what made him explode. After this, doctors found a tumor or growth in his brain. He had a cat skan and there was a shadow on the end of the lobe which suggested a sist. There was an increase of pressure on the structure. Later, the tumor was removed and after this his life came back together and things began to work out again. Him and his wife got back together and their child is now five years old and they are expecting another. This obviously shows the dynamite charge the hypothalamus has on a person.

War, Death, and Cognitive Dissonance
This article I read was interesting because its a very current event and huge issue today. This article shows cognitive dissonance at its best. There are many conflicts in behavior especially in Ohio because this state supported Bush the most during his election. According the the cognitive dissonance theory these people reduce the dissonance by modifying their already existing belief or rejecting one of the contradictory ideas. A good example of this is Robert Hoffman. His son died in the war, and to make this more reasonable for him he said, "the loss shouldn't’t weaken the nation’s resolve to finish the war." This shows how he sticks to what he believe and takes a situation and modifies how he feels about it.

http://www.faceresearch.org/
-Attractiveness at different ages experiment
My results: On average, people preferred the more feminine women 82% of the time and the more feminine men 62% of the time. You preferred the more feminine women 100% of the time and the more feminine men 56% of the time.
I don't really know what to write about this, it's kind of weird. I guess I don't like feminine men?

-Male attractiveness experiment
My results: On average, people had a 51% preference strength for masculinity when the images were very different and a 48% preference strength when the images were very similar. You had a 100% preference strength for masculinity when the images were very different and a 33% preference strength when the images were very similar.
I thought this was a really dumb experiment I can't tell a difference in any of the faces it was frustrating.