Peer Pressure? It's Hardwired Into Our Brains

RESOURCE:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110906164312.htm

We all have been confronted with peer pressure one time or another, but what makes us actually go through with and encourage dangerous, stupid behavior? A new study at the University of South Carolina found that the human brain actually finds it more rewarding to win a challenge when with others as apposed to when you're alone. Georgio Coricelli of the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences led a team of researchers that measured the levels of activity in the parts of the brain having to deal with social reasoning and rewards. He than gathered participants which were put into different situations. The study found that the striatum, a part of the brain having to do with rewards, and the medial prefrontal cortex, a part of the brain having to do with social reasoning, had a higher level of activity when a participant won in a social atmosphere as apposed to when they were alone. They also found that the participants that won in a social atmosphere tended to engage in more risky behavior. This led Coricelli to believe that the brain could pick up on social signs. I guess winning and showing off pride is another dopamine reactor for us humans which gives us pleasure. Is this going to impact the human race so much that it will be our main source of satasfaction like the obesity epidemic sweeping America? I hope not because this could lead to a rising number of teen deaths, and more tragic ones in fact. We need to inform our children on the risks involved with peer pressure and how dangerous it can be.