According to Japanese researchers paying people a compliment appears to activate the same reward centre in the brain as paying them cash. The study offers scientific support for the long-held assumption that people get a psychological boost from having a good reputation.

Specially created team studied 19 healthy people using a brain imaging technique known as functional magnetic resonance imaging or fMRI. In one set of experiments, people played a gambling game in which they were told one of three cards would yield a payout. The researchers then monitored the brain activity triggered when the subjects received a cash reward. In a second set of experiments, people were told they were being evaluated by strangers based on information from a personality questionnaire and a video they had made. The researchers then monitored reactions to these staged evaluations, including when the subjects thought strangers had paid them a compliment. Both kinds of rewards triggered activity in a reward-related area of the brain.

The finding represents an important first step toward explaining complex human social behaviours such as altruism.

Reference:

http://www.nips.ac.jp/eng/news/2008/20080424/