The Cookie Jar continued…

Posted on August 12th, 2008 by Mayur.
Categories: History & Politics.

This response from Mayur deserved posting all on its own:

“Perhaps certain men are simply pre-disposed to putting their hand in the cookie jar more than others. Perhaps its simple brain chemistry and evolution to blame.

Newsweek’s recent article on: “His Cheating Brain” offers a slightly different perspective. More specifically: monoamine oxidase A and testosterone may be the true culprits…. I summarize:

1. Many fallen politicians fit a personality type known as a “sensation seeker,” defined in the early 1970s. Sensation seekers crave novel and intense experiences more than other people do, and, as part of that, they tend to have many sexual partners. “They get a bigger kick out of things,” says Marvin Zuckerman, a pioneering psychologist and author of the 2006 book “Sensation Seeking and Risky Behavior.” There’s chemical evidence: sensation seekers have lower levels of monoamine oxidase A, which regulates the brain’s levels of dopamine, the “pleasure” neurotransmitter.

The problem is that they never seem to get enough excitement. “Their experiences have to be either very new or very intense, or both, or else they get very restless,” says Zuckerman. “When things get monotonous, they have to do something else to increase their arousal.” That’s the flipside of finding pleasure more pleasurable: for sensation seekers, boredom is also more boring.

2. Alpha males are high on testosterone, the hormone that underlies almost all the typical traits of the politico-sexual animal: high levels of testosterone make for a high sex drive, a love of risks, aggressiveness and competitiveness. “These people have a strong need to win at games, which is obviously important in power politics,” says Zuckerman.

Although it is still inexcusable behaviour, perhaps this perspective offers our politico-sexual animals a little bit of sympathy?”

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