Brains Hard-Wired to Hate Losing

Competitive types who get a buzz from climbing the social ladder also feel more pain when they plummet to a lesser rung. That's according to new research suggesting our brains are hard-wired for hierarchy.

Researchers from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) set up an artificial social hierarchy, or ranking, in which 72 participants were assigned a status representing their supposed skills at a computer game. Then, participants saw pictures and scores of an inferior and a superior player.

Brain scans showed that when a superior player's image popped up, participants' brains were activated in areas thought to guide interpersonal judgments and social status — basically, sizing up others.

When a participant outperformed a superior "other player," brain regions responsible for action planning were activated. Brain regions linked to emotional pain and frustration showed activity in participants when they performed worse than a supposed inferior player.

Participants also answered questionnaires throughout the game.

Turns out, the "high" that a person feels at the top of the hierarchy can turn into a major downer at the bottom. Individuals who reported more elation while at the top also showed increased activity in the brain's emotional-pain circuitry when they performed worse than another player, threatening their status.

"Such activation of emotional-pain circuitry may underlie a heightened risk for stress-related health problems among competitive individuals," said study team member Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg of NIMH.

The NIMH-funded study will be detailed in the April 24 issue of the journal Neuron.

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Jeanna Bryner is managing editor of Scientific American. Previously she was editor in chief of Live Science and, prior to that, an editor at Scholastic's Science World magazine. Bryner has an English degree from Salisbury University, a master's degree in biogeochemistry and environmental sciences from the University of Maryland and a graduate science journalism degree from New York University. She has worked as a biologist in Florida, where she monitored wetlands and did field surveys for endangered species, including the gorgeous Florida Scrub Jay. She also received an ocean sciences journalism fellowship from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. She is a firm believer that science is for everyone and that just about everything can be viewed through the lens of science.