Brain's Cheat Sheet

How about you rescind the almost-universal belief that murder is wrong and then kill an innocent person?

Most likely, your brain processed those two questions in very different ways, a new study finds. People weigh questions of sacred values — such as "don't murder" — in different brain regions than they do mundane preferences. These special brain regions seem to be those associated with recalling rules, suggesting that we don't weigh the costs and benefits when asked to do something against our most firmly held values. Instead, we fall back on a mental "cheat sheet" of right and wrong.

"If you had to do cost-benefit calculations for everything you do in your daily life, you wouldn't be able to come to any decisions at all," said study researcher Gregory Berns, director of the Center for Neuropolicy at Emory University. "So rules actually have the benefit of making decision-making much easier.You just look up in your own personal 'rule table' how to act."