In the previous post we talked about the positive aspects of a great compliment however, what drives this positivity and pleasurable feelings is yet to learn.
Whenever, we compliment someone it activates different areas of brain that are connected to reward pathway. Compliments work in the similar manner as the favorite food or an addictive drug.
Researchers from the Japan carried out an interesting study, including 48 participants. All the participants were asked to learn a specific finger exercise and once they learned they were divided into three groups:
Group 1: received compliments directly from instructor
Group 2: watched other people receiving compliments
Group 3: evaluated their own performance without the compliments
After the training, participants repeated exercise and the group that received compliments directly (group 1) performed better than other groups which indicates that compliments activated the reward system in the brain (https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121109111517.htm).
There are various components of reward system in the brain, including;
Ventral tegmental area (VTA): VTA produces dopamine (a chemical that gives the sense of pleasure) and sends it to different parts of the brain such as amygdala, nucleus accumbens, prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and striatum.
Amygdala: controls emotions
Nucleus accumbens: controls motor functions
Pre frontal cortex: is involved in planning and attention
Hippocampus: is involved in memory formation (https://www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/mcat/processing-the-environment/drug-dependence/v/reward-pathway-in-the-brain)
Striatum: is involved in planning, cognition, decision making, motivation and reward perception (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Striatum)
Dopamine travels to all these areas and eventually produces the sense of pleasure and happiness. So, there is the scientific evidence that compliments can work wonders!!
However, be careful when complimenting others because too much of it can ruin someone’s life such as if you specifically tell a child that:
You are better than others
You are very special and someone else is not
You always perform better than others
It will create sense of comparison and may be narcissistic behavior (sense of proud, inflated sense of importance and require excessive admiration and attention).
Instead we can praise a child like this
You are a good students
You did well
You are adorable
You solved this problem very well
So, maintain a balance because excess of everything is bad….
Please provide your comments about the piece of writing so it could be improved.
Have a nice day….
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