Brain Guilt Zone: Why Doesn’t Everyone Pode Guilt?

The guilt area of ​​the brain is very closely related to shame. However, it has been shown that these areas are not activated in certain people. It should come as no surprise that this is the case with narcissists and people who are capable of lying and offending others.

Thus, the guilt zone of the brain does not seem to work the same way in all people. While most people blame guilt, in others this area of ​​the brain is almost never activated. This is, as has already been said, for narcissists and violent individuals.

First of all, we need to understand the very interesting features of shame. That is the key feeling. While we perceive guilt for something negative (Fischer, Shaver, & Carnochan, 1990), in reality, this feeling helps us control our behavior among people.

The burden of guilt causes us to behave appropriately and thus sometimes avoid the suffering caused by guilt. On the other hand, we experience it a lot nonetheless, because guilt is one of the hardest feelings to deal with.

Sigmund Freud said people resort to complex defense mechanisms to protect themselves from guilt because the negative thoughts caused by things we do or don’t do are hard to put up with. Nevertheless, we are able to feel pain, which is a sign of conscience. This is a feeling that many people are unable to show.

Where is the guilt area of ​​the brain located?

In 2019, we witnessed another massacre: the Christchurch Mosque attacks in New Zealand. The man in charge of the work posted it online. Not only did he strive for the maximum number of victims, but he also explained in his manifesto how his aim was to continue the attacks and also to inspire others.

In this man, his absolute coldness is very clearly visible. Just like in some video game, a person shot all the people who got in his way without feeling the slightest guilt. The brutality of the act and the lack of conscience and guilt are obvious. What is it about such an individual? Which areas of the brain explain such behavior?

Lateral orbitofrontal cortex

Monash University conducted the study with the help of violent video games. Dr. Molenberghs, the person in charge of the study, wanted to find out which area of ​​the brain is associated with guilt. Utilizing magnetic resonance imaging, he tried to see what happened in the subjects ’brains as they played a video game where they killed a lot of people.

It was seen from the brain images that there was no activation of neurons in the lateral orbitofrontal cortex. This was perfectly in line with Gerhard Roth’s previous work, in which he examined the brains of murderers, rapists and other imprisoned criminals to find out what was happening in them.

The results were clear. Prisoners ’lateral orbitofrontal cortex showed little activity, unlike those people who feel guilty. Sometimes this lack of activation may be due to a tumor, but in the majority of cases there is no clear cause for it.

Continued exposure to violence is sometimes believed to affect this area of ​​the brain, which may explain New Zealand’s use of the murderer. He claimed his violence was partly the result of his passion for video games.

Guilt makes us human

Guilt is associated with shame. While both feelings make you feel uncomfortable,  they also motivate us to improve our ways to ward off that discomfort.

All of this is actually positive. This is the core that makes us people and social beings who want to be better for others and ourselves. This psychobiological side does not exist for psychopaths, narcissists, or those people who are able to hurt others without feeling remorse.

Such people are not able to think about their actions or feel empathy for the people they have hurt. Unfortunately, there are many such people, for example Brenton Tarrant, the Christchurch striker.

The dark mind that Gerhard Roth spoke of exists. The guilt zone of the brain doesn’t work the same way for all of us. For this reason, some people are capable of horrific acts.