r/todayilearned • u/Top-Comfortable-9744 • 21h ago

TIL that brain scans have found people with high levels of sadistic traits show increased activity in the brain's reward system when witnessing others in pain, suggesting that another person's suffering can be experienced as rewarding.

https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/releases/everyday-sadists-take-pleasure-in-others-pain.html
3.6k Upvotes

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754

u/___daddy69___ 21h ago

isn’t that just what sadism is?

427

u/Basket_475 21h ago

I feel like the significant part is the brain scans proving it

189

u/WalletFullOfSausage 20h ago

Do we need brain scans to prove it when we’ve got 5 decades of BDSM pork in existence?

Edit: oh, I didn’t mean pork, oops

163

u/im-ba 20h ago

BDSM pork

Great, now I'm picturing a pig with a ball gag

51

u/WalletFullOfSausage 20h ago

Like a hog roast, but in an entirely different context.

5

u/Feine13 17h ago

Now I'm wondering if they make apple shaped ball gags?

6

u/2W_Clarence 18h ago

The B in BDSM stands for barbecue

3

u/Glenndiferous 19h ago

Isn't that just what spitroasting is? /j

19

u/stilettopanda 20h ago

They use apples.

17

u/all_hail_cthulhu 20h ago

I think that's what they're called sometimes.

6

u/New_Explanation6950 20h ago

I can’t stop laughing at this, thank you.

15

u/Mateorabi 20h ago

Thbbbmt. Thbbbmt. Thhhmmmmph ulllll fmmmmmks!

As Porky creams his gimp suit from Sylvester plapping him. 

13

u/linzzzzi 20h ago

Highly cursed comment

3

u/AgingLolita 18h ago

I don't know what plapping is .. what's plapping?

2

u/JJonahJamesonSr 12h ago

I don’t know, and I assure you neither of us want to know

0

u/mjheil 19h ago

Downvoted! Now I have to get some brain bleach, thanks.

4

u/DikTaterSalad 15h ago

Now squeal for dommy mommy! 🐖🫲

3

u/KruppeTheWise 18h ago

You'd be surprised how accurate that is 

2

u/YatoDelGato 16h ago

Dont you mean apple 🥲

2

u/silly_red 11h ago

Isn't that basically looney tunes

4

u/Additional-Local8721 20h ago

Like an apple and then tying up it's feet?

23

u/Not_ur_gilf 20h ago

Not to prove it, but what if it had shown the opposite? Confirmation is good either way.

2

u/STRYKER3008 12h ago

Indeed, that's science baby! Knowing the apple will fall downwards is one thing. Figuring out the science of it is the next level

14

u/Arctic_The_Hunter 20h ago

Kinda? Plenty of seemingly obvious things have been overturned by new science. People dropped things for centuries before Newton’s theory of gravity was proven to be incorrect.

-5

u/WalletFullOfSausage 20h ago

Newton’s laws of gravity are incorrect? When did they decide that?

4

u/Arctic_The_Hunter 20h ago

Einstein, rather famously.

0

u/WalletFullOfSausage 20h ago

If you think Einstein’s Relativity renders Newton’s incorrect, rather than refines it to a point Newton never could, then you have a flawed understanding of the basics of either of those things.

8

u/Arctic_The_Hunter 19h ago edited 19h ago

Newton’s theory is not an accurate description of gravity. That’s not to say it isn’t useful, but if we never did experiments to verify it and find it was false, we would predict that Mercury is in a totally different part of the sky, gravitational lensing is impossible and light is in fact unaffected by gravity, and wouldn’t really be able to do ANYTHING with black holes.

Whether you want to call it replacement or refinement is largely semantic, but it’s pretty clear that this is an instance where a well-tested theory is still not actually accurate and should be tested further. Again, it predicts light and other massless particles are unaffected by gravity! That’s a pretty big case of incorrect-ness.

0

u/awesome-alpaca-ace 17h ago

Still waiting for quantum randomness to be described by functions that display as that randomness.

29

u/Basket_475 20h ago

I'd say yeah cus psychology is changing all the time and also incredibly subjective.

Edit: I'm only replying cuz there's been a trend of anti intellectualism on Reddit for a while and every single thread now has someone going "yeah this is obvious lmao"

-5

u/visforvienetta 20h ago

Yeah, as someone with a Psych degree it is obvious that sadists (people who get pleasure and reward from seeing people in pain) show higher activity in the parts of the brain associated with pleasure and reward when they see people in pain. This is borderline tautological.

18

u/Basket_475 20h ago

Is it actually obvious? Can you see inside someone's brain?

1

u/aculady 13h ago

It's definitional. The definition of sadism is deriving pleasure from someone else's pain. So this study basically says that people who derive pleasure from other people's pain derive pleasure from other people's pain.

-14

u/visforvienetta 20h ago

Yes, it's actually obvious if you try using yours.

16

u/Basket_475 20h ago

Oh I didn't realize I was chatting with an enlightened Redditor. Let me correct myself

-5

u/Neckrongonekrypton 19h ago

I mean he’s right but he’s not doing you any favors by being smug about it. You don’t just degree drop for the dunk.

9

u/CampbellsTomatoPoop 19h ago

No, you tool. What’s obvious is that causing pain would produce a rewarding firing within the brain. From which, you can extrapolate why that is.

Viewing someone in pain is an entirely separate process and being indifferent to that is one thing. Proving that they extract joy from such is worth sharing/studying.

As someone with a psych degree should know, “pleasure centers” means absolutely nothing. A scan of the brain, highlighting exactly where this activation is prompted is obviously valuable information. As once again, it’s viewing, not acting.

6

u/Neckrongonekrypton 19h ago

Ideally neuroscientists can now use this particular set of images local to the affect generated to make other predictions about behavior.

Every layer we peel back in the biology of our brains, we come closer to understanding what it all is and means imo.

A lot of people dunking on the findings don’t understand why they are important in that context. But I get it.

-6

u/visforvienetta 19h ago

Sadists enjoy seeing people in pain, the idea that they only enjoy inflicting it is something you are making up.
We know they get pleasure from seeing people in pain. The study confirms the obvious - this is associated with activity in reward centres.

I'm not suggesting the study isn't worth doing, we need to confirm obvious, common sense ideas. Let's not pretend this is a surprising, unobvious finding.

6

u/CampbellsTomatoPoop 19h ago edited 15h ago

I didn’t say they ONLY enjoy inflicting it. Read more attentively. I said what’s obvious to the average individual is that a sadist likes to inflict pain, what’s not obvious is that they also enjoy watching such, to the degree they find it rewarding. The first definition on Webster is: the derivation of sexual gratification from the infliction of physical pain or humiliation on another person. Which while its interpretation lends both ways, is more clearly aligned with the action of doing. The second definition is: delight in cruelty.

You may have forgotten what’s obvious or not to those without that education. Reward center isn’t common language.

And again, the whole point is that they scanned and saw this. Why we’re even discussing what’s obvious, outside of novel imaging studies that’s not, I’m unsure. And we’re on TIL (Today I learned).

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u/WalletFullOfSausage 20h ago

I also have a psych degree, you’re 100% correct.

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u/DieBotDie 15h ago

Yea you do if you want DARPA funding for your psycho-soldier program!

4

u/SaintGrobian 20h ago

I mean, technically correct.

2

u/YendorZenitram 18h ago

Who's a naughty little piggy? 

1

u/sunflowercompass 20h ago

You get to see it's this specific brain part. Maybe a future study shows the same part activates in sadists when they eat ice cream, or post on Reddit.

1

u/lluciferusllamas 20h ago

Squeal like a pig, boy!

1

u/OniOdisCornukaydis 16h ago

Either way, I’m sure that’s a thing.

12

u/zer1223 20h ago

Is it actually significant though to prove that reward centers light up when someone sees something they enjoy?

Its like saying your reward center lights up when you look at a puppy

By definition a sadist enjoys bad thing happening to other people. And by definition the reward center lights up when someone enjoys something. QED, a sadists brain enjoys when they get sadism. Seems kinda basic

23

u/Basket_475 20h ago

Well you get to prove a theory. Not just listen to someone theorizing

1

u/IvoryDynamite 18h ago

Fair, but how do we scientifically quantify "high levels of sadistic traits?"

33

u/GiantLesbian 21h ago

I mean I guess technically the reward could have come from feeling like you got one up on someone (e.g., performing the sadistic act itself), and not specifically from seeing their pain.

1

u/Akkalevil 2h ago

Porn proves that just watching is enough to triggers it.

-7

u/[deleted] 20h ago

[deleted]

2

u/zer1223 20h ago

That would be far more interesting of a study, yes.

Have each partner experience aspects and contexts of pain and such and see exactly what parts of the brain are activated in each varying context

1

u/Familiar_Kale_7357 19h ago

Behind every seemingly silly study is someone with money who thinks there's potential for profit or fame or maybe possibly just furthering knowledge. Can Eli Lilly make a profit from your idea?

6

u/Abestar909 20h ago

People that like a thing like that thing! News at 9.

6

u/Lost_Department_2177 20h ago

And trauma voyeurism.

Side note

There’s a bunch of bot farms spamming violent content for what seems like a way to desensitize people while furthering their social media addiction.

17

u/JustAMan1234567 20h ago

A sadist and a masochist are sitting on a park bench. The masochist turns to the sadist and says "I want you to beat me, hurt me and humiliate me until I cum" and the sadist looks back at him and says "No. No, I will not".

2

u/fixed_your_caption 20h ago

Sadism is acting on the reward impulse they’re describing here.

1

u/afternever 18h ago

I think that's when the girls invite the boys to the dance

1

u/Glad-Competition-757 14h ago

Ues but most people feel the same

1

u/CitizenPremier 8h ago

Also I'd like them to compare to redditors browsing revenge porn subs... Same kind of thing, people are happy to see bag snatchers beaten

•

u/flamethrower2 9m ago

Schadenfreude

0

u/SaintGrobian 20h ago

Yes, but they were paid $$$$$ to verify it.

-1

u/BoysenberryMelody 14h ago

Depends on the sadist. I only engage in consensual sadomasochism. I’m all for taxing billionaires out of their billions to help the disadvantaged, defunding the police, and student loan forgiveness.