Expertise Provides Buffer Against Bias in Making Judgments, Study Finds

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/06/110606152204.htm

ScienceDaily (June 7, 2011) — Gratuities, gifts, sponsorship, product price, free samples, favors all can influence judgment and decision-making. If a person is influenced in their choice of cereal, the result is a bit of income for a manufacturer. But a lot of people can be impacted if a politician is influenced by support from a special interest; or the health of a handful of patients can be affected if a physician is influenced by gifts from drug reps.

Scientists with the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute have demonstrated through behavioral research and brain scans using functional MRI (fMRI) that monetary favors can influence people's assessments of art works, but not if the viewer is an art expert.

The new research shows that a region of the brain associated with cognitive control and emotion regulation, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), removes the influence of a monetary favor in experts by controlling responses in the reward circuitry of their brains.

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