Benefiting at work from Brain Based Insights

If today’s New York Times headlines are any indication … bullies are on the rise.

Interestingly, at the same time bullies flaunt violent, reactive behavior … we’re told in today’s ScieneDaily that they’ve identified brain chemicals associated with aggression. Will it help?

Hopefully new research such as nanotech simulation will lead to treatment of violence. Do you?  Bullying starts often with thoughts and words for power … and leads the bully to road rage, rape, and shootings.

Do bullies get away with fear tactics where you work?  FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program shows violent crimes up 2.3 percent in 2005 and 1.9 percent in 2006, the first steady increase since 1993.

Research suggests that brain structures that involve moral judgments tend to be damaged in violent individuals. It seems also … that aggressive encounters cause changes in the brains of aggressors … as well as their victims. Not surprisingly, people who suffer from bullies ... show increased vulnerability to depression and immune-related illnesses.

Is there any help against bullies where you work?

New studies from the University of California, San Diego, are helping scientists better understand what goes on in the brains of some teenage boys who respond with inappropriate anger and aggression to perceived threats. Preliminary findings from these studies suggest that such behavior is associated with a hyperactive response in the amygdala, an area of the brain that processes information regarding threats and fear, and with a lessening of activity in the frontal lobe, a brain region linked to decision-making and impulse control.

Check out recent research details to see how brains of bullies and brains of bullied victims ... are rewired by aggressive on-the-job behavior. What tactics do you use to prevent bullying at work?