Social exclusion: causing these little ones to sin

This study seems to support the contention that a socially inclusive learning environment improves learning.

Researchers have known for a long time that there is a link between social exclusion and the failure of self-control. ...
The new study, however, is the first to use MEG to show that there are actual changes inside the brain when test subjects are manipulated to feel socially excluded.... MEG data revealed that those in the social-exclusion group had clear differences in activity in the brain's occipital, parietal and prefrontal cortex regions. Those in the social-exclusion group also performed more poorly on the math questions. The inference is that social exclusion actually affects the brain's neural circuitry.

What is further important about this study's results has implications for church and society too:

The study may indicate why those who are never picked for athletic teams in pickup games tend to stay in that group and why those socially excluded sometimes react with inappropriate behavior or even violence.... The new research, however, shows that those who are socially excluded are more apt to show self-control difficulties, and might even wind up "all by myself."

In other words, moral behaviour is made more likely by an inclusive community and society. It also has implications for the way that we make sure that those in leadership are supported, I would suggest. Leaders can often end up isolated and beleaguered particularly in difficult situations. Lack of support seems likely, to me, to increase the likelihood of lack of self-control surfacing in inappropriate anger, sexual temptation, substance abuse and so forth.

Politically, of course, it starts to undermine the right's insistance on personal responsibility to the exclusion of the wider social picture of poverty, deprivation etc.


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