Blogpost #3 Jealousy in Science: What part of the brain is active when you're jealous?

Jealousy is a feeIing we do not want but one cannot avoid. I was thinking where jealousy is coming from, what are the factors that stimulates these feelings or does it have something to do with our hormones, blood or brain? Is there a drug to control this emotion? 

Most of the time jealousy have a strong effects to man in a negative manner, So how can we control that feeling? Man are  basically jealous according to Cultural psychologists plainly because we value what we have and there is fear of losing it, mostly seen in relationship or job.

I read this article "The green-eyed monster that lives in your brain: Scientists discover the jealousy lobe" by Daily Mail Reporter and the article stated that scientist discovered the part of our brain that is more active when you feel jealous, it is the same part which detects physical pain. 

This part of your brain lights up when you're jealous. 

This is the region of the brain which controls a person's joy in other people's bad luck its called the Schadenfreude. An experiment  by Hidehiko Takahashi was made by asking some students about their rival while having an MRI, on the other hand scientist are checking the activity of the brain. Scientist noted that the brain became more active when the students shows jealous of their rivals. The experiment includes reading stories to the students regarding the person who they’re jealous from. They cited that their rivals are suffering from misfortunes such as food poisoning. In this vie, MRI showed greater activity in the reward reaction, a part of the brain which is usually active when we received social and financial fortune.

There's a saying, "The misfortunes of others are the taste of honey" said Mr Takahashi. 'The ventral striatum is processing that ‘honey.’' This means that if the subject in which you’re jealous from is suffering from something you feel joy & satisfaction. I believe this shows that jealousy is normal, it is inherent, we cannot control to be jealous but we can control our reaction. There is no drug to control this emotion, but our brain can. 

We cannot avoid feeling jealous but I believe we can control our behavior. In a relationship, friends and lovers should be honest to each other, there must be an open communication, they should talk every time and avoid unspoken emotions because it will lead to build-up, fermenting little things becomes big over time and once full there will be burst of emotion that would lead to uncontrolled physical harm to your partner. The key to a good relationship is keeping and maintaining trust, this is the ingredient that avoids jealous situations at the same time one should be sensitive in recognizing your partner's action if he/she is worried or upset. An immediate dealing with of the situation is very important. What we need is a wider understanding of the situation, wisdom in understanding where you are coming and your partner in a relationship and communication to resolve and not to bring more weight in it.