Reading 'The Brain That Reads the Air' by Nobuko Nakano

A classroom that has fallen completely silent.
The teacher asks, 'Does anyone have an opinion on this problem?'
Even though you actually have something you want to say, seeing everyone else around you staying silent makes you hesitate to raise your hand... Everyone has had an experience like that.
Or perhaps when you are working in a group for a club activity or school festival preparations. Even if you personally think, 'Wouldn't Plan B be better?' while the atmosphere seems to be settling on Plan A, you don't want to break the flow of the moment, so you end up nodding in silence.
We often realize that in every aspect of our daily lives, we act according to invisible rules called 'the air'.

'Why do Japanese people value the "air" so much?'
'Is this a special sensibility unique to the Japanese?'

It is likely that most people have felt this simple question more than once or twice.
This book unravels that mystery from the perspective of the latest science: 'brain science'.
It means that behind the actions and emotions we took for granted, there is actually a surprising mechanism of the brain hidden.

What is the small substance in the brain that secretly manipulates our behavior?
The protagonist is serotonin.
Our emotions and moods are greatly influenced by chemical substances called 'neurotransmitters' that work within the brain.
Among them, 'serotonin' plays an especially important role.
In other words, the role of serotonin is that of a brake for a mind prone to running out of control.
In a word, serotonin acts like a 'mental stabilizer'.
It is a very important substance that suppresses emotional surges and calms the mind.
By having serotonin in the brain work properly, we are able to obtain mental stability and a sense of security.

In fact, it is known that there are differences between ethnic groups in the type of gene that influences the function of this serotonin.
There are several types of genes that create a substance called the 'serotonin transporter' which regulates the amount of serotonin, and among them, Japanese people belong to the group with the highest percentage in the world of people who have the 'SS type,' which results in a lower amount of serotonin transporter.
This SS type is known to have a tendency to feel anxiety easily because serotonin in the brain is less likely to be efficiently reused, and it is sometimes colloquially called the 'anxiety gene'.
This provocative nickname is sometimes also called the 'kamikaze gene,' but there is no need to view it negatively.
The author says that this brain characteristic can also be a powerful weapon for society, leading to the cultivation of diligence and devotion to the group.

You might think, 'Isn't being prone to anxiety just a series of disadvantages?'
However, here is where it gets interesting. This trait may be the foundation of the Japanese culture of 'reading the air'.
A brain that is prone to anxiety can be said to be, in other words, a 'brain that is extremely sensitive to social rules and harmony'.
This trait increases stress regarding 'standing out from the group' or 'taking actions different from others,' but as a result, it heightens the consciousness of 'trying to cooperate with those around us to maintain social order'.
This is not merely an action to avoid stress, but rather manifests in the form of seriousness and sincerity to operate society smoothly.
Some researchers think that this characteristic functioned extremely well in eras where it was necessary to cooperate as a whole society to achieve something, such as the post-war reconstruction period.
In other words, the seemingly negative emotion of 'anxiety' has become the driving force for the positive action of 'reading the air' to make group life go smoothly.
It turns out that the mechanism of a brain prone to anxiety was linked to the power to follow group rules.
However, this naturally has a negative side as well.
That is the brain function that feels that people who break 'rules' can absolutely not be forgiven.
This is a tricky thing.

When an entertainer's affair becomes news, people appear who feel anger as if it were their own and criticize them thoroughly, even though it should have no direct relation to them.
Why does this kind of 'affair bashing' become so overheated?
This is related to a powerful mechanism equipped in our brains that feels that 'sneaky people' within a group cannot be forgiven.
The 'sneaky people' referred to here are technically called 'free riders'.
A free rider is an existence that enjoys the benefits that a social group possesses, such as trust and common norms, while only they break those rules to gain personal profit.
An affair is precisely an act of breaking the social rule of 'trust' for personal gain, and our brains detect this as a type of free-riding and feel strong anger.

The human brain has a function to try to punish a traitor (free rider) who breaks group rules, even if one suffers a little loss oneself. This is called 'altruistic punishment'.
Surprisingly, it is known that the brain feels 'pleasure' when punishing a traitor.
This is not a matter of personality, but a 'mechanism' of the brain engraved in the DNA that all humanity possesses to a greater or lesser extent. It is not merely emotional theory.
There is a long, long history of humanity where maintaining the order of the group and maintaining a fair society where those who cheat do not profit was extremely important for human survival.
Therefore, the 'feeling of relief' one feels when justice is executed is a reward that the brain gives us as an incentive to encourage actions that make people follow social rules.

This brain mechanism of 'not being able to forgive sneaky people' makes the culture of 'reading the air' even more solid.
There are mainly two forces at work there.

First is conformity pressure.
This is an invisible force where minority opinions are forced to conform to majority opinions within a group.
The anxiety derived from the aforementioned serotonin is at the root of that.
In other words, the psychology of not wanting to stand out from those around you works, which promotes the action of 'reading the air'.

The other is sanction.
This is a punishment added to those who have broken group rules (free riders).
This can be said to be the 'enforcement unit' of conformity pressure.
It creates the fear that a person judged as 'unable to read the air' will be criticized and excluded from the group.
This fear gives even more tremendous power to conformity pressure.
In other words, we are choosing actions that conform to the 'air' of the group unconsciously due to these two forces.

The brain mechanism that follows group rules is also deeply involved with a special hormone that strengthens camaraderie.
What is that unexpected duality?
A strong sense of unity with companions and the affection of feeling like you want to 'protect' someone. A hormone called 'oxytocin' is deeply involved in these human-like emotions.

Oxytocin is also called the 'love hormone' or 'bonding hormone' because of its function of deepening trust relationships with companions and promoting empathy for others.
When this hormone is secreted, we feel a sense of security and can feel the connection with our companions more strongly.
It is thought that this oxytocin is also actively working in the brain in the background of actions where people unite and help each other during disasters and the like.

However, it has become known that this oxytocin has an unexpected 'shadow' side.
That is the possibility that while it deepens affection for companions, it is a trade-off with wariness and exclusion toward external people who are not companions.

The front side that extends to the in-group of deepening bonds with companions, building trust relationships, and increasing cooperativeness.
The back side that accompanies exclusion toward the out-group, which clearly distinguishes 'us' from 'others' and increases wariness and aggression toward external groups.
This phenomenon is scientifically called 'out-group bias'.
It means that our brains use oxytocin to strengthen bonds with 'us (in-group)' while simultaneously strengthening suspicion and wariness toward 'them (out-group)'.
This function becomes the key to explaining human behavior, where we value 'our own' while taking a cold attitude toward 'outsiders'.
There is no doubt that the strong sense of camaraderie seen in the Japanese culture of 'reading the air' and the sometimes exclusionary atmosphere are influenced by this duality of oxytocin.

The brain's mechanism sometimes even evaluates a 'beautiful way to lose' over victory.
How should we understand the mystery of this strange sense of values?

A good example is the 2018 Soccer World Cup.
The Japanese national team narrowly lost to the powerhouse Belgium in the knockout stage, but their behavior full of fair-play spirit after the match and the cleanly tidied locker room received praise from all over the world.
Even though the result was a 'loss,' many Japanese people were moved by the process and felt pride.
This is one example that concretely shows the 'beautiful way to lose,' which is a unique sense of values that Japanese people have.
Why do we value the process and story of 'how we fought' more than 'just winning'?
The answer is hidden in the command tower called the 'social brain' equipped in our brains.

The social brain is a network of brain regions specialized for leading a complex social life.
It governs every judgment for living in society, such as understanding other people's hearts, empathizing, and following group rules.
The parts that form the core of this command tower are regions such as the 'medial prefrontal cortex' (in charge of empathy for others, etc.) and the 'orbitofrontal cortex' (in charge of judging the value of things).

The reason we are moved by a 'beautiful way to lose' rather than a 'cowardly way to win' is because this social brain is making high-level value judgments not just on short-term results like winning or losing, but on 'whether that action is fair, beautiful, or has long-term benefits for the group'.

At first glance, it is common sense that losing is only a disadvantage.
However, the social brain is calculating from a much longer-term perspective.
The action of 'losing beautifully' leads to a very large social benefit of increasing the reputation and trust of the entire group beyond the individual.
By sticking to fair play, if you can gain the evaluation that 'that group is trustworthy,' it becomes easier to build more collaborators and alliance relationships in the future.
The social brain is properly calculating that the enormous benefit of 'trust' obtained in the long term is more advantageous for the survival of the entire group than the benefit of one immediate win.

Let's connect the stories so far.
'Anxiety' derived from serotonin makes us sensitive to social harmony, a 'sense of justice' that does not forgive traitors maintains group rules, and oxytocin strengthens bonds with 'companions'—all of these are part of a surprisingly sophisticated strategy that our social brains are carrying out to maximize survival probability as a group.
Of course, not everything about the action of 'reading the air' is determined only by the brain's mechanism.
It is something that is formed within a complex interaction with the history and society we have grown up in, and the environment of that place.

This book analyzes the phenomenon of 'reading the air' as the result of multiple factors interacting, such as a genetic basis prone to feeling anxiety, the mechanism of the social brain that maintains group harmony, and an educational culture that fosters a mindset that fears failure.
While this trait has contributed to the stability of the group, it is possible that it is one of the causes of the low level of happiness of modern Japanese people.
It can be said that this paradox is rooted in the 'weakness' of humans, namely the nature of 'lacking rationality'.
The trait of 'seriousness' of Japanese people driven by the serotonin system was once an indispensable strength for survival, but in a stable modern society, it can be said that it has transformed into a 'weakness' that creates excessive anxiety and suppresses rational risk-taking and individual sense of happiness.

Understanding one's own characteristics scientifically brings hope, not despair.
If we know that the true nature of the 'air' that binds us originates from an objective mechanism, we do not need to accept it as fate.
What is important is to understand the 'rules of the game' of society and life.
Learning the neuroscientific basis of the 'air' is not for the purpose of eliminating it.
It is nothing other than obtaining cognitive tools for us to choose actions more subjectively, with an awareness of that dynamics, rather than blindly following unconscious pressure.
It can be said that this self-understanding is a certain step toward finding true happiness within a cultural context and building a society where diverse values can coexist.

The 'brain that reads the air' unique to Japanese people clearly tells the story, for better or worse, that Japanese people are a serious nation that dislikes friction with those around them more than people of any other country in the world.