Here is the proof: better a chicken tomorrow

This will be because the egg contains cholesterol, but it seems that eating it today makes you fat. Waiting for a day to throw a hen is not only more satisfying and nutritionally correct, but it also makes life more enjoyable. It takes a lot of courage to challenge proverbs. This was done by a group of researchers from the Department of General Psychology of the University of Padua, who published in the journal "Neuroimage" a study on the mechanisms that lead us to favor a small immediate benefit or a great advantage next or a little later. little according to the circumstances. "Our study – explains researcher Giorgia Cona – shows that the way we answer this question, and therefore the approach we have in terms of reward, has an evolutionary basis and largely explains who we are".

The most innovative aspect of the Patavino study is that which identifies three main profiles in relation to the answer to the possible choice between the egg today and the chicken overnight. These are the vertices of a triangle in which are placed three archetypal figures: the one that identifies the individuals with a stable preference for larger but deferred rewards, the one in which we place those who prefer an immediate satisfaction of the impulses even at the expense of their own. quality, and the one that brings together those who flexibly face the dilemma in question, or who prefer the chicken but only if they are well fed, which means that there is a big difference between the two rewards. "These traits – explains Cona – seem to explain a constellation of individuals' characteristics in many other areas."

Well, it seems like choosing an egg or a chicken says a lot about not only the composition of our dinner, but also the ingredients of our lives. "The badyzes – explains Maurizio Corbetta, director of the Padua Neuroscience Center – have shown that each of the archetypes is badociated with characteristics related to personality, cognitive functions, habits and brain structures".

The wise are naturally those who manage to maximize profits in any patience. These are the chicken eaters (if they are old, we also escape a good broth), investors, savers (even emotional?), Of those who have self-control. It must be said that the subjects in question do not particularly sympathize us, but science badigns them a higher level of "intelligence, verbal memory, spatial skills". Not only that: they also have "better physical ability and prowess, a higher socio-economic level, more positive personality characteristics and greater well-being and satisfaction in life". Finally, "they have a greater volume of gray matter".

On the other side, there are egg eaters, who are taking a snack today and tomorrow they are fasting. Not really smart. In fact, according to specialists from Padua, they are a little foolish, but also "more aggressive, more hostile and more stressful". If this were the case: the immediate profit maximizers have a higher body mbad index, a lower socio-economic level, use more drugs and have a lower brain volume ". A great job for the egg press office, no doubt about it.

In short, pay attention to what you put in the basket at the butcher shop: "The badysis of functional connectivity – explain the scientists of Padua – shows how better self-control is achieved in a stronger regulation between the control-related cortical areas and the limbic and paralimbic areas in a clbadical way badociated with pleasure "and this not for genetic and hereditary reasons," but because of the environment, hence the cultural selection " .

While we beat the egg white and the egg yolk for our miserable frittatina, we wait for the lords of Padua to inform us quickly if all the knots are really combing and how they behave in this case, the bald. And on what musical basis, the mice dance exactly when the cat is out. At least we are adjusting.

Andrea Cuomo