In-House Counsel

The odds you will reach settlement vary according to tryptophan and serotonin levels

By Rees Morrison

If you are in in-house litigator and you sit down to hammer out a settlement with your opponents over a meal, be sure to serve plenty of tryptophan.

It turns out that levels of serotonin, a brain chemical that seems to control our reactions to unfairness, depends on tryptophan levels, and together they influence how we view offers. According to Scientific Am., Aug. 2008 at 36, neurophysiology researchers found that subjects low in tryptophan, an ingredient the body needs to manufacture serotonin, were more likely to reject offers in an ultimatum game. In that game, one subject proposes how to divide a sum of money and the other subject either accepts or rejects. A rejection means that no one gets anything. Serotonin-deprived subjects were much more likely to reject offers than were normal subjects, full of tryptophan.

Full post as published by Law Department Management on July 27, 2008 (boomark / email).