The tit-for-tat experiment, like my childhood game, didn’t last very long. Subjects were told to push back with the same amount of force and no more-tit-for-tat. Their partner could then return the favor in the same manner, the levers recording the forces each subject applied as the game progressed. If one subject pushed down on a lever with their right finger, the lever applied a force to their partner’s left. In this setup, a lever separated each subject’s right index finger from their partner's left. They rested their right index finger on one of the levers and their left in a mold beneath the other.
Pairs of subjects faced each other with the levers between them. The researchers used two robotic levers capable of applying force and recording the amount of force applied to them. Neuroscientist Daniel Wolpert, working with colleagues at University College London, built a version of the game, which they called “tit-for-tat”. The first laboratory game of punch-for-punch took place in 2003. This neurological phenomenon not only explains why we can’t tickle ourselves, but also might help avert delusional thoughts. My brother, it turns out, had to punch me back harder to feel like he was hitting me with an equally-hard blow.
Over the last seven years, three experiments have used a laboratory analog of punch-for-punch to show that our brains are wired to discount the sensation of our own actions. The thing is, my brother and I were both playing by the rules-at least, we thought we were. Being several years younger and many pounds lighter, I’d often concede quickly, fearing the next blow that, despite the game’s equally-hard rule, always felt more forceful than the last. It wasn’t a long game dull punches soon became bruising wallops. We’d exchange blows until one of us-the loser-quit. He’d let me hit him in the arm if he could hit me back just as hard. As a child, my brother would frequently challenge me to a game he called punch-for-punch.
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