A key brain structure in the reward system is the nucleus accumbens (pronounced: uh-'kuhm-benz), which is a very small but critical structure located deep in the center of the brain. The nucleus accumbens is activated by things that make us happy, such as eating good food or winning money. Recent research has demonstrated that if we show pictures of food to hungry people, the response of their nucleus accumbens will predict how much food they will eat later. That is, the more sensitive a person's nucleus accumbens is to a reward in the laboratory, such as seeing food, the more likely the person is to try to obtain that reward in the real-world (eating food). With this in mind, we decided to investigate if a person's individual sensitivity to discovering that the person has a good reputation could predict a real-world behavior aimed at obtaining a good reputation.

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