“My startup is my baby” — according to a study, there’s more to this saying than you think. WiWo founder A study by a team at the University of Helsinki led by economist Marja-Liisa Halko has revealed that the love for one's own children and companies is compared from a neurological point of view.
The scientists showed male entrepreneurs photos of companies they knew and their own companies. The participants also saw images of their own and their own children. The researchers recorded the study participants' brain activity using fMRI.
Love is in the air
The result: Founders who feel strongly committed to their company have the same brain regions activated when they see their own startups as proud fathers who see photos of their children. The study's abstract states:
“Both entrepreneurial and parental love seem to be supported by brain structures associated with reward and emotional processing as well as social understanding.”
What the human children of the test subjects think about this is not known.
