Altruism Can Be Fast and Effortless, Brain Study Shows

Rebecca Lewis July 20, 2015

A new study carried out by the researchers from California Institute of Technology developed a computational model of how the brain makes altruistic choices. Such model also helps predict when a person will act generously involving the sacrifice of money, and may help explain why being generous sometimes feels so difficult.

Why we act altruistically was contested among academics. Some experts say that people are innately selfish and the only way to override our greedy tendencies is to exercise self-control. Meanwhile, some theorise that humans naturally find generosity rewarding and that we only act selfishly when we pause to think about it.

The Caltech Model, developed by the researchers on the current study, however, seems to contradict these theories. According to them, both generosity and selfishness can be fast and effortless. But it depends on the person and the context.

"We take a very simple model of choice that’s been developed for predicting perceptual decisions—like whether a dot is moving left or right—and adapt it to capture generosity," says lead author Cendri Hutcherson.

"With this simple model, we are able to explain a huge host of previously confusing patterns about how people make altruistic choices."

"We find that what matters is not whether you can exert self-control, but simply how strongly you consider others’ needs relative to your own," she says. "If you consider the other person’s needs more, being generous feels easy. If you consider yourself more, generosity requires a lot of effort."

She believes that the model sheds light on debates about whether the mere act of altruistic behaviour is rewarding.

Hutcherson also thinks the model sheds light on debates about whether the mere act of behaving generously is rewarding. "Researchers have observed that if you act generously then you see greater activity in areas of the brain that represent reward value, and so have concluded that generosity is an inherently rewarding act—but our model actually suggests that you can get that activity just because of the way these regions construct a decision,"

"You would see more activation in reward areas simply because the decision is complex and so requires more processing to make."

Their study, which were based on brain scans of 51 male participants, suggests that different brain areas represent one’s own and others’ interests. Self-oriented values correlated with activity in the ventral striatum, an area linked to basic reward processing. Other-oriented values correlated with activation of the temporoparietal junction, which has been implicated in empathy. Hutcherson believes this is evidence that people are more likely to give away resources if they already have in mind how their donation will benefit someone else.

Source of this article: A Neurocomputational Model of Altruistic Choice and Its Implications