February 22, 2007 | Read Time: 3 minutes
Scientists at Duke University Medical Center, in North Carolina, have found a link between altruistic behavior and activity in an area of the brain associated with the perception of meaning, a discovery they say may influence the way charities solicit donations.
Unlike past studies, which examined how giving to charity directly activates the reward centers of the brain, this experiment looked at brain activity as a predictor of altruistic tendencies, says Scott A. Huettel, an associate professor of psychiatry at Duke and one of the three researchers, along with Dharol Tankersley, a graduate student in philosophy who led the study, and C. Jill Stowe, an associate professor at Duke’s school of business.
Each of the 45 volunteer subjects — mostly students or young adults — selected a charity from a list of five noncontroversial organizations. The participants were then put inside a magnetic-resonance imaging chamber, where they either played a game or watched the game being played by a computer while the researchers studied their brain scans. Some games won money for the participant’s chosen charity; in other games, winning earned money for the subjects themselves.
The participants then completed a survey, with questions such as “Would you stay up late to help a friend?” and “Would you give money to a charity?” to assess their level of altruistic behavior, defined by the researchers as acts that “intentionally benefit another organism, incur no direct personal benefit, and sometimes bear personal cost.”
Instead of finding activity in the reward area of the brain — which would support the idea that altruistic behavior merely results from the anticipation of a sort of mental and emotional pat on the back — the researchers discovered that altruistic behavior triggered a spike in activity in the section of the brain known as the posterior superior temporal sulcus, which is associated with understanding social relationships, purpose, and meaning.
The brain activity in that region reacted most strongly when the participants watched the computer play the game, and the level of activity in this region predicted a participant’s report of altruistic behavior.
Donors’ Perceptions
Researchers say this new finding suggests that altruism is related to a person’s ability to perceive that people other than one’s self are acting in meaningful ways.
The study did not find the expected correlation between brain activity in the posterior superior temporal sulcus and measures of empathy, Dr. Huettel says.
“We think it’s something a little simpler [than empathy],” he says. “It’s not that you feel the other person’s pain or recognize and share their internal state. It’s more that you can see they have internal states; you can see the reason behind it, even if you don’t share it emotionally.”
Charities, he adds, may be able to use the study’s findings to stimulate a donor’s altruistic side.”You don’t want to just simply emphasize that it feels good to give,” he says. “You want to emphasize that by giving, your gift will help this particular person, help them achieve some particular goal, perhaps.”
And the brain activity examined in the study does not seem to require a first-person experience.
“Based on previous studies, this particular region becomes active either when you’re watching some action or when you hear stories — when you have to create a mental picture of someone’s actions or intentions or goals,” says Dr. Huettel.
