Neural and cognitive bases of costly altruism toward strangers

对陌生人代价高昂的利他主义的神经和认知基础

• 批准号: 1729406
• 负责人: Abigail Marsh
• 金额: $ 39.03万
• 依托单位: Georgetown University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-09-01 至 2022-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1729406&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Neural; cognitive; bases; costly; altruism

The purpose of this research is to investigate the role of altruism on behavior, and to investigate ways to develop altruism. Millions of Americans engage in risky and costly behaviors to help complete strangers. For example, every year hundreds of altruistic kidney donors undergo major surgery. This surgery involves removing one of their kidneys so that it can be transplanted into a person they have never met, and likely will never meet. Acts of extraordinary altruism like this are difficult to explain using existing theories of social behavior, which focus on altruism that benefits relatives or a group one is closely connected to. This research tests the novel hypothesis that costly altruism toward strangers can be explained in part by emotional responses to close and distant others. This project examines patterns of activity in subcortical brain regions that drive rapid emotional responses toward socially distant others. It is hypothesized that structured training in generating kindness and compassion towards progressively distant others will lead to greater altruism toward strangers as well as patterns of neural activity that supports such costly acts. This project aims to identify neural processes that support extraordinary altruism for strangers, which may provide key insights into the roots of human care and compassion with great implications for the health and well-being of the nation.This project examines the role of social distance on donating a kidney to strangers, and its neural underpinnings. As people are more distant to the self the willingness to sacrifice for others drops steeply. In contrast, those who engage in acts of extraordinary altruism show minimal social discounting and are willing to sacrifice for even distant others. Dr. Abigail Marsh and her team at Georgetown University examine the neurological mechanisms that support this reduced social discounting. They compare altruists to controls as they make decisions about keeping or sharing resources. Further, they examine the influence of a structure loving-kindness training on reducing social discounting. Brain imaging will be used to examine the influence of training on affective neural responses, and to understand the ways that ordinary people learn to be more altruistic toward strangers. Identifying the mechanisms that support social discounting, and determining how flexible these mechanisms are is crucial for understanding how people develop the capacity for generosity and altruism for distant others, even strangers.

本研究的目的是调查利他主义对行为的作用，并探索发展利他主义的途径。数以百万计的美国人从事危险和代价高昂的行为，以帮助完全陌生的人。例如，每年都有数百名无私的肾脏捐赠者接受大手术。这项手术包括摘除他们的一个肾脏，以便将其移植到他们从未谋面，也可能永远不会相遇的人身上。像这样的非同寻常的利他主义行为很难用现有的社会行为理论来解释，这些理论关注的是让亲属或与自己密切相关的群体受益的利他主义。这项研究测试了一个新的假设，即对陌生人的代价高昂的利他主义可以部分解释为对亲近和疏远的人的情感反应。这个项目考察了大脑皮质下区域的活动模式，这些区域会驱动对社交距离遥远的其他人做出快速情绪反应。有人假设，在对日益遥远的人产生善意和同情方面进行的结构化训练，将导致对陌生人更大的利他主义，以及支持这种代价高昂的行为的神经活动模式。该项目旨在识别支持陌生人特殊利他主义的神经过程，这可能为人类关怀和同情心的根源提供关键见解，对国家的健康和福祉具有重大影响。该项目考察了社会距离在向陌生人捐赠肾脏方面的作用及其神经基础。随着人们与自我的距离越来越远，为他人牺牲的意愿急剧下降。相比之下，那些从事非同寻常的利他主义行为的人，在社会上表现出最低限度的折扣，愿意为甚至遥远的其他人做出牺牲。乔治城大学的阿比盖尔·马什博士和她的团队研究了支持这种减少社交折扣的神经机制。他们在做出保留或共享资源的决定时，将利他主义者比作控制者。此外，他们还考察了结构仁爱训练对减少社会折扣的影响。大脑成像将被用来检查训练对情感神经反应的影响，并了解普通人是如何学会对陌生人更利他的。识别支持社交折扣的机制，并确定这些机制的灵活性，对于理解人们如何为远方的人，甚至是陌生人发展慷慨和利他主义的能力至关重要。