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.

这项研究的目的是研究利他主义对行为的作用，并研究发展利他主义的方法。数以百万计的美国人从事风险和昂贵的行为，以帮助彻底的陌生人。例如，每年数百个无私的肾脏捐助者接受重大手术。该手术涉及去除其中一个肾脏，以便可以将其移植到他们从未见过的人，并且可能永远不会见面。像这样的非凡利他主义行为很难使用现有的社会行为理论来解释，这些理论的重点是利用亲戚或一群人与一群人紧密联系的利他主义。这项研究检验了一个新的假设，即可以通过对亲密和遥远的他人的情感反应来解释对陌生人的昂贵利他主义。该项目研究了皮质下大脑区域的活动模式，这些区域推动了对社会遥远的其他人的快速情感反应。假设在对逐渐遥远的他人产生善良和同情心的结构化培训将导致对陌生人的利他更大，以及支持这种昂贵行为的神经活动的模式。该项目旨在确定支持陌生人非凡利他主义的神经过程，这可能为人类护理和同情心的根源提供重要的见解，对国家的健康和福祉产生了很大的影响。该项目研究了社会距离在向陌生人捐赠肾脏及其神经障碍的作用。随着人们与自我更遥远，为他人牺牲的意愿会陡峭地掉落。相比之下，从事非凡利他主义行为的人表明，社会折扣很少，并且愿意为遥远的他人牺牲。阿比盖尔·马什（Abigail Marsh）博士及其乔治敦大学（Georgetown University）的团队研究了支持这种减少社会折扣的神经系统机制。他们将利他主义者与控制或共享资源做出决定时进行比较。此外，他们研究了结构恋爱培训对减少社会折扣的影响。脑成像将用于检查训练对情感神经反应的影响，并了解普通人学会对陌生人更加无私的方式。确定支持社会折扣的机制，并确定这些机制的灵活性对于理解人们如何为遥远的他人（甚至陌生人）增强慷慨和利他的能力至关重要。