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Altruistic traits are predicted by neural responses to monetary outcomes for self vs charity.

Publication ,  Journal Article
San Martín, R; Kwak, Y; Pearson, JM; Woldorff, MG; Huettel, SA
Published in: Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci
June 2016

Human altruism is often expressed through charitable donation-supporting a cause that benefits others in society, at cost to oneself. The underlying mechanisms of this other-regarding behavior remain imperfectly understood. By recording event-related-potential (ERP) measures of brain activity from human participants during a social gambling task, we identified markers of differential responses to receipt of monetary outcomes for oneself vs for a charitable cause. We focused our ERP analyses on the frontocentral feedback-related negativity (FRN) and three subcomponents of the attention-related P300 (P3) brain wave: the frontocentral P2 and P3a and the parietal P3b. The FRN distinguished between gains and losses for both self and charity outcomes. Importantly, this effect of outcome valence was greater for self than charity for both groups and was independent of two altruism-related measures: participants' pre-declared intended donations and the actual donations resulting from their choices. In contrast, differences in P3 subcomponents for outcomes for self vs charity strongly predicted both of our laboratory measures of altruism-as well as self-reported engagement in real-life altruistic behaviors. These results indicate that individual differences in altruism are linked to individual differences in the relative deployment of attention (as indexed by the P3) toward outcomes affecting other people.

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Published In

Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci

DOI

EISSN

1749-5024

Publication Date

June 2016

Volume

11

Issue

6

Start / End Page

863 / 876

Location

England

Related Subject Headings

  • Young Adult
  • Reward
  • Male
  • Humans
  • Female
  • Experimental Psychology
  • Evoked Potentials
  • Event-Related Potentials, P300
  • Brain Waves
  • Altruism
 

Citation

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San Martín, R., Kwak, Y., Pearson, J. M., Woldorff, M. G., & Huettel, S. A. (2016). Altruistic traits are predicted by neural responses to monetary outcomes for self vs charity. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci, 11(6), 863–876. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsw026
San Martín, René, Youngbin Kwak, John M. Pearson, Marty G. Woldorff, and Scott A. Huettel. “Altruistic traits are predicted by neural responses to monetary outcomes for self vs charity.Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 11, no. 6 (June 2016): 863–76. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsw026.
San Martín R, Kwak Y, Pearson JM, Woldorff MG, Huettel SA. Altruistic traits are predicted by neural responses to monetary outcomes for self vs charity. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2016 Jun;11(6):863–76.
San Martín, René, et al. “Altruistic traits are predicted by neural responses to monetary outcomes for self vs charity.Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci, vol. 11, no. 6, June 2016, pp. 863–76. Pubmed, doi:10.1093/scan/nsw026.
San Martín R, Kwak Y, Pearson JM, Woldorff MG, Huettel SA. Altruistic traits are predicted by neural responses to monetary outcomes for self vs charity. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2016 Jun;11(6):863–876.
Journal cover image

Published In

Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci

DOI

EISSN

1749-5024

Publication Date

June 2016

Volume

11

Issue

6

Start / End Page

863 / 876

Location

England

Related Subject Headings

  • Young Adult
  • Reward
  • Male
  • Humans
  • Female
  • Experimental Psychology
  • Evoked Potentials
  • Event-Related Potentials, P300
  • Brain Waves
  • Altruism