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The moral principle “Treat people the way you want to be treated” turns out to be inherent in us by nature.
Scientists from the Institute of Neuroscience and Human Behavior at the University of California at Los Angeles (USA) conducted two studies, the results of which support the hypothesis that the propensity for altruism is inherent in us biologically, and not just culturally.
The first study involved 20 people. To begin with, they watched a video that showed how a person is hurt – they are pricked with a pin in the hand. After that, the participants were shown photographs of faces with different emotions – joy, sadness, anger, and were asked to repeat. Brain activity was monitored using functional magnetic resonance imaging. The researchers were interested in two groups of brain structures: one that is responsible for emotional and pain experiences, and the second group associated with self-control and regulation of behavior.
In the second phase of the experiment, participants were given a small amount of money ($10) and offered to share it between themselves and a stranger, about whom only age and income level were known. The experiment was repeated several times (with different strangers), while the participant could keep the entire amount for himself or divide it in any proportion.
By comparing the participants’ actions in the second experiment with their brain activity data from the first experiment, the researchers found that the self-controlling participants were the most miserly—on average, they left $1-$3 out of 10 to a stranger. the activity of brain regions associated with emotional and painful experiences were more generous: they could share 75% of the amount.
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- What kind of egoist are you?
“Certain areas of our brain work according to the golden rule of morality – “Treat people the way you want to be treated.” The more we empathize with the plight of others, the more we tend to treat them as we would ourselves,” says study author Leonardo Christov-Moore.
The second study, conducted by the same group of scientists, involved 58 volunteers. They played a similar game of distributing money, but the experimenters deliberately suppressed the activity of certain areas of their brain.
It turned out that those participants who suppressed the activity of areas responsible for self-control were, on average, 50% more generous. According to Leonardo Kristov-Moore, these results support the hypothesis that people are inherently altruistic, because if, on the contrary, we were naturally selfish, then the suppression of self-control would backfire – allowing us to act as selfishly as possible.
Подробнее см. L. Christov-Moore, M. Iacoboni «Self-other resonance, its control and prosocial inclinations: Brain–behavior relationships», Human Brain Mapping, February 2016.