A general benevolence dimension that links neural, psychological, economic, and life-span data on altruistic tendencies.

Abstract

Individual and life-span differences in charitable giving are an important economic force, yet the underlying motives are not well understood. In an adult, life-span sample, we assessed manifestations of prosocial tendencies across three different measurement domains: (a) psychological self-report measures, (b) actual giving choices, and (c) fMRI-derived, neural signals of “pure altruism”. The latter expressed individuals’ activity in valuation areas when charities received money compared to when oneself received money and thus reflected an altruistic concern for others. Results based both on structural equation modeling and unit-weighted aggregate scores revealed a strong higher-order General Benevolence dimension that accounted for variability across all measurement domains. The fact that the neural measures likely reflect pure altruistic tendencies indicates that General Benevolence is based on a genuine concern for others. Furthermore, General Benevolence exhibited a robust increase across the adult life-span, potentially providing one important explanation for why older adults typically contribute more to the public good than young adults.

Prosociality and morality through the lens of personality psychology

“…Our aim in this review was to highlight some of the ways that personality psychology has contributed to our understanding of prosociality and morality. Of course, such other‐regarding tendencies are also shaped by social, cultural, and other contextual forces (e.g., Graham, Meindl, Beall, Johnson, & Zhang, ), and manifest differently throughout development and across the lifespan (e.g., Hubbard et al, ; Neldner, Crimston, Wilks, Redshaw, & Nielsen, ). Nevertheless, one of the most salient features of these tendencies is variation between individuals , and comprehensive models of prosociality and morality must therefore account for this variation.…”

“…To clarify the psychological processes captured by the Dictator Game, we can examine whether Dictator offers are best predicted by personality traits reflecting empathy, compassion, and interpersonal warmth, versus those concerned with etiquette, politeness, and non‐aggression. All such traits are positively inter‐correlated, and cluster together within a major “domain” from the Big Five Framework of personality (see Anglim & O'Conner, , this issue) called agreeableness —often dubbed the prosocial domain of personality (Habashi, Graziano, & Hoover, ; Hubbard, Harbaugh, Srivastava, Degras, & Mayr, ). Crucially, a distinction has been made between two narrower “aspects” of agreeableness, compassion and politeness (see DeYoung, Quilty, & Peterson, ), which distinguish between the two candidate processes in the Dictator Game.…”

Volunteering research in Australia: A narrative review

“…Because volunteering contributes to the needs and welfare of others, it is consistent with older adults’ emotional goals (Thoits, ). Older people also display more altruism (Hubbard, Harbaugh, Srivastava, Degras, & Mayr, ), which may explain why volunteering is positively related to age.…”

The Cultivation of Pure Altruism via Gratitude: A Functional MRI Study of Change with Gratitude Practice

“…However, it has not been established whether gratitude is also related to what has been described in economic terms as “pure altruism.” Pure altruism is a signature of utility or reward that cannot be attributed to impure motivations such as the warm glow from making an altruistic choice, enhanced social status through being observed by others, or potential future benefits to the self through reciprocity ( Andreoni, 1990 ). Here, we test two related predictions about the relationship between gratitude and pure altruism using a neural measure of reward for passive and private transfers of money to charity ( Harbaugh et al, 2007 ; Hubbard et al, 2016 ). Our first prediction was that if gratitude fosters an increased tendency toward pure altruism, then individuals with higher levels of trait self-reported gratitude would not only endorse altruistic values in self-report and behavioral measures, but would also show a higher degree of neural pure altruism for benefits to others versus the self ( Clithero and Rangel, 2014 ).…”