Abstract
is currently scarce about what happens in the brain when a decision is made to make a donation. This intriguing donation behavior is often assumed to relate to social relationships. The present study used simulated situations in which participants had to decide how to manage money when possibilities for donation were available. Electroencephalographic signals were recorded while participants were exposed to two cognitive situations, the Dictator's Game and the Prisoner's Dilemma, to simulate money exchange between people. Brain activity was measured to determine whether correlations could be made with decisions to donate. Sixty volunteers were assessed, and stimuli were presented randomly. After the presentation of the cognitive tests, the participants were allocated to two groups for the respective cognitive situations. The data showed significant differences in the left prefrontal cortex between questions with a donation context and questions not related to donations. Participants who heard a question related to donation had higher activation in the left prefrontal cortex. These results are consistent with recent functional magnetic resonance imaging studies, suggesting that greater activation in the prefrontal cortex could be produced by the logical evaluation of dilemmas. These results suggest that logical evaluation occurs when faced with a reasonable donation situation. Keywords: altruism, donation, EEG, decision-making.
Highlights
Psychology and cognitive science hardly present justifiable reasons for donation behavior
Related to empathy, altruism has been the focus in recent years of studies in different research areas, such as psychology, ethology, evolutionary biology, and neuroeconomics
The present study provides insights into decision making, and decision making for money donation
Summary
Psychology and cognitive science hardly present justifiable reasons for donation behavior. Some findings have led researchers to uncover a series of factors able to influence altruism (Barclay & Willer, 2007; Dawes, Fowler, Johnson, McElreath, & Smirnov, 2007; Fehr & Fischbacher, 2003; Jeon & Buss, 2007). From psychology to neuroeconomics, have developed research on this topic This situation has generated a plurality of descriptions, making the subject somewhat ambiguous. Many factors are able to modulate responses in donation situations, such as reputation construction, possible future benefits (Barclay & Willer, 2007), worries about what other people may think about those actions (Fehr & Fischbacher, 2004), kinship with the receiver (Jeon & Buss, 2007), and even punishment for being unfair (Brandt, Hauert, & Sigmund, 2003)
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