Abstract
Pro-social behaviors are voluntary behaviors that benefit other people or society as a whole, such as charitable donations, cooperation, trust, altruistic punishment, and fairness. These behaviors have been widely described through non self-interest decision-making in behavioral experimental studies and are thought to be increased by social preference motives. Importantly, recent studies using a combination of neuroimaging and brain stimulation, designed to reveal the neural mechanisms of pro-social behaviors, have found that a wide range of brain areas, specifically the prefrontal cortex, anterior insula, anterior cingulate cortex, and amygdala, are correlated or causally related with pro-social behaviors. In this review, we summarize the research on the neural basis of various kinds of pro-social behaviors and describe a common shared neural circuitry of these pro-social behaviors. We introduce several general ways in which experimental economics and neuroscience can be combined to develop important contributions to understanding social decision-making and pro-social behaviors. Future research should attempt to explore the neural circuitry between the frontal lobes and deeper brain areas.
Highlights
Humans are the most successful species at restraining their self-interest motives, even in interactions with unfamiliar strangers, through the development and enforcement of social norms (Fehr and Fischbacher, 2003; Boyd and Richerson, 2005)
The results showed that cooperation caused higher activity in the medial orbitofrontal cortex (MOFC) and anterior frontal cortex (AFC) compared to competition (Decety et al, 2004; Babiloni et al, 2007)
These findings contribute important progress for measuring the neural mechanisms involved in pro-social behaviors and yield the guarantee of identifying and accurately characterizing both the mechanisms and the factors that influence interactions and engagements in pro-social behavior
Summary
Neuro & Behavior EconLab, School of Economics, Center for Economic Behavior and Decision-Making, Zhejiang University of Finance & Economics, Hangzhou, China. Pro-social behaviors are voluntary behaviors that benefit other people or society as a whole, such as charitable donations, cooperation, trust, altruistic punishment, and fairness. These behaviors have been widely described through non self-interest decision-making in behavioral experimental studies and are thought to be increased by social preference motives. We summarize the research on the neural basis of various kinds of pro-social behaviors and describe a common shared neural circuitry of these pro-social behaviors. We introduce several general ways in which experimental economics and neuroscience can be combined to develop important contributions to understanding social decision-making and pro-social behaviors.
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