Decoding the charitable brain: Empathy, perspective taking, and attention shifts differentially predict altruistic giving

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer review

Authors

  • Anita Tusche
  • Anne Böckler
  • Philipp Kanske
  • Fynn Mathis Trautwein
  • Tania Singer

External Research Organisations

  • Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Science (MPI CBS)
  • California Institute of Caltech (Caltech)
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Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)4719-4732
Number of pages14
JournalJournal of Neuroscience
Volume36
Issue number17
Publication statusPublished - 27 Apr 2016
Externally publishedYes

Abstract

Altruistic behavior varies considerably across people and decision contexts. The relevant computational and motivational mechanisms that underlie its heterogeneity, however, are poorly understood. Using a charitable giving task together with multivariate decoding techniques, we identified three distinct psychological mechanisms underlying altruistic decision-making (empathy, perspective taking, and attentional reorienting) and linked them to dissociable neural computations. Neural responses in the anterior insula (AI) (but not temporoparietal junction [TPJ]) encoded trial-wise empathy for beneficiaries, whereas the TPJ (but not AI) predicted the degree of perspective taking. Importantly, the relative influence of both socio-cognitive processes differed across individuals: participants whose donation behavior was heavily influenced by affective empathy exhibited higher predictive accuracies for generosity in AI, whereas those who strongly relied on cognitive perspective taking showed improved predictions of generous donations in TPJ. Furthermore, subject-specific contributions of both processes for donations were reflected in participants' empathy and perspective taking responses in a separate fMRI task (EmpaToM), suggesting that process-specific inputs into altruistic choices may reflect participants' general propensity to either empathize or mentalize. Finally, using independent attention task data, we identified shared neural codes for attentional reorienting and generous donations in the posterior superior temporal sulcus, suggesting that domain-general attention shifts also contribute to generous behavior (but not in TPJ or AI). Overall, our findings demonstrate highly specific roles of AI for affective empathy and TPJ for cognitive perspective taking as precursors of prosocial behavior and suggest that these discrete routes of social cognition differentially drive intraindividual and interindividual differences in altruistic behavior.

Keywords

    FMRI, Mentalizing, Multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA), Prosocial decision-making, Social cognition, Theory of mind (ToM)

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Cite this

Decoding the charitable brain: Empathy, perspective taking, and attention shifts differentially predict altruistic giving. / Tusche, Anita; Böckler, Anne; Kanske, Philipp et al.
In: Journal of Neuroscience, Vol. 36, No. 17, 27.04.2016, p. 4719-4732.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer review

Tusche A, Böckler A, Kanske P, Trautwein FM, Singer T. Decoding the charitable brain: Empathy, perspective taking, and attention shifts differentially predict altruistic giving. Journal of Neuroscience. 2016 Apr 27;36(17):4719-4732. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3392-15.2016
Tusche, Anita ; Böckler, Anne ; Kanske, Philipp et al. / Decoding the charitable brain : Empathy, perspective taking, and attention shifts differentially predict altruistic giving. In: Journal of Neuroscience. 2016 ; Vol. 36, No. 17. pp. 4719-4732.
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