IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v8y2017i1d10.1038_ncomms15964.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A neural link between generosity and happiness

Author

Listed:
  • Soyoung Q. Park

    (University of Lübeck)

  • Thorsten Kahnt

    (Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University)

  • Azade Dogan

    (Laboratory for Social and Neural Systems Research, University of Zurich)

  • Sabrina Strang

    (University of Lübeck)

  • Ernst Fehr

    (Laboratory for Social and Neural Systems Research, University of Zurich)

  • Philippe N. Tobler

    (Laboratory for Social and Neural Systems Research, University of Zurich)

Abstract

Generous behaviour is known to increase happiness, which could thereby motivate generosity. In this study, we use functional magnetic resonance imaging and a public pledge for future generosity to investigate the brain mechanisms that link generous behaviour with increases in happiness. Participants promised to spend money over the next 4 weeks either on others (experimental group) or on themselves (control group). Here, we report that, compared to controls, participants in the experimental group make more generous choices in an independent decision-making task and show stronger increases in self-reported happiness. Generous decisions engage the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) in the experimental more than in the control group and differentially modulate the connectivity between TPJ and ventral striatum. Importantly, striatal activity during generous decisions is directly related to changes in happiness. These results demonstrate that top–down control of striatal activity plays a fundamental role in linking commitment-induced generosity with happiness.

Suggested Citation

  • Soyoung Q. Park & Thorsten Kahnt & Azade Dogan & Sabrina Strang & Ernst Fehr & Philippe N. Tobler, 2017. "A neural link between generosity and happiness," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 8(1), pages 1-10, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms15964
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms15964
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms15964
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/ncomms15964?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Leonardo Becchetti & Massimo Cermelli, 2018. "Civil economy: definition and strategies for sustainable well-living," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 65(3), pages 329-357, September.
    2. Alexander Soutschek & Marius Moisa & Christian C Ruff & Philippe N Tobler, 2020. "The right temporoparietal junction enables delay of gratification by allowing decision makers to focus on future events," PLOS Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(8), pages 1-20, August.
    3. Junyi Chai, 2023. "Subjective Happiness in Behavioral Contracts," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 24(7), pages 2245-2260, October.
    4. Coby Morvinski, 2022. "The effect of unavailable donation opportunities on donation choice," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 33(1), pages 45-60, March.
    5. Xiaoting Zheng & Jiayue Chen & Yipeng Li, 2021. "The association between charitable giving and happiness: Evidence from the Chinese General Social Survey," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 55(6), pages 2103-2138, December.
    6. Anand, Amitabh & Vessal, Saeedeh Rezeaee & Rathi, Kishore & Ameen, Nisreen, 2021. "Show me your mobile and I will tell you who you are: Forecasting consumer compassion and altruism behaviour through smartphone type and usage," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms15964. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.