Generously Lending Resources Depends On Each One’s Need, Thought And Choice

If you consider the other person's needs more, being generous feels easy. If you consider yourself more, generosity requires a lot of effort.

A computational model of how the brain makes altruistic choices, shows that it is not so difficult to be generous as earlier thought.

The model helps predict when a person will act generously in a scenario involving the sacrifice of money.

Specific Brain Markers can Make Children Generous
A team of neuroscientists at the University of Chicago has found specific brain markers that predict generosity in children.

"We take a very simple model of choice that is been developed for predicting perceptual decisions -- like whether a dot is moving left or right -- and adapt it to capture generosity," said lead author Cendri Hutcherson, director at Decision Neuroscience Lab at the University of Toronto.

The work appearing in the journal Neuron helps explain why being generous sometimes feels so difficult.

"What matters is not whether you can exert self-control, but simply how strongly you consider others' needs relative to your own. If you consider the other person's needs more, being generous feels easy. If you consider yourself more, generosity requires a lot of effort" said Hutcherson.

Retired Individuals More Generous Than the Youth
Retired people are more generous and tend to support charities, a new study has revealed

The model is based on brain scans of 51 males as they made decisions in a modified version of the "Dictator Game."

To play this game, each participant was paired up with a stranger he would never meet and asked whether he would be willing to sacrifice different amounts so that the stranger could get a significantly larger pay-out.

Children More Generous When Their Actions can be Seen
A new study has found that children as young as five years old tend to be more generous when they are aware that their actions can be seen by someone else.

The money was real and each participant had to make a total of 180 decisions. The brain scans suggested that different brain areas represent one's own and others' interests.

People are more likely to give away resources if they already have in mind how their donation will benefit someone else.

Men With Female Offspring are 'More Generous'
Men having female offspring tend to be more generous than others, a study shows.

Source-IANS