People who engage in altruistic behaviors may experience an instantaneous buffer to physical pain, according to new research. This four-pronged study (Wang et al., 2019) was conducted by a team of ...

High‑frequency brain stimulation that synchronizes frontal–parietal activity led people to choose more generously, suggesting that altruism depends on rapid neural coordination.

The stress hormone cortisol reduces altruistic behavior and alters activity in brain regions linked to social decision making - but only in people who are better at imagining others' mental states, ...

In 2 pilot studies and 3 experiments, together involving more than 280 people, researchers report that people who acted altruistically experienced less pain than control participants under the same ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about the psychology of leadership, tech and entrepreneurship. Benevolent acts are often motivated by selfish intentions, ...

Altruistic behavior is often seen as an exclusively human characteristic. However, behavioral research has uncovered numerous examples of altruistic behavior in the animal kingdom. In a new study, ...

Our behavior seems to be built by evolution, and it's sometimes paradoxical. To borrow from the hard sciences, our behavior exhibits complementarity. We are largely felicitous to our family and ...

A research team developed a new experimental game to explore whether people avoid witnessing selfish behavior to evade punishing others or simply to avoid confronting unfairness. The study found that ...

Permissive parenting is linked to increased behavior problems and anxiety in children. Effective parenting combines love with clear standards and consequences. Current brain scans lack the precision ...

Imagine the warm feeling you get when helping a friend move or when you give $50 to a local community kitchen– these are both instances of prosocial behavior, actions that reveal the beautiful nature ...