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

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 ...

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, ...

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 ...

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 ...

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, ...

Nearly 100 babies were tested by researchers with the University of Washington's Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences Joelle Goldstein is a Senior News Editor on the TV team for PEOPLE Digital. She ...

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 ...

On the Thursday, November 13, 2025 episode of The Excerpt podcast: In honor of World Kindness Day — we’ve partnered with the Humankind team at USA TODAY for a deeper exploration on the topic of ...

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, ...