Publications
Unselfish Traits and Social Decision-Making Patterns Characterize Six Populations of Real-World Extraordinary Altruists
Across six populations of real-world extraordinary altruists—including kidney donors, heroic rescuers, and humanitarian workers—unselfish personality traits and reduced social discounting consistently distinguished altruists from matched controls.
Beliefs About Humanity, Not Higher Power, Predict Extraordinary Altruism
Extraordinary altruists' decisions to perform costly helping behaviors are predicted by their positive beliefs about the goodness of humanity rather than by religiosity or belief in a higher power.
Reduced Multi-Voxel Pattern Similarity of Vicarious Neural Pain Responses in Psychopathy
Using multi-voxel pattern analysis of fMRI data, individuals high in psychopathic traits showed reduced similarity between neural patterns for experienced and observed pain, revealing a disruption in empathic neural simulation.
Activation in Bed Nucleus of the Stria Terminalis (BNST) Corresponds to Everyday Helping
Neural activation in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis—a brain region linked to caregiving motivation—during empathic responses to others' fear predicts everyday prosocial helping behaviors.
The Role of Prospection in Altruistic Bone Marrow Donation Decisions
Prospective donors' ability to vividly imagine the future experience of donating bone marrow predicts their follow-through on actual donation, revealing a critical role for mental simulation in bridging the intention-action gap.
Increased Similarity of Neural Responses to Experienced and Empathic Distress in Costly Altruism
Machine learning classifiers reveal that altruistic kidney donors show more similar multi-voxel neural patterns between first-hand and observed distress, providing evidence that empathic neural simulation underlies costly real-world altruism.
Extraordinary Altruists Exhibit Enhanced Self-Other Overlap in Neural Responses to Distress
Kidney donors who gave to strangers exhibit greater overlap in anterior insula neural representations of their own pain and a stranger's pain, demonstrating that extraordinary altruism is linked to enhanced empathic neural mapping.
Social Discounting and Distance Perceptions in Costly Altruism
Altruistic kidney donors discount the value of helping socially distant others far less steeply than controls, suggesting that extraordinary altruism arises from an expanded circle of care rather than distorted perceptions of social closeness.