Share:
Reward systems more activated - That's why women act more generously than men
Often, even small children are taught to hold their property together. Parental recommendations such as "Do not let this take away, it's yours", make sure that the little ones do not want to share. Especially boys are raised that way. Therefore, it is not surprising that men are often very selfish. Women are generally more generous. Researchers have now discovered that certain areas of the brain are responsible for this.
Giving makes you happy
An international research team reported a few months ago in the journal "Nature Communications" about a study in which showed that give us much happier. In their experiments, the scientists found that subjects who acted generously were happier afterwards than selfish participants. The amount of generosity did not matter for the increase in satisfaction. "One does not need to be self-sacrificing selflessly to feel happier. A bit more generous is already enough, "explained Philippe Tobler from the University of Zurich (UZH) in a statement. The expert was also involved in a recent study in which researchers found out why women are more generous than men.
Girls are often brought up to share rather than boys. As adults, women are more generous than men. Researchers are now reporting why this is so. (Image: Oksana Kuzmina / fotolia.com) Women are more generous than men
Behavioral experiments have shown that women behave more generously than men when they can distribute a sum of money.
To better understand this behavior, UZH neuro-economists studied the active brain areas.
For the first time, the experiments carried out at the Institute of Economics show that male and female brains process egoistic and social behavior differently.
The results of the study have now been published in the journal "Nature Human Behavior".
Certain brain area becomes more activated
According to the researchers, it has been shown that in women the striatum is more activated when they behave prosocially than when they make egoistic decisions.
The striatum, an area in the center of the brain, is responsible for evaluation and reward processing and is active in every decision.
Selfish behavior in men activates the striatum more.
"The reward system of women thus reacts more to generous decisions than that of men," said study author Alexander Soutschek in a statement.
Reward system disturbed by medication
In another experiment, the subjects' reward system was disturbed by taking medication. Under these conditions women behaved more selfishly and men more socially.
This surprised the researchers. "This finding shows that the reward system of women and men also pharmacologically different responds to generosity," said Soutschek.
The results have consequences for brain research: "Future studies must be designed so that differences between men and women is examined," said the scientist.
Culturally conditioned patterns of behavior are crucial
Although these gender differences are expressed at the biological level, Soutschek warns that they are innate or evolutionary. According to the neuro-economist, the reward and learning systems in the brain work closely together.
In addition, empirical studies show that prosocial behavior is more praised by girls than boys.
"They learn to expect a reward for prosocial rather than selfish behavior. The gender difference that we have observed in our studies can best be explained by the different cultural expectations of men and women, "said Soutschek.
This explanatory approach is supported, for example, by findings that show great cultural differences in terms of rewarding prosocial and egoistic behavior. (Ad)