Helping or punishing strangers: neural correlates of altruistic decisions as third-party and of its relation to empathic concern.

ABSTRACT: Social norms are a cornerstone of human society. When social norms are violated (e.g., fairness) people can either help the victim or punish the violator in order to restore justice. Recent research has shown that empathic concern influences this decision to help or punish. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) we investigated the neural underpinnings of third-party help and punishment and the involvement of empathic concern. Participants saw a person violating a social norm, i.e., proposing unfair offers in a dictator game, at the expense of another person. The participants could then decide to either punish the violator or help the victim. Our results revealed that both third-party helping as well as third-party punishing activated the bilateral striatum, a region strongly r

SUBMITTER: Hu Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4332347 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature