Sleep loss leads to the withdrawal of human helping across individuals, groups, and large-scale societies.

ABSTRACT: Humans help each other. This fundamental feature of homo sapiens has been one of the most powerful forces sculpting the advent of modern civilizations. But what determines whether humans choose to help one another? Across 3 replicating studies, here, we demonstrate that sleep loss represents one previously unrecognized factor dictating whether humans choose to help each other, observed at 3 different scales (within individuals, across individuals, and across societies). First, at an individual level, 1 night of sleep loss triggers the withdrawal of help from one individual to another. Moreover, fMRI findings revealed that the withdrawal of human helping is associated with deactivation of key nodes within the social cognition brain network that facilitates prosociality. Second, at a group l

SUBMITTER: Ben Simon E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9398015 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature