A new study suggests that people who are more generous have a
larger temporoparietal junction, a region located on the right
side of the brain. Swiss researchers who studied 30 volunteers
found that ranked the altruism of each person by detecting their
‘cutoff’ - the maximum they were prepared to give to others. “We
were very surprised by how strong the relationship was between
altruistic decision and what we found out about their brain
structure,” said co-author Dr. Yosuke Morishima. “These
tendencies don’t change in the short-term - nice people don’t
become mean overnight - and this area may explain the variation
between individuals.” According to the study published in the
journal Neuron , although a ‘baseline level’ of altruism is
hardwired into our brains, the decisions we make are affected by
lots of other factors like the context and potential cost to
ourselves. Behavior researcher Professor Ernst Fehr of the
University of Zurich, this is the first biological explanation
for people’s altruism levels, w