The Science of Doing Good

We have the answer that faith gives us, and now it appears the question is being approached by science.  Why do people choose to do good?

(HealthDay News) -- People may not perform selfless acts just for an emotional reward, a new brain study suggests.

Instead, they may do good because they're acutely tuned into the needs and actions of others.

Scientists say a piece of the brain linked to perceiving others' intentions shows more activity in unselfish vs. selfish types.

"Perhaps altruism did not grow out of a warm-glow feeling of doing good for others, but out of the simple recognition that that thing over there is a person that has intentions and goals. And therefore, I might want to treat them like I might want them to treat myself," explained study author Scott Huettel, an associate professor of psychology at Duke University Medical Center, in Durham, N.C.

He and lead researcher Dharol Tankersley, a graduate student at Duke, published their findings in the Jan. 21 online issue of Nature Neuroscience.

For decades, psychologists and neuroscientists have puzzled over the tendency of humans to engage in altruistic acts -- defined by Huettel's group as acts "that intentionally benefit another organism, incur no direct personal benefit, and sometimes bear a personal cost."

Experts note that altruism doesn't seem to provide individuals with any survival edge, so how and why did it evolve?

Read more here (no subscription needed on this one)

This takes me back to an old idea--God created us good, and we have learned to share goodness with one another out of being connected to one another.  It's a part of being a societal human to do good, that is, it's part of living on a level of sharing meaning, purpose, and value with one another.  Goodness is the stuff that depth of being is made of.  I like to say that good is synonymous with God, and certainly it's not a bad thing if science is discovering that there's good in us.

Comments

[CO]

Interesting. :-) Science need only look at moms and dads to know that God is alive and well; even science known we aren't coyotes, but science would be challenged to explain why a man (who was put into foster care as an unwanted boy, shuffled around from home to home, tortured by some [yes, physically as well], and who grew into a man who couldn't hold more than a charity job and who was beaten up simply for existence--they didn't even rob him, just threw his wallet around) would still trust anyone. He is no survivor, his life was laid to rest just as he was placed in the "hot box" on the lawn, locked in..without water, without explanation except that he was "bad". Science would be even harder pressed to understand that this man's hope, a man who has not heard much about God, increases one's faith, like having a limb straightened. What a gift is hope, whether given or received.

[Gabrielle]

I really like reading about things like this. I remember when I was little, hearing about the work of Dr. Penfield in Montreal, and being really fascinated by it. I remember as a child, when we were told that we only use about 20% of our brain, wondering what God had in mind for the other 80%, and every time I heard anyone talking about the "primitive" part of the brain, I was all ears!