TEDxUCLA speakers discuss effects of altruism on brain, community

This article was updated May 1 at 10:05 p.m.

Experts said stimulating certain regions of the brain can make an individual more generous at an event Tuesday night.

The UCLA Healthy Campus Initiative invited Manal Aboelata, managing director at Prevention Institute, and Marco Iacoboni, professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences and director of a neurology lab at UCLA, to speak about the significance of altruism at TEDxUCLA Salon: Altruism & The 2018 Eudaimonia Awards.

The Eudaimonia Awards recognizes nominated students and faculty for any meaningful contributions they have made on campus or in their local community, said Artemisia Valeri, the HCI’s MindWell pod coordinator. She added the talks during the event covered the biological and community-related aspects of altruism.

Iacoboni said when individuals see others perform an action, the area in their brain responsible for the same action also activates, which is why individuals feel empathy. He added that studies have shown the human brain’s mirroring effect is related to more complex and motivated altruistic behavior.

For example, when researching pro-social behavior, Iacoboni and his fellow researchers scanned subjects’ brain activity while showing them pictures of different facial expressions, such as individuals feeling happiness or pain, to generate feelings of empathy in the subjects. They then measured the subjects’ level of generosity by asking them to donate money.

The researchers found that the same brain region responsible for individuals’ empathy can predict how generous they will be. Iacoboni added that studies have also shown that stimulating the region responsible for empathy in an individual’s brain can also make them more generous.

“Therefore, we are actually able to make an altruistic (person),” he said.

The brain region responsible for empathy can also be used to predict people’s decisions in more complex moral dilemmas, such as a military decision in which a leader may have to sacrifice a small group of people to save a larger group, Iacoboni added.

People who exhibit generous and pro-social behaviors, such as volunteering, tend to live longer and happier lives, Iacoboni said. However, he said excessive altruism is detrimental to health because it can stress individuals.

Apart from the biological aspect of altruism, another TED talk encouraged leaders to consider making decisions that benefit their communities.

Aboelata’s talk at the event encouraged leaders to be altruistic in their decision-making and work to make the communities they lead racially and economically inclusive.

For example, Aboelata said UCLA has a low population of black students, faculty and staff, and thinks the university should be more inclusive of them.

“Last week, I attended a retirement party of one of my mentors at UCLA, and there was only one black male at the entire retirement party,” she said. “We have to do better than that.”

She said individuals in underprivileged communities can be altruistic and dedicated to improving their communities, even if they live in poor conditions.

“Even in places … where people don’t have a roof in their tent (and) substance abuse is a huge problem, there are people that are interacting with one another that … want great things for their neighborhood,” Aboelata said.

Aboelata added that her visits to Skid Row, an area in Downtown Los Angeles with a large homeless population, reminded her of how community members can be generous.

“In a group meeting (in a park in Skid Row), (community members) were talking about things like an upcoming event of a free haircut for kids, … a safe place to go to the bathroom (without being) monitored by the police, or the movie for next month’s movie night,” she said.

Iacoboni said anyone can be altruistic, and individuals who are altruistic often have healthier outcomes in life.

“We should all be altruistic, that’s why we shouldn’t feel guilty to ask Grandma to take care of the kids,” he said.