People are often motivated by self-interest. Participants in one of the partial studies of the research learned to play a game faster if, unlike their teammates, they were making money for themselves. However, this pattern changed rapidly if the researchers included potential physical harm to other people in the equation. The findings of the research show people have even better learning and decision-making skills precisely when it comes to protecting another person.
Researchers discovered how effectively humans learn to avoid dangers that could be encountered by themselves and others. At this stage of the research, participants played an electric current game in which they had to choose between two abstract symbols: one had a high chance of a painful electric shock, while the other had little chance of the same.
Computational modelling revealed that participants were better at making optimal choices that resulted in the least pain when they had to make decisions for someone other than themselves.
People who most wanted to avoid shock showed increased activation in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) - the area of the brain that is involved in decision evaluation.
The choice intended for another person was also associated with a synchronised activity between the so-called VMPFC and temporoparietal junction, an area of the brain involved in assessing the emotional states of others. It follows, therefore, that further related learning and decision-making is based on cooperation between the neural assessment system and the social brain.
It turns out that people's own prosocial behaviour prevails over personal selfishness. The neural valuation system in our brain thus supports more optimal choices if we learn to avoid harm to other people more than to ourselves.
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