All articles tagged with #prosocial
A 2011 Science study found a free rat learned to open a tube to release a trapped cagemate, and when chocolate was added as a competing reward the latencies were similar and the free rat ate fewer chocolate chips, suggesting prosocial behavior but not definitive empathy. Subsequent work questions whether the behavior reflects true concern for others or social/interest factors, and the debate about rat empathy continues.
A PsyPost study across two large samples finds wisdom acts as a moral regulator for creativity: in low-wisdom individuals, higher creativity predicted lower willingness to help others, while high-wisdom individuals showed creativity linked with greater social mindfulness and prosocial tendencies; results suggest wisdom is key to steering creativity toward socially constructive ends, with intelligence showing less alignment.
New work in mice shows that the medial preoptic area (MPOA) circuits governing parenting also drive prosocial allogrooming toward stressed peers, via overlapping neuronal ensembles and an MPOA–to–VTA pathway that modulates dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens. Activity‑dependent labeling reveals MPOA ensembles active during parenting are required for allogrooming, while MPOA neurons activated during prosocial acts are needed for pup grooming, suggesting shared neural substrates and that offspring‑care circuits may scaffold broader adult prosocial behavior.