ArticleNature communications2017
A neural link between generosity and happiness.
Article in Nature communications, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 58 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
58 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Human neural correlates of emotional well-being (EWB): a preliminary systematic review and meta-analysis of MRI studies based on a recent consensus definition.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Pooled it
- Neural signatures of prosocial behaviors.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2020Pooled it
- Enhancement in dopamine reduces generous behaviour in women.PloS one · 2019Trial
- Moral and perceptual conflict processing are implemented by distinct brain activation and functional connectivity patterns.PLoS biology · 2026Article
- Social closeness and reward sensitivity enhance corticostriatal function during experiences of shared rewards.Biological psychology · 2026Article
- Seeing and deciding to help: neural and attentional mechanisms of prosociality in younger and older adults.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2026Article
- Fundamental features of social environments determine rate of social affiliation.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Modulation of neuroimmune cytokine networks by antidepressants: implications in mood regulation.Translational psychiatry · 2025Review
- Social Closeness and Reward Sensitivity Enhance Corticostriatal Function during Experiences of Shared Rewards.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Utilizing rewards to dampen fear and its recovery.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Trait reward sensitivity modulates connectivity with the temporoparietal junction and Anterior Insula during strategic decision making.Biological psychology · 2024Article
- Trait Reward Sensitivity Modulates Connectivity with the Temporoparietal Junction and Anterior Insula during Strategic Decision Making.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Human Prosocial Preferences Are Related to Slow-Wave Activity in Sleep.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2024Article
- Neural asymmetry in aligning with generous versus selfish descriptive norms in a charitable donation task.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Subtypes of nursing students' volunteer motivation in COVID-19: a latent profile analysis.BMC nursing · 2024Article
- Causal roles of prefrontal and temporo-parietal theta oscillations for inequity aversion.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2023Article
- Dissociation of vicarious and experienced rewards by coupling frequency within the same neural pathway.Neuron · 2023Article
- Why people engage in corrupt collaboration: an observation at the multi-brain level.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2023Article
- Threat-induced anxiety and selfishness in resource sharing: Behavioral and neural evidence.Human brain mapping · 2023Article
- Toward a Unifying Account of Dopamine's Role in Cost-Benefit Decision Making.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Generous behaviour is known to increase happiness, which could thereby motivate generosity. In this study, we use functional magnetic resonance imaging and a public pledge for future generosity to investigate the brain mechanisms that link generous behaviour with increases in happiness. Participants promised to spend money over the next 4 weeks either on others (experimental group) or on themselves (control group). Here, we report that, compared to controls, participants in the experimental group make more generous choices in an independent decision-making task and show stronger increases in self-reported happiness. Generous decisions engage the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) in the experimental more than in the control group and differentially modulate the connectivity between TPJ and ventral striatum. Importantly, striatal activity during generous decisions is directly related to changes in happiness. These results demonstrate that top-down control of striatal activity plays a fundamental role in linking commitment-induced generosity with happiness.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.