Acute stress reduces effortful prosocial behaviour

Author:

Forbes Paul AG1ORCID,Aydogan Gökhan2,Braunstein Julia13ORCID,Todorova Boryana1ORCID,Wagner Isabella C134ORCID,Lockwood Patricia L56,Apps Matthew AJ56,Ruff Christian C2ORCID,Lamm Claus13ORCID

Affiliation:

1. Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna

2. Zurich Center for Neuroeconomics, Department of Economics, University of Zurich

3. Vienna Cognitive Science Hub, University of Vienna

4. Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science, University of Vienna

5. Centre for Human Brain Health, Institute of Mental Health and School of Psychology, University of Birmingham

6. Institute for Mental Health, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham

Abstract

Acute stress can change our cognition and emotions, but what specific consequences this has for human prosocial behaviour is unclear. Previous studies have mainly investigated prosociality with financial transfers in economic games and produced conflicting results. Yet a core feature of many types of prosocial behaviour is that they are effortful. We therefore examined how acute stress changes our willingness to exert effort that benefits others. Healthy male participants – half of whom were put under acute stress – made decisions whether to exert physical effort to gain money for themselves or another person. With this design, we could independently assess the effects of acute stress on prosocial, compared to self-benefitting, effortful behaviour. Compared to controls (n = 45), participants in the stress group (n = 46) chose to exert effort more often for self- than for other-benefitting rewards at a low level of effort. Additionally, the adverse effects of stress on prosocial effort were particularly pronounced in more selfish participants. Neuroimaging combined with computational modelling revealed a putative neural mechanism underlying these effects: more stressed participants showed increased activation to subjective value in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and anterior insula when they themselves could benefit from their exerted effort relative to when someone else could. By using an effort-based task that better approximates real-life prosocial behaviour and incorporating trait differences in prosocial tendencies, our study provides important insights into how acute stress affects prosociality and its associated neural mechanisms.

Funder

Austrian Science Fund

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council

Medical Research Council

Wellcome Trust

Jacobs Foundation

Royal Society

Publisher

eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd

Subject

General Immunology and Microbiology,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology,General Medicine,General Neuroscience

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