Submitted by giuliomagnifico t3_yjj3qn in science
I would argue the opposite. It might not be in the interest of the individual but it most certainly is in the interest of the species.
I would say societal nature encourages the instinctive natural behavior.
My thinking is it's fear, but on behalf of another person. Same emotion/ fight or flight part of the brain.
Fear and avoidance are not the same thing.
You wouldn't have to suppress a fear system in order to help others if your fear system recognizes the value to one's own self in helping your (perceived) tribe, or the potential danger in either tribe members being harmed, or in losing the tribe's trust in you, or your perceived value to them. It wasn't very long ago that being ousted from your group meant certain death.
I think we underestimate how hundreds of thousands of years of surviving against superior predators and harsh environments through cooperative means has contributed to our brain's survival mechanism's complexity.
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I guess it’s a chicken or the egg conversation once you determine that survival of the species is even a priority for the individual.
This makes sense given that people are actually pretty altruistic and social.
So selfless helping actions get washed through the danger avoidance cycle maybe to be sure the altruistic motive doesn't have an unforeseen consequence?
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Wasn't able to read the article due to paywall...but,
>Researchers show that the same system in the brain that enables us to avoid danger is also activated during selfless, helping behaviour
These are basically two very different statements
>These results contradict conventional wisdom that we need to suppress our own fear system in order to help others who are in danger”
So, narcissists have no system to avoid dangers?
https://news.ki.se/heres-how-the-brain-works-when-we-choose-to-help-someone-in-danger was a paywall for you? free for me. weird.
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So does this mean that people with hyper or large amygdalas are more empathetic?
Joseph LeDoux, researcher who popularized "fear" of amygdala evolved to see amygdala activity as "threat detection," then finally a "salient indicator" Amygdala may moderate primal emotional-motor activity, whether to protect self or other. Cool research!
That is a flawed premise. It's a two way street—the lanes going in one direction are closed, but the other direction is open. Narcissists experience fear, but they are unwilling to understand others' emotions. (That does not mean they are incapable, though...but according to certain ideas presented by researchers, they tend to only experience what is dubbed "cognitive empathy" rather than its emotional counterpart.)
That's an interesting question, though I don't know if we quite have an answer to it.
For instance, here is one paper describing a neuroimaging study on those with alexithymia, measuring the size of the left amygdala: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26275382/
Meditation is linked to increased empathy (causative studies have been done) and is also correlated with reduction of the right amygdala.
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Wow, thanks for that! Super interesting
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It is likely such behavior was already present even before society. Humans naturally help, we even help other animals when it is not to our benefit. Other smart animals also help each other and sometimes even help other animals.
Fear and stress turn into adrenaline which helps you ignore consequences.
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