Pacific Standard July-August 2013 Cover

Compassion Can Be Cultivated

May 22, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
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Can people be taught to act more altruistically? Newly published research, measuring both brain activity and behavior, suggests the answer just may be yes. “Our findings support the possibility that compassion and altruism can be viewed as trainable skills rather than stable traits,” a research team led by Richard J. Davidson and Helen Weng of the University of Wisconsin-Madison writes in the journal Psychological Science. Specifically, they report that taking a course in compassion leads to increased engagement of certain neural systems, which prompts higher levels of altruistic ... Read More

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Need Help? Ask a Virtual Superman

January 30, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
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Want to bring out the best side of your personality—the part that is compassionate and helpful to others? New research points to a surprising way to inspire such caring behavior. All you have to do is lift your arms above your head and take flight. Which, it turns out, is surprisingly simple—in virtual reality. According to a just-published study, participants in a virtual-reality game were more likely to provide real-world help if they had just experienced flying on their own power. Giving people an ability normally reserved for superheroes apparently inspires them to embody the ... Read More

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How Analytical Can You Be When Your Child is Drowning?

November 26, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment

First the family dog went into the surf at California’s Big Lagoon Beach on Saturday. When the dog didn’t come out, a 16-year-old boy went in to save the family pet from the rough waves. Then the teen’s father went into the 55 degree water, followed by the boy’s mother. The dog eventually got out of the water safely, while all three people died. Such tragedies are fairly routine, clear down to the original “victim” surviving. The process even has a clunky name—“aquatic-victim-instead-of-rescuer syndrome”—and a passel of academics studying the dynamics, as Richard Korman ... Read More

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Do the Arts Open Hearts?

November 5, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
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Would you like to meet people who are engaged in their communities, tolerant of others’ differences, and more willing than most to help out those in need? Try a concert hall, theater lobby, or art museum. People who regularly attend arts events are more likely to embody the aforementioned qualities, even after taking into account such variables as age, race and education. That’s the key finding of a new study by political scientist Kelly LeRoux of the University of Illinois at Chicago. It’s the first in a series of studies on the arts and society funded by research grants from ... Read More

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Drowning in Good Intentions

October 5, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
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When it comes to sacrificing yourself in an attempt to prevent a drowning, Australians Joseph and Carole Sherry may be the ultimate examples. In January 2010, two of the couple's three children, Elise, 14, and Nicholas, 9, were struggling in the surf at a beach south of Brisbane, according to a newspaper account, when Carole, 44, entered the water to help them and apparently got caught in a riptide. Seeing his wife in trouble, Joseph, 42, tried to save her. Instead, both drowned as Elise and Nicholas and their older sister, all now safely on shore, watched in horror. It is a pattern that ... Read More

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Brain Scientists Locate Home of Altruism

July 11, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment

Any panhandler will tell you of the importance of staking out the best street corner. But new research suggests that in making the choice to give money to a stranger, the intersection that matters most is one within our brains. It’s called the right temporoparietal junction (or TPJ for short). Along with many other crucial functions, this neural crossroads gives us the ability to understand the perspectives of others—a prerequisite for empathy. Swiss scholars report they have found a strong connection between the TPJ and a person’s willingness to engage in selfless ... Read More

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Benefits of Fatherhood Extend to the Community

December 9, 2009 • By • Leave a Comment

Fatherhood, as Miller-McCune magazine reported earlier this year, alters a man's neurochemistry, increasing his ability to cope with stress and generally making him a better mate. Just-published research suggests the benefits of this transformation extend far beyond one's immediate family and remain robust as the years go by. "Fatherhood can have a transforming effect that stays with men even into middle age, when most men are fathering at a distance," concludes a research team led by sociologist David Eggebeen of Penn State University. The findings, published in the Journal of Family ... Read More

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