In 2009, the John Templeton Foundation gave Notre Dame University a $5-million grant to lead research into the relationship between the brain and generosity. The initiative is called the “Science of Generosity,” and under the direction of Christian Smith, discoveries in neuroscience are making it clear that our brains are indeed designed to be generous.
I admit I was skeptical when I first heard about it, but reading some of the results of their work has been encouraging.
Of course, the ever-present danger is falling into the “nothing but” trap and concluding that generosity, compassion, empathy, altruism and giving are nothing but electrical impulses and chemical reactions. Research from the Science of Generosity – and from many other initiatives across the world – is showing otherwise.
Recently, The Wall Street Journal reported on the work of Dr. Jordan Grafman. While working at the National Institutes of Health (now headed by Dr. Francis Collins), Grafman began to investigate where empathy and generosity originated in the brain.
Using fMRI scanning to measure blood flow in different parts of the brain, Grafman monitored people as they made decisions to give to worthwhile organizations – specifically financial decisions.
He noticed a marked increase in activity in the midbrain area, the area that “lights up” when we are engaged in activities we enjoy. This translates into our experiencing pleasure in giving.
But something else was going on in another area of the brain at the same time. The chemical oxytocin – which has been shown to increase levels of trust, loyalty, connection and compassion – was being stimulated in the subgenual area of the brain. Not only was giving pleasurable, but it was raising overall levels of trust and compassion in the people who were giving.
Grafman also found that the anterior prefrontal cortex was stimulated—a region that is responsible for our ability to make complex judgments and decisions.
Pleasure, trust and judgment were all working together in the act of generosity. Francis Collins, who is now leading brain-mapping research at the NIH, refers to the brain’s exquisitely interconnected network as “The Symphony Inside Your Brain.”
This only confirms what we have always known as joy. It is not just enthusiasm or analysis or a sense of blind loyalty to a cause or person. It’s not simply a matter of “emotional versus analytical” or “intuitive versus logical.” It is a deep and integrated combination of all three that results in the joy of giving.
We are created to give and be generous. We are designed to orchestrate multiple parts of ourselves to do it. It is a kind of “three-in-one” conversation that takes place every time we decide to do what God intends for giving pleasure, exercising compassion and practicing discernment.