@article{WeissIotzovZhouetal.2022,
  author    = {Weiß, Martin and Iotzov, Vassil and Zhou, Yuqing and Hein, Grit},
  title     = {The bright and dark sides of egoism},
  series = {Frontiers in Psychiatry},
  volume    = {13},
  journal   = {Frontiers in Psychiatry},
  issn      = {1664-0640},
  doi       = {10.3389/fpsyt.2022.1054065},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-297183},
  year      = {2022},
  abstract  = {Despite its negative reputation, egoism - the excessive concern for one's own welfare - can incite prosocial behavior. So far, however, egoism-based prosociality has received little attention. Here, we first provide an overview of the conditions under which egoism turns into a prosocial motive, review the benefits and limitations of egoism-based prosociality, and compare them with empathy-driven prosocial behavior. Second, we summarize studies investigating the neural processing of egoism-based prosocial decisions, studies investigating the neural processing of empathy-based prosocial decisions, and the small number of studies that compared the neural processing of prosocial decisions elicited by the different motives. We conclude that there is evidence for differential neural networks involved in egoism and empathy-based prosocial decisions. However, this evidence is not yet conclusive, because it is mainly based on the comparison of different experimental paradigms which may exaggerate or overshadow the effect of the different motivational states. Finally, we propose paradigms and research questions that should be tackled in future research that could help to specify how egoism can be used to enhance other prosocial behavior and motivation, and the how it could be tamed.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{SaulinHornLotzeetal.2022,
  author    = {Saulin, Anne and Horn, Ulrike and Lotze, Martin and Kaiser, Jochen and Hein, Grit},
  title     = {The neural computation of human prosocial choices in complex motivational states},
  series = {NeuroImage},
  volume    = {247},
  journal   = {NeuroImage},
  doi       = {10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118827},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-265852},
  year      = {2022},
  abstract  = {Motives motivate human behavior. Most behaviors are driven by more than one motive, yet it is unclear how different motives interact and how such motive combinations affect the neural computation of the behaviors they drive. To answer this question, we induced two prosocial motives simultaneously (multi-motive condition) and separately (single motive conditions). After the different motive inductions, participants performed the same choice task in which they allocated points in favor of the other person (prosocial choice) or in favor of themselves (egoistic choice). We used fMRI to assess prosocial choice-related brain responses and drift diffusion modeling to specify how motive combinations affect individual components of the choice process. Our results showed that the combination of the two motives in the multi-motive condition increased participants' choice biases prior to the behavior itself. On the neural level, these changes in initial prosocial bias were associated with neural responses in the bilateral dorsal striatum. In contrast, the efficiency of the prosocial decision process was comparable between the multi-motive and the single-motive conditions. These findings provide insights into the computation of prosocial choices in complex motivational states, the motivational setting that drives most human behaviors .},
  language  = {en}
}