Altruistic people have more gray matter in a small part of the brain that is also related to empathy or the ability to put themselves 'in the shoes' of others, according to an article published in the journal Neuron .
The latest neuroscientific advances indicate that the structure of the brain is related to many personal characteristics and abilities. Now, the team of scientists at the University of Zurich has located the place in the brain that determines that some people are more selfish than others. To do this, they proposed to the participants in the experiment a game in which they had to decide how to distribute certain amounts of money between themselves and other partners . The people who made the most generous decisions had more gray matter in the temporo-parietal joint , a small area of the brain where, as the name suggests, the parietal and temporal bones meet. Other studies have shown that this zone is also related to the capacity for empathy.
However, according to Ernest Fehr, one of the authors: "the results do not indicate that altruistic behavior is determined only by biological factors . The development of altruism, through training and social practices, can occur through changes in the brain structure and in the neuronal activations that we have identified ".
