Harbaugh William T, Mayr Ulrich, Burghart Daniel R
Department of Economics, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-1285, USA.
Science. 2007 Jun 15;316(5831):1622-5. doi: 10.1126/science.1140738.
Civil societies function because people pay taxes and make charitable contributions to provide public goods. One possible motive for charitable contributions, called "pure altruism," is satisfied by increases in the public good no matter the source or intent. Another possible motive, "warm glow," is only fulfilled by an individual's own voluntary donations. Consistent with pure altruism, we find that even mandatory, tax-like transfers to a charity elicit neural activity in areas linked to reward processing. Moreover, neural responses to the charity's financial gains predict voluntary giving. However, consistent with warm glow, neural activity further increases when people make transfers voluntarily. Both pure altruism and warm-glow motives appear to determine the hedonic consequences of financial transfers to the public good.
公民社会能够运转是因为人们缴纳税款并进行慈善捐赠以提供公共物品。慈善捐赠的一个可能动机，即“纯粹利他主义”，无论其来源或意图如何，只要公共物品增加就能得到满足。另一个可能动机，即“温暖光辉效应”，只有通过个人的自愿捐赠才能实现。与纯粹利他主义一致的是，我们发现，即使是像税收一样强制性地向慈善机构转移资金，也会引发与奖励处理相关区域的神经活动。此外，对慈善机构财务收益的神经反应能够预测自愿捐赠行为。然而，与温暖光辉效应一致的是，当人们自愿进行转移时，神经活动会进一步增强。纯粹利他主义和温暖光辉效应这两种动机似乎都决定了向公共物品进行财务转移所带来的享乐后果。
