Afraid to help: Social anxiety partially mediates the association between 5-HTTLPR triallelic genotype and prosocial behavior

Stoltenberg, Scott F.; Christ, Christa C.; Carlo, Gustavo

doi:10.1080/17470919.2013.807874

Cited by 43 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…According to their data, if the individual carrying genotype associated with higher social anxiety, perceives prosocial behavior of helping as uncertain and/or potentially risky, he might opt for less risky decision under uncertainty (Stoltenberg et al 2011). Since these individuals might experience higher arousal levels they might also be more risk adverse in general (Stoltenberg et al 2013), and financially risk aversive in particular (Crisan et al 2009;Kuhnen and Chiao 2009). This is in line with growing body of research advocating one's psychological tendency may result from genetic and environmental interactions.…”

Section: Uncertainty Avoidance and Prosocial Behaviormentioning

confidence: 96%

“…The idea was also supported with novel findings in the field of social neuroscience. Stoltenberg et al (2013), revealed that genetic variation in the serotonin receptors and prosocial behavior was mediated by anxiety. According to their data, if the individual carrying genotype associated with higher social anxiety, perceives prosocial behavior of helping as uncertain and/or potentially risky, he might opt for less risky decision under uncertainty (Stoltenberg et al 2011).…”

Section: Uncertainty Avoidance and Prosocial Behaviormentioning

confidence: 98%

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Does uncertainty avoidance keep charity away? comparative research between charitable behavior and 79 national cultures

Stojcic¹,

Lu²,

Xiaopeng³

2016

Cult. Brain

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Prosocial behavior and the motivation behind it have been dominant topic and core concern of numerous studies across array of different social science disciplines. Nevertheless, the prevailing research approach is still mainly focused on prosocial behavior observed in terms of situational and individual aspects and less in terms of cultural and group tendencies and orientations. This research tried to explain prosocial behavior among 79 different countries focusing on cultural dimension of uncertainty avoidance. According to Hofstede, uncertainty avoidance (UAI) reflects how society deals with the uncertainty that future brings and with the level of anxiety brought by the outcome of this ambiguity. The amount to which the participants of a culture feel threatened by ambiguous or unfamiliar situations and shape views and institutions to avoid them are reflected in UAI score. Since charity is closely intertwined with economic, social and personal resources which in turn are closely linked with uncertainty avoidance, we successfully postulated how lower uncertainty avoidance is related with higher prosocial behavior which we ultimately supported by our research results.

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Section: Uncertainty Avoidance and Prosocial Behaviormentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Uncertainty Avoidance and Prosocial Behaviormentioning

confidence: 98%

Does uncertainty avoidance keep charity away? comparative research between charitable behavior and 79 national cultures

Stojcic¹,

Lu²,

Xiaopeng³

2016

Cult. Brain

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This fi nding dovetails beautifully with human literature suggesting that to use empathy for helping or caring, an individual must overcome personal distress, a process typically termed self-or down-regulation. For example, people with a specifi c genetic variation who show greater social anxiety also demonstrate less helping behavior (Stoltenberg, Christ, & Carlo, 2013 ). Thus, rather than showing a lack of empathy, many individuals who do not help may be unable to suppress the anxiety associated with catching another's feeling of distress.…”

Section: What Prevents Helping?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Helping Another in Distress: Lessons from Rats

Mason¹

2016

The Evolution of Morality

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Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or the darkness of destructive selfi shness. This is the judgment. Life's most persistent and urgent question is, What are you doing for others?As a neurobiologist, I was somewhat surprised, but also thrilled, to receive an invitation to Oakland University's Evolution of Morality conference. I was surprised because I work with rats. Although I think very highly of rats, I also recognize reality. Morality is a stretch for members of the Rodentia order. It may even be a stretch for monkeys, but I will leave that question for Sarah Brosnan and other primatologists. On the other hand, my surprise was incomplete ("somewhat surprised") because for the past several years, my work has focused on pro-social behavior, also known in less stilted language as helping, among rats.Why study helping in rats? The answer is simple. Rats don't have religion or culture; adult rats don't teach rat pups to follow the Golden Rule . Therefore, a fi nding that rats help is evidence that helping may be an evolutionarily conserved behavior. Simply put, if rats help another in distress, then maybe at least part of what motivates us humans to help is similar to what motivates rats to help. Maybe the Golden Rule is not our motivation for helping. Maybe we help because of a biological inheritance that we share with rats and other mammals. In this chapter, I will make the argument that affective communication drives pro-social behavior in mammals, including rats and humans alike.I will not make the argument that pro-social behavior is the same as moral behavior. In fact, past this introductory section, I will not discuss morality. However, I will advance the idea that helping greases the wheels of social groups, facilitating social

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“…Subjects with the short allele of 5-HTTLPR polymorphism displayed stronger social avoidance 166 and increased attention to negative social stimuli 167–169 …”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

Top-Down Control of Serotonin Systems by the Prefrontal Cortex: A Path toward Restored Socioemotional Function in Depression

Challis

Berton

2015

ACS Chem. Neurosci.

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Social withdrawal, increased threat perception and exaggerated reassurance seeking behaviors are prominent interpersonal symptoms in major depressive disorder (MDD). Altered serotonin (5-HT) systems and corticolimbic dysconnectivity have long been suspected to contribute to these symptomatic facets, however, the underlying circuits and intrinsic cellular mechanisms that control 5-HT output during socioemotional interactions remain poorly understood. We review literature that implicates a direct pathway between the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN) in the adaptive and pathological control of social approach-avoidance behaviors. Imaging and neuromodulation during approach-avoidance tasks in humans point to the cortical control of brainstem circuits as an essential regulator of socioemotional decisions and actions. Parallel rodent studies using viral-based connectomics and optogenetics are beginning to provide a cellular blueprint of the underlying circuitry. In these studies, manipulations of vmPFC synaptic inputs to the DRN have revealed bidirectional influences on socioaffective behaviors via direct monosynaptic excitation and indirect disynaptic inhibition of 5-HT neurons. Additionally, adverse social experiences that result in permanent avoidance biases, such as social defeat, drive long-lasting plasticity in this microcircuit, potentiating the indirect inhibition of 5-HT output. Conversely, neuromodulation of the vmPFC via deep brain stimulation (DBS) attenuates avoidance biases by restoring the direct excitatory drive of 5-HT neurons and strengthening a key subset of forebrain 5-HT projections. Better understanding the cellular organization of the vmPFC-DRN pathway and identifying molecular determinants of its neuroplasticity can open fundamentally novel avenues for the treatment of affective disorders.

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Afraid to help: Social anxiety partially mediates the association between 5-HTTLPR triallelic genotype and prosocial behavior

Cited by 43 publications

References 29 publications

Does uncertainty avoidance keep charity away? comparative research between charitable behavior and 79 national cultures

Does uncertainty avoidance keep charity away? comparative research between charitable behavior and 79 national cultures

Helping Another in Distress: Lessons from Rats

Top-Down Control of Serotonin Systems by the Prefrontal Cortex: A Path toward Restored Socioemotional Function in Depression

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