The heart of the story: Peripheral physiology during narrative exposure predicts charitable giving

Helping from the heart: Voluntary upregulation of heart rate variability predicts altruistic behavior

“…Secondly, based on the theorized role of the vagus in social engagement (Bazhenova et al, 2001;Hastings et al, 2008;Miller et al, 2013;Porges, 2003) and the motivational systems of care and affiliation (Depue & Morrone-Strupinsky, 2005;Feldman & Eidelman, 2003;Kemp et al, 2012;Norman et al, 2011;Panksepp, 2011;Tribollet et al, 1989;Uvnäs-Moberg, 1994, 1998, as well as earlier studies which had linked incidental upregulation of HF-HRV to altruistic feelings and behaviors (Barraza et al, 2015;Miller et al, 2015;Stellar et al, 2015) we hypothesized that individual differences in the ability to deliberately up-regulate LP would be linked to individual differences in altruistic behavior. We operationalized altruistic behavior through a multi-method approach that identified a latent construct called Altruistically Motivated Behavior (AMB) which includes several commonly-used behavioral measures of altruistic behavior (Böckler et al, 2016).…”

“…Children who show less HF-HRV reduction when exposed to a toddler in distress display more empathetic concern (Gill & Calkins, 2003), and those who maintain higher HF-HRV when hearing about sick and incapacitated children are more willing to share their own resources with them (Miller et al, 2015). Similarly, in adults, the degree of HF-HRV upsurge when viewing a video depicting human suffering positively predicts their readiness to donate money to a related charity (Barraza et al, 2015).…”

“…The role of vagal upregulation in positive social engagement led researchers to pursue the hypothesis that it is also involved in altruistic feelings and behaviors (e.g., Barraza, Alexander, Beavin, Terris, & Zak, 2015;Miller, Kahle, & Hastings, 2015). Following Batson, (2014, p.6), we define behaviors as altruistically motivated if they follow from a -motivational state with the ultimate goal of increasing another's welfare‖.…”

Can Video Engender Empathic Concern for Others? Testing a Positive Affect Arousing Intervention

“…The experimental video used here has been shown to increase both types of affective empathy in participants relative to the control video (Barraza & Zak, 2009). However, only other-oriented affective empathy has been linked to subsequent altruistic behavior (Barraza et al, 2015) and additional affective empathy with respect to a second target (Cargile, 2016). Thus, although the experimental video potentially engenders a complex emotional reaction, the focus here was on manipulating and studying the effects of other-oriented affective empathy (i.e., empathic concern).…”

“…Because they have been successfully used in studies of affective empathy (Cargile, 2016) and subsequent altruism (Barraza, Alexander, Beavin, Terris, & Zak, 2015;Barraza & Zak, 2009), the experimental (i.e., emotional) and control (i.e., non-emotional) videos used here were clips edited from a brief feature produced by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Both videos portray the father of a 2-year-old boy who is dying of brain cancer.…”