title: A reward prediction error for charitable donations reveals outcome orientation of donators.
abstract: The motives underlying prosocial behavior, like charitable donations, can be related either to actions or to outcomes. To address the neural basis of outcome orientation in charitable giving, we asked 33 subjects to make choices affecting their own payoffs and payoffs to a charity organization, while being scanned by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We experimentally induced a reward prediction error (RPE) by subsequently discarding some of the chosen outcomes. Co-localized to a nucleus accumbens BOLD signal corresponding to the RPE for the subject's own payoff, we observed an equivalent RPE signal for the charity's payoff in those subjects who were willing to donate. This unique demonstration of a neuronal RPE signal for outcomes exclusively affecting unrelated others indicates common brain processes during outcome evaluation for selfish, individual and nonselfish, social rewards and strongly suggests the effectiveness of outcome-oriented motives in charitable giving.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epileptology, University of Bonn Medical Center, Sigmund Freud-Str. 25, D-53127 Bonn, Germany.
authors.forename: Katarina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kuss
authors.forename: Armin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Falk
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Trautner
authors.forename: Christian E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Elger
authors.forename: Bernd
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Weber
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Fliessbach
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D026686:Beneficence; D002608:Charities; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D006040:Goals; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation / Q000502:physiology*; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D009714:Nucleus Accumbens / Q000502:physiology; D012201:Reward; D012919:Social Behavior; D055815:Young Adult