The Altruistic Brain: How We Are Naturally Good

313 Pages·2014·2.07 MB·English

by  Donald W Pfaff

THE ALTRUISTIC BRAIN

THE ALTRUISTIC BRAIN
How We Are Naturally Good
DONALD W. PFAFF, PhD

WITH

SANDRA SHERMAN
1
1
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of
Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research,
scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide.
Oxford New York
Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi
Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi
New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto
With offices in
Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece
Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore
South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
in the UK and certain other countries.
Published in the United States of America by
Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016
© Oxford University Press 2015
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior
permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law,
by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization.
Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the
Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above.
You must not circulate this work in any other form
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Pfaff, Donald W., 1939–author.
The altruistic brain : how we are naturally good / Donald Pfaff.
p. ; cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978–0–19–937746–6 (alk. paper)
I. Title.
[DNLM: 1. Altruism. 2. Brain—physiology. 3. Behavior—physiology.
4. Biological Evolution. WL 337]
BF637.H4
155.2′32—dc23
2014012452
The science of medicine is a rapidly changing field. As new research and clinical experience broaden our
knowledge, changes in treatment and drug therapy occur. The author and publisher of this work have
checked with sources believed to be reliable in their efforts to provide information that is accurate and
complete, and in accordance with the standards accepted at the time of publication. However, in light of
the possibility of human error or changes in the practice of medicine, neither the author, nor the publisher,
nor any other party who has been involved in the preparation or publication of this work warrants that the
information contained herein is in every respect accurate or complete. Readers are encouraged to confirm
the information contained herein with other reliable sources, and are strongly advised to check the product
information sheet provided by the pharmaceutical company for each drug they plan to administer.
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
PART ONE
EVIDENCE FOR ALTRUISTIC
BRAIN THEORY
1. The Biological/Evolutionary Roots of Altruism 21
2. Altruistic Brain Theory Introduced 49
3. Primary Neuroscience Research Underlying Each
Step of Altruistic Brain Theory 75
4. Neural and Hormonal Mechanisms that Promote
Prosocial Behaviors Once the Ethical Decision
Is Made 101
CONTENTS
5. New Neuroscience Research: The Theory’s Link to
An Ethical Universal 131
PART TWO
IMPROVING PERFORMANCE OF THE
MORAL BRAIN: REMOVING OBSTACLES
TO GOOD BEHAVIOR
6. How Altruistic Brain Theory Changes Our
Perceptions of Ourselves and of Altruism 155
7. Why the Altruistic Brain Matters: Its Significance to
Addressing Individuals’ Bad Behavior 199
8. Multiplier Effect: From Bad to Worse in a
Social Setting 231
9. No Easy Answers . . . But No Pessimism Either 249
Index 283
vi
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book explains a set of new ideas in neuroscience to readers who
lack a scientific background. This would have been impossible with-
out the insight, resourcefulness, and organizational skill of Sandra
Sherman. I am immensely grateful for all her hard work. She fre-
quently understood the implications of my ideas better than I did,
and was able to express them with a clarity that I can only envy. As a
former lawyer and English professor now working in finance, Sandra
drew connections between my theory and the world outside of my
lab, which I think will give this book a far greater resonance.
We both thank our splendid editor at Oxford University Press,
Craig Panner, whose generous support we have greatly appreciated.
His perspicacious reading benefited our presentation enormously.
I have been thinking about these ideas for a long time. First,
I am grateful that the Sarah Lawrence College Library had an excel-
lent comparative religion section, because that is where I got started
thinking about the Golden Rule as an ethical universal. Once the
main ideas of this book were formulated, I was able to try them out
in a course for Neurology residents at Cornell Medical School, in a
series of talks organized by the late great Chief of Neurology, Fred
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Plum. The lecture received useful criticism from the psychiatrist
Marguerite Lederberg, widow of Rockefeller University’s President
Joshua Lederberg. An abbreviated account of that lecture is in the
Springer-Verlag book Ethical Questions in Brain and Behavior (1982).
The Altruistic Brain uses new data, new points of departure, and many
new insights from Sandra Sherman to build on my Neuroscience of
Fair Play (2007) sponsored by the Dana Foundation. Writing from
that book is acknowledged here and in the text. Sandra and I also
wrote a chapter on Law and Neuroscience in Current Legal Issues,
Vol. 13 (Oxford University Press, 2010) from which we quote, and
we thank Oxford University Press for giving us permission to do so.
Science writer Robin Nixon generously helped me get started
with this book. Some of the best aspects of its organization can be
credited to her early efforts.
Several scientists gave me excellent leads and advice. Two of my
colleagues at the Rockefeller University, neuroscience professors
Bruce McEwen and Winrich Freiwald, were outstanding in this regard.
Also, my colleague Daniel Kronauer, head of Laboratory of Insect and
Social Evolution, provided crucial guidance with regard to my use of
terms, enabling me to clarify some of the book’s fundamental concepts.
Joshua Greene (Harvard University), James Gilligan, M.D. (New York
University), Richard Davidson (University of Wisconsin), and Jonathan
Haidt (University of Virginia) were also most helpful in contributing to
this account of how we are “wired” to behave altruistically. In particular,
James Gilligan’s positive view of the manuscript, in view of his experience
as a psychiatrist overseeing a prison system, has been much appreciated.
My administrative assistant at the Rockefeller University, Susan Strider, a
professional artist, made all of the illustrations.
Scientists and authors Professor David Barash (University
of Washington), Prof. Russell Pearce (Fordham Law School),
Prof. Winrich Freiwald (Rockefeller University), and Colin Rule
(Stanford) generously took time to read and criticize the text.
viii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks to Mark Greenberg of the Pennsylvania State University
who sent us some of his work on helping troubled children. Thanks
also to Stephen Post of Stony Brook University Medical Center, who
provided us a broad-ranging critique of our ideas, and helped us to
contextualize them. Three social workers who know gangs or who
have been in a gang, wishing to remain anonymous, looked over the
relevant chapters.
Finally, I want to thank Russ Pearce, Mary Gordon, and Colin
Rule for sharing with us their own fascinating insights into the opera-
tion of moral reciprocity, especially with regard to how it can be
applied to make our lives better. Many people are thinking about this
issue, and I hope that they will accept The Altruistic Brain as a contri-
bution to an ongoing conversation.
ix