I see something you don’t see – this child’s game only seems trivial. It assumes that the person whose turn it is can imagine what is going on inside the other person. Experts speak of »mentalizing« or the »theory of mind«. This ability is considered a prerequisite for a social conscience and for selfless, altruistic behavior towards others. Researchers led by Stefan Schulreich from the University of Hamburg have now discovered that people with a particularly strong theory of mind are less charitable when they are under stress.
It was already known that the released hormone cortisol influences altruistic behavior. In order to understand the connection more precisely, the team put some of the 35 test subjects under pressure for several minutes. The experts re-enacted an unpleasant job interview, which was also recorded. The remaining subjects completed a stress-free control condition.
Before and after, all participants were asked to decide how much of their earnings they wanted to donate to charitable organizations. During this decision, they lay in the MRI brain scanner. It turned out that those with high levels of cortisol were less generous; but only if they were usually particularly good at perceiving the perspectives and intentions of others. In such persons, the activity of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in particular was altered under the influence of cortisol.
The brain region belongs to the theory-of-mind network. “Stress hormones can impair the ability to mentalize,” says Schulreich. Therefore, when our goodwill depends on this gift, stress can make us less altruistic. However, Schulreich warns against generalizing the results. In certain situations, stress can promote altruism, for example when one is directly confronted with the suffering of others. He says: “Science is only slowly beginning to understand the conditions under which stress has a positive or negative effect on social behavior.”