Studies explore nature of generosity

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Updated: December 5, 2010 1:24PM

Generous impulses often are described in fund-raising appeals, conversation and greeting cards as coming "from the heart."

In fact, the origins of giving probably are deep in the brain's circuitry.

The University of Notre Dame is leading a new research initiative to explain why some people give and some don't.

With a $5 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation, Notre Dame created the Science of Generosity Initiative in 2009. Research is under way at Notre Dame and universities across the nation.

Researchers are exploring the connection between parts of the brain that support parental caregiving and generosity and examining whether people who have strong connections with others are more likely to give.

Ultimately, says project director Christian Smith, the research should help define how people can become more generous, leading to improved mental health, and help organizations that depend on generous people to tailor their messages.

Researchers sponsored by Notre Dame's initiative are exploring how people's friendships, faiths, co-workers, spouses and parents affect their generosity and whether giving is contagious.

University of Kansas social psychology professor Omri Gillath is trying to learn whether "attachment security" -- an internal sense we are worthy of love and people support us -- is one cause of generosity.

Gillath says attachment security is formed in childhood when we seek caregivers, starting with our mothers, to protect us. People who have been neglected or rejected by caregivers can develop attachment insecurity.

His research, funded by Notre Dame, measures electrical waves in the brain at the moment people are deciding whether to give -- and how those patterns differ between people who have attachment security and those who are insecure.

Gillath wants to determine whether people with attachment security are more likely to be altruistic, volunteer, forgive and express gratitude.

"No one has found one gene for generosity," he says. "There is something very important in the actual decision-making process that we don't understand yet."

Gannett News Service