A brief intervention to motivate empathy among middle school students.

Empathy tracks socioemotional adjustment during early adolescence, yet adolescents this age tend to show reductions in empathy compared with younger children. Here we took a novel approach to building empathy among early adolescents in four middle schools ( = 857). Rather than addressing the to empathize, we targeted the to empathize.

A computational theory of the subjective experience of flow.

Flow is a subjective state characterized by immersion and engagement in one's current activity. The benefits of flow for productivity and health are well-documented, but a rigorous description of the flow-generating process remains elusive. Here we develop and empirically test a theory of flow's computational substrates: the informational theory of flow.

Psychological Selfishness.

Selfishness is central to many theories of human morality, yet its psychological nature remains largely overlooked. Psychologists often draw on classical conceptions of selfishness from evolutionary biology (i.e.

Belief in Altruistic Motives Predicts Prosocial Actions and Inferences.

Are humans ever truly altruistic? Or are all actions, however noble, ultimately motivated by self-interest? Psychologists and philosophers have long grappled with this question, but few have considered laypeople's beliefs about the nature of prosocial motives. Here we examine these beliefs and their social correlates across two experiments (N = 445). We find that people tend to believe humans can be, and frequently are, altruistically motivated-echoing prior work.

Building empathy through motivation-based interventions.

Empathy is associated with adaptive social and emotional outcomes; as such, a crucial outstanding question is whether it can be bolstered in ways that make practical differences in people's lives. Most empathy-building efforts address one's ability to empathize, increasing empathy by training skills like perspective taking. However, empathy is more than the ability to share and understand others' feelings; it also reflects underlying motives that drive people to experience or avoid it.

Motivated misremembering of selfish decisions.

People often prioritize their own interests, but also like to see themselves as moral. How do individuals resolve this tension? One way to both pursue personal gain and preserve a moral self-image is to misremember the extent of one's selfishness. Here, we test this possibility.

The lateral prefrontal cortex and moral goal pursuit.

In the face of competing desires, humans often strive to be fair, honest, and considerate of others. Research from social neuroscience implicates the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) in our capacity to pursue such goals, yet its precise computational role is less clear. Here, we draw on insights from the neuroscience of hierarchical control and value-based choice to offer an integrative look at how LPFC supports the pursuit of moral goals.

Neural detection of socially valued community members.

As people form social groups, they benefit from being able to detect socially valuable community members-individuals who act prosocially, support others, and form strong relationships. Multidisciplinary evidence demonstrates that people indeed track others' social value, but the mechanisms through which such detection occurs remain unclear. Here, we combine social network and neuroimaging analyses to examine this process.

When is giving an impulse? An ERP investigation of intuitive prosocial behavior.

Human prosociality is often assumed to emerge from exerting reflective control over initial, selfish impulses. However, recent findings suggest that prosocial actions can also stem from processes that are fast, automatic and intuitive. Here, we attempt to clarify when prosocial behavior may be intuitive by examining prosociality as a form of reward seeking.