Neuroeconomics of Prosocial Behavior The Compassionate Egoist

This summary of recent research in neuroeconomics aims to explain how and why a person can sometimes be generous, helpful, and cooperative, yet other times behave in a self-interested and/or exploitative manner. The book explains a dual process of analysis measuring immediate needs of the individual, relative to long term gains possible through prosocial behavior (e.g. synergy, accumulating profits, (in)direct reciprocity) with the output further mitigated by the motivation of the individual at that moment and any special circumstances of the environment. Ultimately it can be shown that prosocial behavior can be economically rational. Yet even when individuals are intrinsically motivated to act prosocially, they are also able to reverse this behavior when they sense it is no longer adaptive.

The book will further explore individual differences in prosocial behavior, the development of prosocial behavior, and how a personal neural signature forms that facilitates or hampers cooperation. The book includes game theory research, neuroimaging studies, and research in traditional cognitive psychology to better understand human decision-making re prosocial behavior. This will be of interest to cognitive, developmental, and social psychologists, as well as neuroscientists, and behavioral economists.

Chapter 1 - Two Routes to CooperationChapter 2 - The Neuroanatomy of Prosocial Decision Making: The Role of Valuation, Cognitive Control and Social CognitionChapter 3 - Neurochemistry of Prosocial Decision Making: The Role of Dopamine, Serotonin, and OxytocinChapter 4 - Individual Differences in Prosocial Decision Making: Social Values as a CompassChapter 5 - Beyond Parochialism: Cooperation Across the Globe

Carolyn Declerck is also the author of a Dutch book (Who is the Homo economics?, Leuven: ACCO Press) with the purpose of introducing the principles of psychology to undergraduate students in Economic Sciences.
Christophe Boone is a full professor of Organization Theory and Behavior at the Faculty of Applied Economics of the University of Antwerp (Belgium). Before that he was full-time faculty at the Graduate School of Business and Economics (GSBE) of Maastricht University, The Netherlands (1992-2001). He held a honorary chair in Organization Theory at the University of Groningen (2005-2006). Recently, he was nominated as a fellow extra muros at the GSBE of Maastricht University (2014-2017). He is co-founder of the Antwerp Centre of Evolutionary demography (ACED), an international and interdisciplinary research institute established at the University of Antwerp in 2007 dedicated to the study of the antecedents and consequences of diversity in the realm of teams, organizations, industries and communities. Christophe Boone is an interdisciplinary social scientist with research interests that currently focus on th

• Explores: Individual differences in prosocial behavior, The development of prosocial behavior, How a personal neural signature forms that facilitates or hampers cooperation
• Includes: Game theory research, Neuroimaging studies, Research in traditional cognitive psychology