Thursday, March 17, 2011

The high that comes from giving - Economy and Politics - livemint.com

BeThe high that comes from giving - Economy and Politics - livemint.com:
"Helping, sharing and donating aren’t attributes unique to people. Dictyostelium mucoroides, a well-researched species of mould, has been shown to compromise its own well-being for a larger cause. When there’s a shortage of food, these unicellular organisms that normally exist as isolated amoeba, aggregate to become a multicellular entity even though such an act often starves and destroys certain individual mucoroida. A better known instance is that of honeybees that unflinchingly and suicidally sting predators when defending their hive."
and later
"“The brain is rigged,” said Baba Shiv, a professor of marketing at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and whose research emphasis is on the psychological motivations that dictate people’s spending decision. “When we make a donation, however small, there’s a release of dopamine (a chemical that generates a burst of pleasure) and many of the activities that we spend time and money on are for dopamine fixes,” he said."


Class, READ UP! :)

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