Donation task and behavioral results. (a) Task design. The name and mission statement of an ORG was presented, followed by the payoff type (decision phase), and then by the outcome phase. Depending on the trial, Yes or No decisions to different payoff types had different monetary consequences to the participant and/or to the ORG (“outcome types”; see Materials and Methods and Figs. 5–8). In this example, a (YOU: $0 ORG: $+5) payoff is shown. (b) The conditions of interest derived from the main outcome types and comprised costly opposition [red; No to (YOU: $+2 ORG: $+5)], noncostly opposition [orange; No to (YOU: $0 ORG: $+5)], costly donation [dark blue; Yes to (YOU: $−2 ORG: $+5)], noncostly donation [light blue; Yes to (YOU: $0 ORG: $+5)], and pure monetary reward [green; Yes to (YOU: $+2 ORG: $0)]. Altruistic or costly decisions included costly donation and costly opposition.

Brain responses for monetary reward and donation. (a) Mesolimbic–striatal reward system, including the VTA and the dorsal and ventral sectors of the striatum (STR), activation for both pure monetary reward and noncostly donation (conjunction of pure reward vs. baseline and noncostly donation vs. baseline). (b) Subgenual area (SG) activation for decisions to donate (conjunction of costly and noncostly conditions) as compared with pure monetary reward. The subgenual area comprised the most posterior sector of the medial orbitofrontal cortex and the ventral cingulate cortex (BA 25) and the adjoining septal region structures. (c) Hemodynamic responses from the subgenual cortex for donation and pure monetary reward conditions. (d) Positive association between decision frequency of costly donation (how often each participant made costly donations) and ventral striatum/septal region parameter estimates (VS/SR; x = −6, y = 11, z = 4; r = 0.58; P < 0.01). BOLD, blood oxygenation level-dependent.

Behavioral results. (a) Response times for main conditions of interest. Increased response times were associated with altruistic decisions (which included costly donation and costly opposition) as compared with noncostly decisions [t(18) = 3.26, P < 0.005]. Color code: costly opposition, red; noncostly opposition, orange; costly donation, dark blue; noncostly donation, light blue; and pure monetary reward, green. (b) Compassion and anger scores. Societal causes participants donated to received higher compassion scores [t(16) = 7.84, P < 0.001], whereas opposed causes scored higher in anger [t(16) = 5.53, P < 0.001]. Color code as the same as in a. Error bars indicate SEM.

Brain responses for opposition and costly decisions. (a) lOFC (BA 11/47) responses to decisions to oppose causes as compared with decisions involving pure monetary reward (conjunction of costly and noncostly conditions). Activity of the lOFC was modulated by decision frequency of costly opposition (peak: x = −27, y = 35, z = −5; r = 0.76; P < 0.001). (b) Comparison of costly decisions (sacrificing money either to donate or to oppose causes) to pure monetary rewards. Effects were observed in the anterior prefrontal cortex (aPFC), including the frontopolar cortex and the medial frontal gyrus (BA 10/11/32), and in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC). The differences in response times between costly and noncostly decisions were correlated with parameter estimates from the dACC (r = 0.46; P < 0.05) but not from the frontopolar cortex (r = −0.15; P = 0.53) and the medial frontal gyrus (r = −0.07; P = 0.75). (c) Hemodynamic responses from the left lOFC for opposing causes. (d) Hemodynamic responses from the frontopolar cortex for costly decisions. (e) Relationship between self-reported engagement in real-life voluntary activities and aPFC activity to costly donation (peak: x = −6, y = 25, z = −14; r = 0.87; P < 0.0001). BOLD, blood oxygenation level-dependent.