Here’s how the brain works when we choose to help someone in danger
How do people decide whether to intervene and help others in danger? Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden now show that the same system in the brain that enables us to avoid danger is also activated during selfless, helping behaviour. The results are published in the scientific journal eLife.“Our findings indicate that the brain’s defence system plays a greater role in helping behaviour than was previously thought. These results contradict the conventional wisdom that we need to suppress our own fear system in order to help others who are in danger,” says Andreas Olsson, professor