Members in the Media
From: NPR

Could Hunger Make Us More Charitable?

NPR:

Hunger can make people emotional, that’s for sure. Some people get “hangry” when their blood sugar levels drop and their irritability rises. Others get greedy.

 

But new research suggests that we may have another, innate response to hunger: a desire to encourage others to share what they have.

Researchers Lene Aarøe and Michael Bang Petersen, both in the department of political science and government at Aarhus University in Denmark, wanted to explore the possibility that we are evolutionarily wired to want to share food. Their logic? Back in the days before we had a reliable food supply, people living in small communities often asked others to share food in situations of temporary hunger.

 

The researchers also had a hunch that biological impulses — like hunger — may influence our political opinions.

So in a recent study published in the journal Psychological Science, they tested these ideas with an experiment involving 104 university students in Denmark.

Read the whole story: NPR

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