Neuroscience of Altruism • Dr. Abigail Marsh

What makes some people more generous than others? And when it comes to altruism, how do we get more of it? In this episode, we learn about how altruism works in the brain, and the clues are surprisingly found in how psychopaths experience fear. Neuroscientist and professor Abigail Marsh will tell us what she's learned about altruism and the human brain. About Our Guest Abigail Marsh is a Professor in the Department of Psychology and the Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience at Georgetown University. She received her BA in Psychology from Dartmouth College in 1999 and her PhD in Social Psychology at Harvard University in 2004. Before Georgetown, she conducted post-doctoral work at the NIMH from 2004-2008. Her areas of expertise include social and affective neuroscience, particularly understanding emotional processes like empathy and how they relate to altruism, aggression, and psychopathy.