Vagal activity is quadratically related to prosocial traits, prosocial emotions, and observer perceptions of prosociality
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6203480 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Aleksandr Kogan (0000-0002-3147-8053, University of Cambridge), Christopher Oveis (0000-0001-5239-3203, University of California San Diego), Evan W Carr (0000-0001-5546-4126, University of California San Diego), June Gruber (0000-0002-7789-1353, Yale University), Iris B Mau (0000-0002-3797-4795, University of California, Berkeley), Amanda Shallcro (0000-0003-3166-8786, New York University), Emily A Impett, Emily Impett (0000-0003-3348-7524, University of Toronto), Ilmo Van Der Löwe (University of Cambridge), Bryant P H Hui (0000-0003-3063-9297, University of Cambridge), Bryant Hui, C Cheng (0000-0002-7250-2224, University of Hong Kong), Dacher Keltner (0000-0001-9061-5292, University of California, Berkeley) |
| Year | 2014 |
| Volume | 107 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 1051-1063 |
| Publication date | 2014-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-3514 • E-ISSN: 1939-1315 |
| Publisher | American Psychological Association (APA) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1037/a0037509 |
| PMID | 25243414 |
| OpenAlex | W2096061132 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 29 |
| References cited | 56 |
In the present article, we introduce the quadratic vagal activity-prosociality hypothesis, a theoretical framework for understanding the vagus nerve's involvement in prosociality. We argue that vagus nerve activity supports prosocial behavior by regulating physiological systems that enable emotional expression, empathy for others' mental and emotional states, the regulation of one's own distress, and the experience of positive emotions. However, we contend that extremely high levels of vagal activity can be detrimental to prosociality. We present 3 studies providing support for our model, finding consistent evidence of a quadratic relationship between respiratory sinus arrhythmia--the degree to which the vagus nerve modulates the heart rate--and prosociality. Individual differences in vagal activity were quadratically related to prosocial traits (Study 1), prosocial emotions (Study 2), and outside ratings of prosociality by complete strangers (Study 3). Thus, too much or too little vagal activity appears to be detrimental to prosociality. The present article provides the 1st theoretical and empirical account of the nonlinear relationship between vagal activity and prosociality
Developmental psychology · Distress · Empathy · Heart rate · Heart rate variability · Hostility · Personal distress · Prosocial behavior · Stimulation · Vagal tone · Vagus nerve · Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes · Behavioral Health and Interventions · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development · Clinical Psychology · Endocrinology · Neuroscience · Psychology · Social Psychology
Formulation in Action
Influences of oxytocin and respiratory sinus arrhythmia on emotions and social behavior in daily life
The empathy impulse
Moderate baseline vagal tone predicts greater prosociality in children
Development, Culture, and Neurobiology of Moral Emotions in Ethnic/Racial Minority Children
The development of compassionate engagement and action scales for self and others
Associations between burnout symptoms and social behaviour
Awe as a Pathway to Mental and Physical Health
The Emerging Science of Virtue
Face your heart
Diminished parasympathetic flexibility in female offenders when experiencing compassion
Heart rate, perceived stress and prosocial behaviour
Inducing empathy affects cardiovascular reactivity reflected in changes in high-frequency heart rate variability
Empathic emotion regulation in prosocial behaviour and altruism
Nonlinear Relations Between Resting Heart Rate Measures and Health Risk Behavior in Emerging Adulthood
Cooperation in primary school children
A biopsychosocial safeness model
Interactive Effects Between Extraversion and Oxytocin Administration
Cooperative Hearts
The psychological health benefits of accepting negative emotions and thoughts
Affective and physiological responses to the suffering of others
Compassion is partially selfless
The association between parasympathetic reactivity and children’s prosocial behavior
Autonomic nervous system functioning assessed during the still-face paradigm
The Robust Quadratic Association Between Resting Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia and Agreeableness
How does the evolution of the mammalian autonomic nervous system help to explain religious prosociality
From anxiety to neighborliness
The Quadratic Association Between Resting Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia and Adolescents’ Prosociality
Socioeconomic inequality undermines relationship quality in romantic relationships
Elevation Leads to Altruistic Behavior
Gratitude and Prosocial Behavior
Neural Responses to Taxation and Voluntary Giving Reveal Motives for Charitable Donations
Evidence for Altruism
Positive emotion dispositions differentially associated with Big Five personality and attachment style
The polyvagal theory
The Optimum Level of Well-Being
Heart Rate Variability
Positive Interactions Promote Public Cooperation
Orienting in a defensive world
Heart Rate Variability Reflects Self-Regulatory Strength, Effort, and Fatigue
Emotions as Moral Amplifiers
Oxytocin increases trust in humans
Power, Distress, and Compassion
The polyvagal perspective
Toward understanding respiratory sinus arrhythmia
Find, Remind, and Bind
The Origin and Evolution of Religious Prosociality
Witnessing excellence in action
Higher social class predicts increased unethical behavior
Too Much of a Good Thing
Kubios HRV – Heart rate variability analysis software
Suppression Sours Sacrifice
Gene–Culture Interaction
Toward a histology of social behavior
Signs of Socioeconomic Status
God Is Watching You
Low vagal activity as mediating mechanism for the relationship between personality factors and gastric symptoms in functional dyspepsia
Risk for mania and positive emotional responding
Synchrony and the social tuning of compassion
Resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia is associated with tonic positive emotionality
Smile intensity and warm touch as thin slices of child and family affective style
Compassion
The international personality item pool and the future of public-domain personality measures
Perceptions of people with personality disorders based on thin slices of behavior
Regulatory control and adults' stress-related responses to daily life events
Can intuition improve deception detection performance
Laughter conveys status
Culture and the self
Thin Slices of Behavior as Cues of Personality and Intelligence
Half a minute
Flustered and faithful
To have and to hold
The social costs of emotional suppression
Happiness is everything, or is it? Explorations on the meaning of psychological well-being
Moving toward more perfect unions
Compassion, pride, and social intuitions of self-other similarity
Social power facilitates the effect of prosocial orientation on empathic accuracy
Emotion elicitation using films
A Dark Side of Happiness? How, When, and Why Happiness Is Not Always Good
Embarrassment
Emotional Intuitions and Moral Play
| Unique citing works | 29 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2,64 |
| Citation span | 2015 - 2026 (12) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 25 |