{"id":100,"date":"2018-02-14T16:00:26","date_gmt":"2018-02-14T16:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/good2talk.online\/?p=100"},"modified":"2018-11-21T11:26:00","modified_gmt":"2018-11-21T11:26:00","slug":"so-why-do-we-give-to-charity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/good2talk.online\/so-why-do-we-give-to-charity\/","title":{"rendered":"So Why Do We Give to Charity?"},"content":{"rendered":"

If, as Hobbes said, \u201cevery man is\u00a0presumed to seek what is good for\u00a0himself naturally, and what is just,<\/em>
\n\u2026 accidentally<\/em>“1<\/sup> , what place does\u00a0philanthropy have in succession\u00a0planning?<\/p>\n

At first sight, they would certainly seem to\u00a0be mutually exclusive. After all, succession\u00a0is essentially about passing the ownership\u00a0and control of capital from one generation\u00a0to the next, typically within the family, whereas\u00a0philanthropy is, by definition, about benefiting others.\u00a0So why do people leave money to good causes?<\/p>\n

It has long been said that pain and pleasure are the\u00a0most basic drivers of human activity. It is no secret
\nthat we are all (albeit to different degrees) drawn –\u00a0sometimes irresistibly – to things that give us pleasure,\u00a0and avoid those that cause us pain. Of course, we will\u00a0not be around to take real time pleasure from the\u00a0effects of our charitable legacies but we can imagine\u00a0them, just as vividly as we can imagine how life will\u00a0be when we win the lottery, or indeed an eternity in\u00a0purgatory, or worse, if we fail do some such (hence all\u00a0those medieval chantry chapels, and perhaps many a\u00a0Victorian reading room and concert hall).<\/p>\n

Research by Matthew Lieberman, Director of the\u00a0Social Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory at UCLA, and\u00a0colleagues has shown that we respond to social pain\u00a0and pleasure in exactly the same way (that is, it \u201clights\u00a0up2<\/sup>\u201d the same parts of our brain) as we do to physical\u00a0pain. As Lieberman puts it in his\u00a0 compelling, and\u00a0engagingly written, book, Social3<\/sup>, \u201cfairness tastes like\u00a0chocolate<\/em>\u201d. Perhaps that is what drives gifts in gratitude\u00a0for the acts of others: they looked after my loved one, so\u00a0it\u2019s only fair that\u2026<\/p>\n

Moreover, Lieberman and others4<\/sup> have shown that\u00a0altruistic giving also shows increased activity in what he to as the brain\u2019s \u201creward system<\/em>\u201d, ie the part that\u00a0uses dopamine (said by some to be the most addictive\u00a0substance in the world) to make us feel good. Thus, he\u00a0argues, while we are undoubtedly wired for self-interest\u00a0(pace Richard Dawkins), we are also wired to be\u00a0interested in the welfare of others as an end in itself.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, the economist Adam Smith, more\u00a0famous for his comment in that \u201cIt is not from the<\/em>
\nbenevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker\u00a0that we expect our dinner, but from their regard for\u00a0<\/em>their own self interest.<\/em>\u201d 5<\/sup>, came to much the same\u00a0conclusion, if not the neuro-chemical evidence for it,\u00a0more than 250 years ago:<\/p>\n

“How selfish ever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which\u00a0<\/em>interest him in<\/em>\u00a0the fortune of others, and render their\u00a0happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing\u00a0from it except the pleasure of seeing it.<\/em>\u201d6<\/sup><\/p>\n

However broadly the earlier statement has been\u00a0interpreted, the two do not, of course, contradict. The
\nfact that the baker generally expects to be paid for his\u00a0loaf, does not mean that he would see us starve were we\u00a0unable to do so (although perfectly good food going to\u00a0landfill does make you wonder!)<\/p>\n

Continuing his exploration of the why of all this,\u00a0Lieberman goes on to describe research by psychologist
\nCarsten De Dreu and others7<\/sup> which appears to show\u00a0that higher levels of oxytocin (the hormone that
\ninitiates the dopamine fuelled feel good factor),\u00a0increases our generosity not only toward members
\nof our own in-group \u2013 to people like us \u2013 but also to\u00a0strangers<\/em>, although it appears to promote hostility
\ntoward already disliked groups. So, inviting us to give\u00a0to those we dislike may very well produce a hostile
\nresponse (watch out chuggers!), but everyone else is\u00a0fair game? If so, it may pay fund raisers to consider
\nmore who we dislike than who we may identify with.<\/p>\n

But there is more to it even than that. Lieberman\u00a0goes on to describe how, as a young man, he found
\nhimself watching a TV infomercial one evening that was\u00a0soliciting donations to aid the starving in Africa. He had\u00a0seen many such appeals before and never picked up the\u00a0phone. Indeed, the pain these films invoked in him had\u00a0often caused him to change channels \u2013 so easy to do\u00a0with a remote and 200 other channels to choose from.\u00a0Yet, on this occasion, despite being broke (\u201cI needed\u00a0more money, not less<\/em>.\u201d) and unhappy with his life\u00a0generally, he found himself compelled to give. So how\u00a0does that work?\u00a0Here again, Adam Smith got much of the way there\u00a0in the 18th Century. This again from The Theory of
\nMoral Sentiments8<\/sup>:<\/p>\n

\u201cThough our brother is upon the rack, as long as\u00a0we ourselves are at our ease, our senses will never\u00a0<\/em>inform us of what he suffers. \u2026 It is by the imagination\u00a0that we can form any conception of what are his\u00a0<\/em>sensations. \u2026 It is by our own senses alone, not\u00a0those of his, which our imaginations copy. By the\u00a0<\/em>imagination we place ourself in his situation, we\u00a0conceive ourselves enduring all the same torments,\u00a0<\/em>we enter as it were into his body, and become in some\u00a0measure the same person with him, and thence form\u00a0some idea of his sensations, and even feel something\u00a0which, though weaker in degree, is not altogether\u00a0unlike them.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

It turns out that we do indeed work out what another\u00a0is suffering (or enjoying) in part by taking what our own\u00a0senses tell us and creating mental images of what might\u00a0be going on in others\u2019 minds (Smith\u2019s \u201cimagination<\/em>\u201d9<\/sup>).\u00a0We are also, it seems, designed to mimic what we see\u00a0others do. Just as if you fold your arms, or legs, in a\u00a0meeting others are likely to follow suit, we also mimic\u00a0each others\u2019 facial muscle movements \u2013 and those are\u00a0the muscles we use to convey emotion10<\/sup>; pull the face\u00a0and you feel the emotion11<\/sup>. Feeling another\u2019s pain can\u00a0be incredibly powerful but, as Leiberman recounts,\u00a0it may just as well drive you away as to come to their\u00a0aid. Something more is needed; the so-called empathic<\/em>
\nresponse<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Human babies are hard wired to evoke it in their\u00a0mothers, and the process starts when they first look
\ninto each others\u2019 faces. The septal region in the prefrontal\u00a0cortex of the brain has been shown to play a
\nsignificant role in the mother\u2019s empathic response to\u00a0her child, and Lieberman argues that it likely does so in\u00a0all our empathic responses, although quite how it does\u00a0so requires further research.<\/p>\n

Other research has shown that mindful awareness\u00a0practice leads to greater development of the prefrontal\u00a0cortex, and that has been shown to be related\u00a0to increased emotional control, response flexibility\u00a0and empathic response12<\/sup>. In the long-term, charities\u00a0might encourage us all to take up such practices, as\u00a0they should make us all more likely to give. (Personally,\u00a0I would teach them as a basic life skill in all our\u00a0schools. I believe it would improve communication,\u00a0decision making and conflict management, not to\u00a0mention reducing the \u201cattraction<\/em>\u201d of drugs, self-harm\u00a0and suicide \u2013 but that is another article). Until then,\u00a0something else is needed.<\/p>\n

Strangely, probably the best intuitive invokers of\u00a0empathic response are fraudsters, con-men, people
\nyou might see as socio-, or even psycho-, pathic \u2013 in\u00a0any event, as not caring that they cause harm to others\u00a0\u2013 but who seem to understand just how to use all that\u00a0social circuitry (well, at least up to the response part) to\u00a0considerable advantage. How do they do it?<\/p>\n

In the beginning, they listen rather than talking.\u00a0Listening connects. Listening engenders trust. They get
\ninside our heads and emotions, work out what drives\u00a0us, what concerns us. They make us feel heard, our
\nemotions understood, our world view shared. They may\u00a0not become \u201cone of us<\/em>\u201d, but they certainly stop being\u00a0\u201cone of them<\/em>\u201d, and we now know that is enough. Then\u00a0they start to share their own story. They draw us in, as\u00a0they were (seemingly) drawn in by us, and invite us to\u00a0weave our story into theirs. Still they don\u2019t tell. They\u00a0ask. And we give. And they are gone. Then they use our\u00a0social pain to protect themselves; they know most of\u00a0us \u2013 those they choose to prey on \u2013 will find the pain\u00a0of admitting that we were conned unbearable, and will\u00a0likely explain away our losses (to ourself and others) in\u00a0some other way.<\/p>\n

Stories are key. Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio\u00a0argues that our inner stories are where our sense of
\nself comes from13<\/sup>, psychologist Jerome Bruner that\u00a0becoming involved in each other\u2019s narratives is how we\u00a0build cohesive communities14<\/sup>. Somehow, stories seem\u00a0to bypass the analytical parts of our brain (which are\u00a0designed to judge, criticize, debate and argue), and go\u00a0straight to our social circuitry, drawing us in, making\u00a0us want to be part of the narrative, making us want a\u00a0role in the unfolding drama15<\/sup>. That is why they are so\u00a0important in my own work helping families build and\u00a0maintain trust, communication and harmony down the\u00a0generations.<\/p>\n

Part of that work involves exploring the family\u2019s\u00a0story with them. Who are they? Where do they come
\nfrom? What do they stand for? What keeps them\u00a0together? Why do they choose to collectivise their
\nwealth? What is it for?: What are their goals, their\u00a0dreams, their aspirations? And so on. So, for them,
\n\u201csuccession planning<\/em>\u201d is about much more than passing\u00a0economic wealth from one generation to the next. It\u00a0is about developing all of their capital – be it financial,\u00a0human, intellectual, social or spiritual \u2013 collectively,\u00a0harmoniously and cohesively over generations.\u00a0Financially, they have more than they need to meet\u00a0their wants and needs. Of course, there is a focus on\u00a0making sure that continues. For some, that may be\u00a0enough \u2013 though history will likely have them back in\u00a0clogs in three generations. Those families that manage\u00a0to \u201cgo on\u201d, as a client of mine was fond of putting it,\u00a0tend to look to a broader horizon, to what they can do\u00a0in the world16<\/sup>. They are open to the empathic response\u00a0\u00a0within them and, when they find it, they do what wealth\u00a0creators do best: they act.<\/p>\n

So, if you would harvest some of that capital for your\u00a0own cause, what should you do?<\/p>\n

Be like the con-man. Don\u2019t expect your \u201cmark<\/em>\u201d to come to you. Go to them. Listen. If that does not work,
\nkeep on listening until they feel heard. Don\u2019t worry,\u00a0they will let you know when that happens. Become part\u00a0of their story by being an agency through which they\u00a0can achieve their goals, rather than trying to persuade\u00a0them to help you achieve yours. Then start to weave\u00a0your own story into theirs\u2026<\/p>\n

-o0o-<\/p>\n

1 Hobbes, T. (1969\/1651). Leviathan<\/em> (part iii). Scolar Press. Aldershot, England.
\n2 \u201cLight up\u201d in the sense of showing up on a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan. When an area of the\u00a0brain is in use, blood flow there increases. fMRI measures blood oxygen , and so blood flow, indicating relative activity\u00a0in different areas of the brain.
\n3 Lieberman, M. D. (2013). Social: Why our brains are wired to connect.<\/em> Oxford University Press. Oxford.
\n4 Lieberman cites work by Jorge Moll and colleagues at the National Institutes of Health.
\n5 Smith, A. (1776). An Enquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.<\/em> W Strachan and T. Cadell. London.
\n6 Smith, A. (2009\/1790). The Theory of Moral Sentiments<\/em>, Part 1, Section 1, Chapter 1. 6th edition , with introduction by\u00a0Amartya Sen. Penguin Book. London.\u00a0 The last two editions of The Theory of Moral Sentiments post date The Wealth of\u00a0Nations.
\n7 De Dreu, C.K., Greer, L.L., Van Kleef, G.A., Shalvi, S., & Handgraaf, M.J. (2011). Oxytocin promotes ethnocentrism.\u00a0Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences<\/em>, 108(4), 1262-1266; Kosfeld, M., Heinrichs, M., Zak, P.J., Fischbacher,\u00a0U., & Fehr, E. (2005). Oxytocin increases trust in humans<\/em>. Nature, 435(7042), 673-676.
\n8 See note 5
\n9 Ramachandran, V. (2003). The Emerging Mind: The Reith lectures 2003<\/em>. Profile Books. London.
\n10 Iacoboni, M. (2008). Mirroring People: The Science of Empathy and How We Connect with Others<\/em>. Picador. New\u00a0York.
\n11 Ekman, P. & Frisen, W.V. (2003) Unmasking the Face: A guide to recognizing emotions from facial clues.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>I. Malor\u00a0Books. Cambridge, MA.
\n12 Siegel, D.J. (2007). The Mindful Brain: Reflection and Attunement in the Cultivation of Well-Being<\/em>. WW Norton &\u00a0Co. New York.\u00a0 Mental Health Foundation (2010), Mindfulness Report<\/em>,\u00a0 http:\/\/www.livingmindfully.co.uk\/downloads\/Mindfulness_Report.pdf
\n13 Damasio, A. (2010) When Self comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain<\/em>. William Heinemann. London.
\n14 Bruner, J. (2002). Making Stories: Law, Literature, Life.<\/em> Harvard University Press. London.
\n15 Heath, C. & Heath, D. (2008). Made to Stick: Why some ideas take hold and others come unstuck<\/em>. Arrow Books.\u00a0London.
\n16 See, for example, Jaffe, T. (2013). Good Fortune: Building A hundred Year Family Enterprise<\/em>. Wise Counsel Research\u00a0Associates. Milton, Ma. www.wisecounselresearch.com<\/p>\n

First published in\u00a0Philanthropy Impact Magazine: 5 \u2013 SPRING 2014 48 – 50.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If, as Hobbes said, \u201cevery man is\u00a0presumed to seek what is good for\u00a0himself naturally, and what is just, \u2026 accidentally“1 , what place does\u00a0philanthropy have in succession\u00a0planning? At first sight, they would certainly seem to\u00a0be mutually exclusive. After all, succession\u00a0is essentially about passing the ownership\u00a0and control of capital from one generation\u00a0to the next, typically within […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/good2talk.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/good2talk.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/good2talk.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/good2talk.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/good2talk.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/good2talk.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110,"href":"https:\/\/good2talk.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions\/110"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/good2talk.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/good2talk.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/good2talk.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/good2talk.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}