In:
PLOS Biology, Public Library of Science (PLoS), Vol. 20, No. 8 ( 2022-8-23), p. e3001733-
Abstract:
Humans help each other. This fundamental feature of homo sapiens has been one of the most powerful forces sculpting the advent of modern civilizations. But what determines whether humans choose to help one another? Across 3 replicating studies, here, we demonstrate that sleep loss represents one previously unrecognized factor dictating whether humans choose to help each other, observed at 3 different scales (within individuals, across individuals, and across societies). First, at an individual level, 1 night of sleep loss triggers the withdrawal of help from one individual to another. Moreover, fMRI findings revealed that the withdrawal of human helping is associated with deactivation of key nodes within the social cognition brain network that facilitates prosociality. Second, at a group level, ecological night-to-night reductions in sleep across several nights predict corresponding next-day reductions in the choice to help others during day-to-day interactions. Third, at a large-scale national level, we demonstrate that 1 h of lost sleep opportunity, inflicted by the transition to Daylight Saving Time, reduces real-world altruistic helping through the act of donation giving, established through the analysis of over 3 million charitable donations. Therefore, inadequate sleep represents a significant influential force determining whether humans choose to help one another, observable across micro- and macroscopic levels of civilized interaction. The implications of this effect may be non-trivial when considering the essentiality of human helping in the maintenance of cooperative, civil society, combined with the reported decline in sufficient sleep in many first-world nations.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
1545-7885
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pbio.3001733
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pbio.3001733.g001
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pbio.3001733.g002
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pbio.3001733.g003
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pbio.3001733.s001
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pbio.3001733.s002
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pbio.3001733.s003
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pbio.3001733.s004
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pbio.3001733.s005
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pbio.3001733.s006
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pbio.3001733.s007
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pbio.3001733.s008
Language:
English
Publisher:
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Publication Date:
2022
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2126773-X
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