Cognitive Neural Mechanism of Monetary Donation: An Empathy Perspective

The impact of anthropomorphism on charitable giving behavior has been extensively studied, but not all forms of anthropomorphism have a positive effect on donation intentions. Additionally, the influence of anthropomorphism on cognitive processing during individual donation decisions remains incomplete. This study aims to investigate how different scenarios involving anthropomorphism affect donation intentions and measure changes in empathic responses using cognitive neural methods to uncover the neural representation associated with anthropomorphic money for monetary donations. By utilizing functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), participants’ frontal activations are measured while performing a monetary donation task within four groups designed as a between-participants experiment with factors including object type (money vs. product) and presence or absence of anthropomorphism (yes vs. no). The results reveal three main findings: first, money anthropomorphism specifically enhances individuals’ intention to donate; second, empathy significantly influences both information-processing and donation decision stages; third, complex cognitive processes including affective empathy (rIFG), rational processing, and reward processing during the information-processing stage predict subsequent donation intentions, whereas cognitive empathy (lIFG) during the decision stage determines the amount of money donated. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of how anthropomorphism impacts monetary donation decision-making.