Why do we give? The urge to give — from the smallest donation to the establishment of the largest foundation – stems from a common root hidden deep in the human brain. In this video, author and ethicist Jeremy Rifkin shows us how specific brain cells called mirror neurons form a crucial component of the brain structure that makes human beings empathetic, and by extension, philanthropic creatures.
Rifkin continues on to explain how our “spheres of empathy,” once reserved only for our immediate family, have grown over the past few centuries, and what implications this expansion of empathy has for human-kind and the future of our planet.
I originally found this great video on Sean Stannard-Stockton’s blog Tactical Philanthropy. You can find Sean’s original post here.
- Cary Lenore Walski, MCF web communications associate
[...] through my Google Reader account I came across a May blog posting by my colleagues at Minnesota Council on Foundations that, if you haven’t seen the video they reference already, is worthy of mention [...]
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Elliot Ronen and OnlyFoundations, Mary Galeti. Mary Galeti said: Our brains are wired for philanthropy! http://bit.ly/9eAFrC [...]