Since their research further links prosocial behavior to genetically-caused anxiety, the investigators suggest that helping nervous men and women deal with their anxiety through counseling, medication, and other targeted efforts could also make them more likely to engage in prosocial behaviors, like volunteering for charitable organizations.
“This finding suggests that genetic variation influences the extent to which people weigh self (and genetic) preservation concerns when making decisions about whether or not to help others,” the authors wrote in the study. They added that the methods they used could lay the foundation for analysis of the genetic pathways for morality, compassion, empathy and other psychological traits.