A person’s willingness to volunteer and help others could be influenced by a gene that also impacts his or her level of social anxiety, according to research published in September’s edition of the journal Social Neuroscience.
The paper, which the authors believe is the first to describe this particular pathway, explained that prosocial behavior is related to the same gene that predisposes certain men and women to anxiety disorders. Helping those people cope with that anxiety could ultimately result in an increase in their prosocial behaviors.