Impact1217

Are Women More Generous?
Stereotyping is dangerous.
Humanity is too varied
and intricate to make
convincing generalities,
but over the years there’s
one stereotype that has stuck;
women are simply more generous
and kind than men. Now a new
piece of research by Philippe
Tobler, an associate professor
of neuroeconomics and social
neuroscience at the University of
Zurich, has found that there may
be some truth in the stereotype.
In his research, he and his
colleagues found that the brain’s
dopamine-based reward system
may be geared towards
‘pro-social’ or sharing
behaviour in women,
and more selfcentred
behaviour
in men i.e. the
‘natural high’ of a
dopamine release
is triggered in
women when they
are generous, and
in men when they
are selfish. Professor
Tobler was very clear to point
out that this chemical reward
was almost certainly the result of
social and environmental factors,
rather than any inherent biological
makeup. For instance, girls are
often praised for being ‘pro-social’
(kind, generous etc.) and as such,
their reward systems learn to
expect rewards when they repeat
generous behaviour, with the
reverse often being true for boys.
Whether you’re male or female,
your generosity is one of the
greatest forces for good in this
world. If we want to build a society
that looks out for each other,
caring and sharing for one another
as we would want to be cared for,
then generosity is the key. Britain
is a fairly generous nation. We
have laws in place to ensure a
percentage of the national budget
goes to international development
and foreign aid, we have regular
nationwide fundraising events like
Children in Need or Macmillan
Coffee Mornings, and when
devastation has hit a community
or country then the British public
is often quick to respond through
disaster relief funds like the
Grenfell Tower Fire fund which has
raised over £11m. These acts of
generosity are fantastic examples
of what it means to be generous,
but our generosity should
not just be reactive,
responding to
someone or
something ‘in
need’.
True generosity
is a whole life
calling, a desire
to share with
everyone something
of ourselves, to be
sacrificial in the way
we handle our time, our
finances, and our skills. This is
the form of generosity that we see
modelled by Jesus Christ, who
spent his life caring for everyone
he came in to contact with, often
breaking down social and racial
barriers to share love with anyone
willing to receive it. It’s this
generosity that will rid the world
of the hatred, selfishness, and
bitterness that is so often at the
root of the problems we face on
local, national, and global scales,
and it starts with each one of us,
choosing to be more generous
every day. A simple calling that will
change the world.
David Stout
St Chad’s Church, Linden Avenue, Woodseats
Church Office: Linden Avenue, Sheffield S8 0GA
Tel: (0114) 274 5086
Page 18
email: office@stchads.org
website: www.stchads.org