er...

the brain scans predicted self report of altruistic behaviour rather than predicting altruistic acts (they said that they didn't know whether these people actually were altruistic or whether they just wanted to convey themselves as being altruistic).

as such... it is unclear precisely what the findings mean...

further research etc etc

;-)

(one reason why i'm wary about bold claims that are made about the significance of neurological / genetic findings is because of the very real possibility of social darwinism / eugenics. if one thinks that we can find biological markers that predict peoples pathological behaviour then it often seems like a very small step to lock them up in order to prevent them offending or to abort them etc. the reason why this doesn't follow is because there is a considerable amount of neural plasticity and variation in the way that genes express in the phenotype. this is because the environment plays a significant role. a favourable environment can result in one twin not displaying schizophrenic behaviours while the other twin does and a favourable (rehabilitative) environment can also create lasting neurological changes)

tell yourself 'i'm altruistic' one hundred times etc etc

;-)