The motivations to protect oneself and others have often been seen as conflicting. Here, we discuss recent evidence that self-defensive mechanisms may in fact be recruited to enable the helping of others. In some instances, the defensive response to a threat may even be more decisive in promoting helping than the response to a conspecific’s distress (as predicted by empathy-altruism models). In light of this evidence, we propose that neural mechanisms implicated in self-defence may have been repurposed through evolution to enable the protection of others, and that defence and care may be convergent rather than conflicting functions. Finally, we present and discuss a working model of the shared brain mechanisms implicated in defence of both self and others.

中文翻译：

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哺乳动物的防御和护理之间的融合


保护自己和他人的动机常常被认为是相互冲突的。在这里，我们讨论最近的证据，表明自卫机制实际上可以被用来帮助他人。在某些情况下，对威胁的防御反应甚至可能比对同种人的痛苦的反应在促进帮助方面更具决定性（正如同理心利他主义模型所预测的那样）。根据这一证据，我们提出，与自卫有关的神经机制可能已通过进化重新调整用途，以保护他人，并且防御和护理功能可能是一致的，而不是相互冲突的。最后，我们提出并讨论了与保护自我和他人有关的共享大脑机制的工作模型。