By: mary Moussa Rogers
Selfless Acts of Kindness
Altruism suggests that people help for the betterment of others (Fiske, 2009). Although it seems counter-intuitive to think that helping others is a biological mechanism of survival, it makes sense when considering the importance of cooperation to the survival of the human species (Davidov et al., 2016). Humans need each other to survive and thus, those engaging in more prosocial behaviors were more likely to survive in the complex social hierarchies and were also more likely to pass on their genes (Davidov et al., 2016; Phillips, Ferguson, & Rijsdijk, 2010). Furthermore, we have the ability to feel what other’s around us are feeling, or empathize with others, and this ability allows us to focus on what they are feeling and respond. In a series of studies conducted by Batson and colleagues (1999), altruism is not only more likely to occur when we empathize with others, but even when avoiding the situation altogether is a possibility empathy increases chances of helping instead. However, helping doesn’t only occur when someone around us is upset, but can also occur when we care about their goals (Davidov et al., 2016). Some studies show that even toddlers experience motivation to help others attain their
Although there is some evidence to suggest people engage in altruistic behaviors, there is also evidence that helping behaviors are mainly motivated to help the self (Fiske, 2009). While some suggest that empathy results in altruism, others might suggest that we only help in order to reduce the emotional arousal we experience in response to others. Self-focused motivations to engage in prosocial behaviors are referred to as egoism and are the main counter-argument for altruistic motivations of helping (Fiske, 2009). For instance, some studies have shown that prosocial behaviors increase the well-being of the helper, suggesting some level of reward that is internal to the helper (Martela & Ryan, 2016). Furthermore, people are more likely to engage in prosocial behaviors when they are related to the person they are helping or when that person is a part of their in-group, indicating some level of evolutionary fitness to be gained from the helping behavior (Fiske, 2009; Phillips et al., 2010). In addition, people are more likely to help when they do not have a chance to deliberate or weigh the pros and cons first, and women are particularly impacted by pausing before helping ().
Egoism motivations are not enough to explain all prosocial behavior, but neither is altruism. Other motivations assessed in the social psychology literature include collectivism motivations, or prosocial behaviors intended to help the group or “greater good”, and principlism, or motivations to help based on beliefs in morals. Daphne is a woman who spends her Friday evenings volunteering at the soup kitchen in her town. Daphne’s motivations could involve an intention to reduce her negative emotions surrounding the hungry people in her town and to feel good about herself later, it could be an empathic response with one or several people she is helping, Daphne may also think that volunteering will help improve things for her town overall, or she may just personally believe that people deserve to have food. All of these potential motivations (i.e. egoism, altruism, collectivism, and principlism, respectively), are not mutually exclusive from one another and all of them may, in part, explain Daphne’s behavior. Does this mean that there is no true altruism? That depends on your definition. Some suggest that altruism cannot exist because we are always benefitting in some way from prosocial behavior, while others define altruism as a prosocial behavior motivated mainly by the intent to benefit someone other than you. The evidence suggests it is unlikely for a prosocial behavior to have one motivation, but that doesn’t mean altruism cannot be the main motivator behind an action. We have the capacity to engage in prosocial behaviors that are at a high cost to ourselves, and the evidence seems to suggest there is “good” in human-kind.
- Batson, C. D., & Moran, T. (1999). Empathy‐induced altruism in a prisoner's dilemma. European Journal of Social Psychology, 29(7), 909-924.
- Davidov, M., Vaish, A., Knafo‐Noam, A., & Hastings, P. D. (2016). The Motivational Foundations of Prosocial Behavior From A Developmental Perspective–Evolutionary Roots and Key Psychological Mechanisms: Introduction to the Special Section. Child Development, 87(6), 1655-1667.
- Fiske, S., (2009). Social beings. Danvers, MA: Wiley.
- Martela, F., & Ryan, R. M. (2016). Prosocial behavior increases well-being and vitality even without contact with the beneficiary: Causal and behavioral evidence. Motivation and Emotion, 40(3), 351-357.
- Phillips, T., Ferguson, E., & Rijsdijk, F. (2010). A link between altruism and sexual selection: genetic influence on altruistic behaviour and mate preference towards it. British Journal of Psychology, 101(4), 809-819.
- Rand, D. G., Brescoll, V. L., Everett, J. A., Capraro, V., & Barcelo, H. (2016). Social heuristics and social roles: Intuition favors altruism for women but not for men.