Human Motivation the Influential Drive Behind Human Altruism

Why should students help pick up fellow classmate's books that he or she dropped? Why should people give to the homeless? Why should humans become organ donors? Altruism is defined as a person's ability to go out of their way to enhance the welfare of someone else without anything in return. But it's not the "what" of altruism that is intriguing, it's the "why" that is truly fascinating. Scientist and researches may never pinpoint what makes humans exhibit altruistic behavior, but there is one thing that scientist and researches are sure about. Altruism plays an important role in running society, and the world can use more of it.

In the first two paragraphs Lewis Thomas describes altruism as acts of self sacrifice but in the next paragraph, he specifies altruism is a human behaviour as opposed to any animal or insect’s behaviour. Thomas states that animals don’t have human brains to think things through, in other words, they are mechanical, they just do things without justification and therefore the term “altruism” does not apply to them. Animals don’t have the ability to do things and be concerned about consequences, in other words, they don’t consciously intend to act a certain way, therefore animals have no connection to altruism, for altruism is a human behaviour.

Bartel (1976) defines prosocial behaviour as ‘behaviour that intentionally helps or benefits another person’. Batson (1987) defines altruism as ‘helping another person for no reward, and even at some cost to oneself.’ This definition of altruism seemingly depicts the behaviour as selfless, however there is a wealth of research which suggests that this is not the case.

Sarah-Elizabeth Atunrase Final Paper 5/9/18 Final Paper The two behavioral concepts I recognized in the DeWaal paper were true altruism and empathy. Altruism is defined as “altruism without obvious advantages for the actor” (DeWaal). Reciprocal altruism is the act of giving aid or preforming an act of kindness in order to receive delayed benefits or even immediate benefits (Lecture 23: Empathy and Altruism). In order to participate in altruistic acts the species must have empathy. Empathy is important because in order to perform these acts of kindness one has to understand the emotion of another and be able to imagine what someone else is going through. Dewaal discusses how altruism in animals must stem from something other than actions with

Altruism refers to the concern for the welfare and well being of others without personal gains or

Altruism, in which one selflessly devotes to the welfare of another without expecting anything in return, often elicits an inexplicable and intangible surge of joy, in which one gains a sense of purpose. For example, I have observed the therapists at PRANA, whom altruistically devote up to an hour, when initially only allotted a half-hour time slot, programming individualized treatments for each patient. In their hour- long treatments, they create a non-fraternizing relationship with their patients that is fully functional on trust, empathy, and generosity. Devoting that extra time to each patient gives not only the

Called the covariance or Price equation, this formula tested natural selection and altruism's role in it (Bankston). “From the Price equation, we can see that such ultimate causes equate to the different ways in which the frequency of an altruistic allele in a population can increase. Under this approach, the ultimate causes underlying the evolution of altruism, given some positive fitness costs and benefits” (Marshall).

The book begins with the description of the genetic foundations of human nature and argues that cooperation is grounded in evolutionary theory (Dugatkin, 1998) and describes cooperation and selfishness utilizing the examples of ants, corals, bees, mother and embryo relationship. Next, the division of labour is examined using the notion of Adam Smith about specialization which is essential to trade and elevates the society to be more than just the sum of its parts. Chapter 3 is devoted to the Prisoner 's Dilemma from game theory, which can be traced through the rest of the book. It deals with how people are led by self-interest or cooperation, how reciprocal humans and animals are because eventually we gain more from cooperation, despite the temptation to cheat (Markóczy & Goldberg, 1997). This chapter is followed by the extensions and conditions that are necessary to get reciprocal altruism, which is uniquely mastered by humans. The next two chapters

An oxymoron appeared to exist between Darwin’s theory of natural selection (1859) and the definition of altruism (West et al., 2006). Hamilton’s theory of inclusive fitness (1964) appeared to mediate this problem. However, the theory does not explain altruistic acts towards non-kin in line with natural selection. Reciprocal altruism (Trivers, 1971), indirect altruism (Alexander, 1987) and strong reciprocity (Gintis, 2000) have been proposed to resolve this conflict. It is of note that behaviour in all theories has been noted in animals, but will not be discussed further. Instead, the essay will focus on which theories are most relevant when understanding human sociality, with the author explaining why no sole theory is seen to describe the phenomenon. All theories will be discussed in relation to evolutionary stable strategies (ESS), which refers to plans that when adopted by a majority of members in a population that restrict any other action existing, which could yield higher reproductive success (Smith & Price, 1973).

The degree of help and support also varies among the related individuals, closer relatives will receive quicker aid than more distant ones (Kurzban et al. 2015). One specific example of kin selection in humans involves the Ifakuk of the Caroline Islands in the Pacific Ocean. Chiefs in this nation provide food based on the degree of relatedness (Betzig and Turke 1986). Besides doing good things to help kin, there is evidence that humans will put themselves in danger to help a family member. A recent survey found that people are more likely to engage in morally wrong behavior to benefit kin (Kurzban et al. 2012). Humans, unlike many organisms, can adopt other humans into their family. If kin selection is true for humans, research should find that parents exhibit more positive behaviors towards biological

Kin selection theory predicts that cues of genetic relatedness trigger positive valuation, willingness to help, and reparative, rather than punitive, responses to exploitation [5][10][11]. Specifically, welfare tradeoff ratio should be up-regulated for an individual when the following Hamilton’s rule obtains: grx,y × by > cx, where grx,y is an index of genetic relatedness between agent x and agent y. As grx,y increases (i.e., they are closely related kin, friend or those who share the same interests), the discounted benefits are more likely to exceed its costs. Interestingly, the human mind computes a psychological kinship index by using a neurocomputational system to help decide which individuals are close genetic relatives and how much an

Batson, C. D. (1991). The Altruism Question: Toward a Social-Psychological Answer. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Through ‘Experience Cambridge’ we studied evolution and in particular heritability and altruism. I was enthralled how a simple act of kindness can be so controversial to whether or not it’s pure altruism. “The Selfish Gene” goes into engaging detail about this.

Why do we show altruism? Social and evolutionary biologists, psychologists, economists and philosophers alike have made many attempts at providing an explanation for altruism. As a result, many opposing theories have developed over the years. In this essay, I will attempt to explain altruism as the presence of an altruistic gene which is selected for by natural selection in terms of kin selection. I will explore evidence supporting this theory, as well as evidence pointing to psychological explanations such as reciprocal altruism, social norms and primitive sympathy.

Altruistic acts are often seen through the benevolent acts of family members express towards each other on a regular basis. Because of the significant amount of genes we share with our kin, the survival of a family is prioritized equally to the survival of the individual. Each member of the family will therefore behave altruistically towards each other, due to the evolutionary drive for survival. The reason that parents behave this altruistically towards their offspring is because “parents (adults) are in a maximally favorable position to dispense inexpensive aid to offspring (eggs) that maximally resembles the parents genetically” (Alexander, 462). Even through altruism is perhaps highest between family members, people also feel more empathetic towards others who possess similar traits, as a large number of genes are share. As altruism “involves a loss of individual fitness, [it] can evolve only by group selection” (Nunney, 228). Therefore, we can see that nature’s force of the survival of the group is a primary driving factor for the appearance of altruism.