He altruism Is the principle or practice of caring for the well-being of others. It is a traditional virtue of many cultures and a central concept of various religions.
The word was coined by the French philosopher Auguste Comte as Altruism, As an antonym of egoism. He derived it from the Italian word altrui, derived from Latin Altered , Which means"other people".
Being altruistic means showing behaviors that do not benefit oneself, only other people. For example; Volunteering to teach children, helping older people take care of themselves, helping a family member get by.
However, there is an open debate on whether altruistic behaviors are beneficial to the individual who performs them, since the person may be happier and feel more fulfilled in performing such behaviors.
In addition, important authors such as Richard Dawkins Propose that these behaviors, which do not seem to have benefits for the person who carries it out, if they are beneficial if we think in terms of species and much more if they are performed with people of the same family, since in helping another person of your Family you are helping your own genes. I will explain this theory in depth below.
Why are people altruistic?
There are numerous theories that try to explain why we are altruistic. In the following I will try to make a brief summary of the most important theories according to the different currents and points of view.
Psychological Theories
Behavioral Current
According to this trend, all Prosocial behavior (Within which altruism is found) are learned through mechanisms of classical conditioning Y operating .
This means that altruistic individuals are because, on previous occasions, when they have performed an altruistic behavior they have been reinforced, either by other people or by himself. I think it will be better understood with the following example:
Juan helps to do homework to his little sister one day and his parents thank him, so Juan will continue to help his sister while his parents thank him.
According to the first definition of altruism this would be paradoxical because it is assumed that altruistic people do not receive any benefit. But, as I explained above, it seems that this is not entirely true.
According to the theory of Bandura , Reinforcers that modulate behavior (in this case the altruist) would begin to be external, that is, provided by other people and, as the person grows, the internal reinforcers, controlled by herself, would take on greater value.
This would happen in the following way, following the example above: John grows up, and his parents no longer thank him for helping his sister with homework, but he continues to help her because when he does feel smarter and likes to see his sister Content.
Another form of learning, included within this stream, is vicarious or observational learning. That is, the person would learn by observing the behavior of other people and the consequences that it has. According to Bandura, much of the social behavior is learned in this way.
One model that is within this current is the Pilot and Dovidio Reward and Activation Model. According to this model, people perform behaviors that maximize their rewards and minimize their costs. That is, the person will be altruistic if he foresees that the benefits of helping will be greater than those of doing nothing.
This model is based on the premise that for a person to help this one has to feel activated (in an unpleasant way) to know that another person has a problem. So it will help you no longer feel that activation.
The authors who developed this model attempted to predict whether a person would perform an altruistic behavior and, if so, how. For this purpose they prepared the following table:
Cognitive Current
The Cognitive stream Approaches altruism from a moral perspective. So the person will perform altruistic behaviors depending on whether he perceives that behavior to be morally correct or not.
A model that could be included both within this current and in the behaviorist is that of Daniel Batson , Who argues that empathy That we feel towards the other person is one of the main motivations that we take to carry out altruistic behaviors.
If we have a good relationship with the person who needs help, we will feel empathy and, therefore, feel bad when we see the other person suffering. So we would help the person not to feel bad ourselves.
This model is based on studies that have found that infants begin to perform prosocial behaviors by age 2, the same age with which they develop empathy.
Kohlberg Made a model with which he intended to relate the behaviors to the level of morality of the person. According to this model there are three moral levels (Preconventional, Conventional and Postconventional) and depending on the level of morality in which the person is, will perform altruistic behavior for one reason or another.
In the following table you can see the reasons that would lead people to be altruistic depending on their level of morality.
The following video explains very well the Stages of Kohlberg Moral Reasoning.
But if altruism follows these rules, why is the same person altruistic sometimes and sometimes not? The investigators Bibb Latané Y John Darley , Asked the same question and elaborated a decision model on emergency intervention.
According to this model the decision on whether or not to help a person follows 5 steps:
- Recognize that something is wrong.
- Recognize that the situation requires someone to help.
- Take responsibility to help.
- To be able to help
- Decide what is the best way to help.
Perhaps one of the most studied steps is the 3, because here the Spectator effect . According to this effect as the witnesses increase, the perception of responsibility diminishes (diffusion of responsibility).
Psychoanalytic Current
In the Psychoanalytic theories Traditions do not appear altruistic contuctas as such. According to this current, the huamano being performs acts motivated by instincts and desires from birth and it will be society that will repress and control these impulses.
Later the person will internalize social norms and form their own morality and participate in the reprimand and control of the acts of other people.
According to this current, people would perform altruistic behaviors to avoid the feeling of guilt, because they have a self-destructive tendency or to resolve internal conflicts.
Sociological Theories
Social norms
Often we perform altruistic acts without having even thought about it before, without calculating it or planning it. We do it simply because we believe it must be done.
These altruistic behaviors are motivated by social norms. These standards tell us what we are expected to do, the expectations that society has.
The most important social norms in the study of altruistic behavior are the norm of reciprocity and of social responsibility.
- Standard of reciprocity. According to this standard when we help a person we hope that in the future also help us when we need help, or at least not harm us.
- Social responsibility standard. This rule tells us that we need to help people who need help and deserve it, that is, we help by obligation, even if we do not find it profitable to help. But we do not help everyone, only those people we perceive deserve to be helped, not those who think they have sought the problem themselves.
Theories on the evolutionary sense of altruism
Psychology of evolution
There are numerous studies that have found altruistic behaviors in several animal species.
In a study of chimpanzees it was shown that these showed altruistic behavior if another chimpacé asked for help.
Chimpanzees were placed in separate rooms communicated by a hole, each one was given a different test to get their food. To complete the test each chimpanzee needed the tool that the other chimpanzee had.
The researchers found that if one chimpac asked the other, the chimpanzee would help him, even if the other chimpanzee had nothing to give him.
You might think that chimpanzees are altruistic because they are very close (genetically speaking) to the human species, but there have been cases of altruistic behavior other species more distant to man, here are some examples:
- There are cases of female dogs that have adopted puppies of other species (cats, squirrels...) and have raised them as if they were their own puppies.
- Murciels share their food with other bats if they have not gotten food.
- Walruses and penguins adopt pups of the same species that have been orphaned, especially if they have lost their own offspring.
Protection of genes
As I mentioned earlier, Richard Dawkin argues in his book The selfish gene That the main reason why individuals are altruistic is because genes are selfish.
This theory is based on the fact that we share a large amount of genetic material with individuals of other species, and even more with individuals of our species and our own family. So by helping other people we are really making sure that the genes we share are maintained and spread through reproduction.
This would be a way of explaining why we are more altruistic with people in our family or similar to us (our country, our ethnicity...). And help individuals who have a greater reproductive potential (first to children and women, then to adult men).
Neurobiological Theories
The investigators Jorge Moll Y Jordan Grafman Discovered the neural basis of altruistic behavior. In this study, a Functional magnetic resonance imaging To volunteers while they performed a series of behaviors such as donating money (no cost to the volunteer), refusing to donate money (no cost to the volunteer), donating part of their own money (at a cost to the volunteer) and refusing To donate part of their own money (at cost to the volunteer).
The researchers found that while the reinforcement system (limbic system) was activated whenever the person donated money, another area was specifically activated when donating had a cost to the volunteer.
This zone is the anterior area of the prefrontal cortex and appears to be crucial for altruistic behavior.
Advantages of being altruistic
Many studies have shown that people who routinely practice altruistic behaviors, such as volunteers, exhibit higher indicators of happiness and wellness , Both now and in the future.
For example, in a study comparing adults who had volunteered when they were young and others who had not been, the former were found to have higher indicators of satisfaction with life and lower depression, anxiety, and Somatization (Suffer physical symptoms due to psychological problems).
Other studies have also found that altruistic people have fewer physical problems and are longer-lived.
So you know, being altruistic improves both your life and that of others.
References
- Field, A.J. (2004). Reciprocal Altruism, Norms, and Evolutionary Game Theory. In A. J. Field, Economics, Cognition and Society: Altruistically Inclined? : The Behavioral Sciences, Evolutionary Theory, and the Origins of Reciprocity (Pages 121-157). Ann Arbor, MI, USA: University of Michigan Press.
- Gamboa, J. (2008). Altruism. Lime.
- Moll, J., Kruege, F., Zah, R., Pardin, M., Oliveira-Souza, R., & Grafman, J. (2006). Human fronto-mesolimbic networks guide decisions about charitable donation. PNAS , 15623-15628.
- Walrath, R. (2011). Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development. Encyclopedia of Child Behavior and Development , 859-860. Doi: 10.1007 / 978-0-387-79061-9_1595
- Yamamoto, S., Humle, T., & Tanaka, M. (2009). Chimpanzees Help Each Other upon Request. PLoS ONE . Doi: 10.1371 / journal.pone.0007416