Altruism and Society: A Social Learning Perspective

Abstract

An influential and perhaps dominant view of ourselves as a species focuses more on the aggressive and destructive sides of our nature than on the more positive ones. This is probably a legacy from Freud and the popular ethologists such as Konrad Lorenz and Desmond Morris and also the result of the antisocial behaviors that we do see or hear about. I suggest that the resulting perception of ourselves is wrong. Rather, human beings might better be characterized as helpful, cooperative, empathic, loving, kind, and considerate. It is not for this reason that acts of violence and destruction result so readily in moral outrage and behavior? Altruism-concern for others-is a virtually universal value in all human societies and forms the basic tenet of most of the world's great religious, social reformist, and revolutionist movements. From Christianity we have "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" and "greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend." From Article 73 of the United Nations Charter we have "members of the United Nations which have or assume responsibility for . .. territories whose people have not yet attained a full measure of self-government . .. accept as a sacred trust the obligation to promote to the utmost . . . the well being of the inhabitants of the territories." Thus it is recognized that even a state can be under a moral obligation to help not only other states but also communities that are hardly nation-states at all. Before attempting to define altruism formally, let us consider several examples of what we might wish to include under its rubric. One inclusion would be highly noteworthy acts of rescue behavior. In 1904 the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission was established to award medals for "outstanding acts of selfless heroism performed in the United States and Canada." The requirements for receiving a Carnegie Medal are that (1) the act is voluntary, (2) the actor has to risk his or her own life to an extraordinary degree, (3) the actor must not be directly related to the