Altruism
Published on March 24th, 2023
There is much debate as to whether humans can genuinely be altruistic, a belief generated by the scientific understanding that our actions are an attempt to meet the needs for our and our gene pool's survival. From my standpoint, humans can indeed be altruistic. Due to research surrounding altruism, I believe humans are capable of performing acts of kindness and having selfless concerns for others without any selfish intentions. Also, I believe that stating the opposite not only reflects on the person but also serves as an excuse not to examine why one holds such beliefs and how that affect them as a person, especially in terms of their actions, allowing selfish behavior to continue.
It must be noted that when speaking on a concept like altruism and the idea of it being a genuinely plausible thing, it is easy to manipulate either argument to benefit the other side, as a concept of dealing with human behavior has many layers of information surrounding them. It also should be stated that it is especially hard to truly measure these sorts of concepts. Additionally, it is challenging to use research covering such concepts since most studies adhere to the gender binary and stereotypes surrounding it, in addition to rarely including participants who do not follow into the white, middle to upper-middle-class background (King, 2021, p.112). These matters must be acknowledged as these prejudices will likely interfere with the results used to understand altruism. It is known that one is more likely to behave selfishly if they have a higher economic standing, and one is less likely to behave selfishly when of a lower economic or social class (Piff et al., 2010). It would appear that altruism is a farce if most research was conducted on subjects of higher economic status and if it was shown that these subjects are more likely to act selfishly.
Moreover, it is hypothesized that individuals from lower economic backgrounds act in an altruistic way as a means to cope with their hostile environment, which seems to be an insufficient explanation when other studies demonstrate a development of compassion in these individuals that can better explain why they act in such a way (Stellar et al., 2012). Further, it has been shown that a person will act in a deviant manner if they are raised in an unstable home and faced severe hardships as a child while also being influenced by those they looked up to in childhood. (Gomis-Pomares & Villanueva, 2020)
In conclusion, concepts like the human capacity to be altruistic are hard to define and defend due to all the factors one must consider when doing so. However, when considering these factors all together, such as the understanding of altruism and social psychology as a whole and how most of the research is rooted in the bias’ of social psychology and the lack of representation in the research subject, one can see how a belief that lies in the realm of anti-altruism, is more so linked to a factor that is more personal than universal and how altruism is, in the end, is a thing humans can authentically perform and be.
Reference Pages
King, L. A. (2021). Experience psychology: Edition 5. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Piff, P. K., Kraus, M. W., Côté, S., Cheng, B. H., & Keltner, D. (2010). Having less, giving more: The influence of social class on prosocial behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99(5), 771-784. doi:10.1037/a0020092
Stellar, J. E., Manzo, V. M., Kraus, M. W., & Keltner, D. (2012). Class and compassion: Socioeconomic factors predict responses to suffering. Emotion, 12(3), 449-459. doi:10.1037/a0026508
Villanueva, L., & Gomis-Pomares, A. (2020). The cumulative and differential relation of adverse childhood experiences and substance use during emerging adulthood. Child Psychiatry & Human Development, 52(3), 420-429. doi:10.1007/s10578-020-01029-x
