86-465: Zahid is a male given name particularly popular in several Asian countries. It has its roots in the Arabic language. In Arabic, there are a few variations based on the exact pronunciation of the name thus having different meanings. One of the meanings of Zahid in Arabic is Altruistic . Zahid is also defined as "the noble man who stops other from wrong doing of 'respectable' belief", explained as: "The Zahid
172-532: A 63% lower likelihood of dying. After controlling for prior health status, it was determined that volunteerism accounted for a 44% reduction in mortality. Merely being aware of kindness in oneself and others is also associated with greater well-being. A study that asked participants to count each act of kindness they performed for one week significantly enhanced their subjective happiness. Happier people are kinder and more grateful, kinder people are happier and more grateful and more grateful people are happier and kinder,
258-569: A choice, the chimps preferred to imitate the actions of the higher-ranking elder chimpanzee as opposed to the lower-ranking young chimpanzee. Animals can learn using observational learning but without the process of imitation. One way is stimulus enhancement in which individuals become interested in an object as the result of observing others interacting with the object. Increased interest in an object can result in object manipulation which allows for new object-related behaviours by trial-and-error learning. Haggerty (1909) devised an experiment in which
344-518: A companion ant to a source of food. It has been suggested that the pupil ant is able to learn this route to obtain food in the future or teach the route to other ants. This behaviour of teaching is also exemplified by crows, specifically New Caledonian crows . The adults (whether individual or in families) teach their young adolescent offspring how to construct and utilize tools. For example, Pandanus branches are used to extract insects and other larvae from holes within trees. Individual reproduction
430-441: A form of religious sacrifice and ithar (altruism). For Sufis , 'iythar means devotion to others through complete forgetfulness of one's own concerns, where concern for others is deemed as a demand made by God on the human body, considered to be property of God alone. The importance of 'iythar (also known as īthār ) lies in sacrifice for the sake of the greater good; Islam considers those practicing īthār as abiding by
516-571: A framework is the purpose of creation, and everything that happens is to raise humanity to the level of altruism, love for one another. Ashlag focused on society and its relation to divinity . Altruism is essential to the Sikh religion. The central faith in Sikhism is that the greatest deed anyone can do is to imbibe and live the godly qualities such as love, affection, sacrifice, patience, harmony, and truthfulness. Sevā , or selfless service to
602-461: A major topic for psychologists (especially evolutionary psychology researchers), evolutionary biologists , and ethologists . Whilst ideas about altruism from one field can affect the other fields, the different methods and focuses of these fields always lead to different perspectives on altruism. In simple terms, altruism is caring about the welfare of other people and acting to help them, above oneself. Marcel Mauss 's essay The Gift contains
688-408: A mathematical model and analysis of behavioral strategies. Some of the proposed mechanisms are: Such explanations do not imply that humans consciously calculate how to increase their inclusive fitness when doing altruistic acts. Instead, evolution has shaped psychological mechanisms, such as emotions, that promote certain altruistic behaviors. The benefits for the altruist may be increased, and
774-411: A monkey climbed up the side of a cage, placed its arm into a wooden chute, and pulled a rope in the chute to release food. Another monkey was provided an opportunity to obtain the food after watching a monkey go through this process on four occasions. The monkey performed a different method and finally succeeded after trial-and-error. In local enhancement, a demonstrator attracts an observer's attention to
860-399: A particular location. Local enhancement has been observed to transmit foraging information among birds, rats and pigs. The stingless bee ( Trigona corvina ) uses local enhancement to locate other members of their colony and food resources. A well-documented example of social transmission of a behaviour occurred in a group of macaques on Hachijojima Island, Japan. The macaques lived in
946-473: A passage called "Note on alms". This note describes the evolution of the notion of alms (and by extension of altruism) from the notion of sacrifice. In it, he writes: Alms are the fruits of a moral notion of the gift and of fortune on the one hand, and of a notion of sacrifice, on the other. Generosity is an obligation, because Nemesis avenges the poor and the gods for the superabundance of happiness and wealth of certain people who should rid themselves of it. This
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#17327879957651032-472: A person is in need and feel personal responsibility for reducing the person's distress. The number of bystanders witnessing pain or suffering affects the likelihood of helping (the Bystander effect ). More significant numbers of bystanders decrease individual feelings of responsibility. However, a witness with a high level of empathic concern is likely to assume personal responsibility entirely regardless of
1118-559: A person's actions cause karma, which consists of consequences proportional to the moral implications of their actions. Deeds considered to be bad are punished, while those considered to be good are rewarded. The fundamental principles of Jainism revolve around altruism, not only for humans but for all sentient beings. Jainism preaches ahimsa – to live and let live, not harming sentient beings, i.e. uncompromising reverence for all life. It also considers all living things to be equal . The first Tirthankara , Rishabhdev , introduced
1204-444: A person's environment and values. A recent meta-analysis of fMRI studies conducted by Shawn Rhoads, Jo Cutler, and Abigail Marsh analyzed the results of prior studies of generosity in which participants could freely choose to give or not give resources to someone else. The results of this study confirmed that altruism is supported by distinct mechanisms from giving motivated by reciprocity or by fairness. This study also confirmed that
1290-583: A positive one (although positive effects were still significant). Older humans were found to have higher altruism. Both genetics and environment have been implicated in influencing pro-social or altruistic behavior. Candidate genes include OXTR ( polymorphisms in the oxytocin receptor ), CD38 , COMT , DRD4 , DRD5 , IGF2 , AVPR1A and GABRB2 . It is theorized that some of these genes influence altruistic behavior by modulating levels of neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine . According to Christopher Boehm , altruistic behaviour evolved as
1376-418: A self-sacrificial nature to altruism and a lack of external rewards for altruistic behaviors. However, because altruism ultimately benefits the self in many cases, the selflessness of altruistic acts is difficult to prove. The social exchange theory postulates that altruism only exists when the benefits outweigh the costs to the self. Daniel Batson , a psychologist, examined this question and argued against
1462-507: A sort of symbiosis among individuals of the same species: a society is composed of a group of individuals belonging to the same species living within well-defined rules on food management, role assignments and reciprocal dependence. When biologists interested in evolution theory first started examining social behaviour, some apparently unanswerable questions arose, such as how the birth of sterile castes , like in bees , could be explained through an evolving mechanism that emphasizes
1548-446: A soul, great care and awareness is essential in one's actions. Jainism emphasizes the equality of all life, advocating harmlessness towards all, whether the creatures are great or small. This policy extends even to microscopic organisms. Jainism acknowledges that every person has different capabilities and capacities to practice and therefore accepts different levels of compliance for ascetics and householders. Thomas Aquinas interprets
1634-402: A species under specified circumstances. Their starting point for studying the behaviour of a new species was to construct an ethogram , a description of the main types of behaviour with their frequencies of occurrence. This provided an objective, cumulative database of behaviour. Due to the work of Konrad Lorenz and Niko Tinbergen , ethology developed strongly in continental Europe during
1720-517: A very important moral value. Buddhism , Christianity , Hinduism , Islam , Jainism , Judaism , and Sikhism , etc., place particular emphasis on altruistic morality. Altruism figures prominently in Buddhism. Love and compassion are components of all forms of Buddhism, and are focused on all beings equally: love is the wish that all beings be happy, and compassion is the wish that all beings be free from suffering. "Many illnesses can be cured by
1806-529: A way of surviving within a group. "Sociologists have long been concerned with how to build the good society". The structure of our societies and how individuals come to exhibit charitable, philanthropic, and other pro-social, altruistic actions for the common good is a commonly researched topic within the field. The American Sociology Association (ASA) acknowledges public sociology saying, "The intrinsic scientific, policy, and public relevance of this field of investigation in helping to construct 'good societies'
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#17327879957651892-705: A way to gain social reward or avoid social punishment by helping. People with empathic concern help others in distress even when exposure to the situation could be easily avoided, whereas those lacking in empathic concern avoid allowing it unless it is difficult or impossible to avoid exposure to another's suffering. Helping behavior is seen in humans from about two years old when a toddler can understand subtle emotional cues. In psychological research on altruism, studies often observe altruism as demonstrated through prosocial behaviors such as helping , comforting, sharing , cooperation, philanthropy , and community service . People are most likely to help if they recognize that
1978-613: Is an important moral value in many cultures and religions . It may be considered a synonym of selflessness, the opposite of self-centeredness . The word altruism was popularised (and possibly coined) by the French philosopher Auguste Comte in French, as altruisme , for an antonym of egoism . He derived it from the Italian altrui , which in turn was derived from Latin alteri , meaning " other people " or "somebody else". Altruism, as observed in populations of organisms,
2064-526: Is an increased ability to forage for food. Group members may exchange information about food sources, facilitating the process of resource location . Honeybees are a notable example of this, using the waggle dance to communicate the location of flowers to the rest of their hive. Predators also receive benefits from hunting in groups , through using better strategies and being able to take down larger prey. Some disadvantages accompany living in groups. Living in close proximity to other animals can facilitate
2150-439: Is evoked by the empathic desire to help someone suffering. Feelings of empathic concern are contrasted with personal distress, which compels people to reduce their unpleasant emotions and increase their positive ones by helping someone in need. Empathy is thus not selfless since altruism works either as a way to avoid those negative, unpleasant feelings and have positive, pleasant feelings when triggered by others' need for help or as
2236-588: Is generally considered to have begun during the 1930s with the work of the Dutch biologist Nikolaas Tinbergen and the Austrian biologists Konrad Lorenz and Karl von Frisch , the three winners of the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine . Ethology combines laboratory and field science, with a strong relation to neuroanatomy , ecology , and evolutionary biology . The modern term ethology derives from
2322-582: Is now a well-recognized scientific discipline, with its own journals such as Animal Behaviour , Applied Animal Behaviour Science , Animal Cognition , Behaviour , Behavioral Ecology and Ethology . In 1972, the International Society for Human Ethology was founded along with its journal, Human Ethology . In 1972, the English ethologist John H. Crook distinguished comparative ethology from social ethology, and argued that much of
2408-518: Is possible in human psychology is a subject of debate. The theory of psychological egoism suggests that no act of sharing , helping , or sacrificing can be truly altruistic, as the actor may receive an intrinsic reward in the form of personal gratification . The validity of this argument depends on whether such intrinsic rewards qualify as "benefits". The term altruism can also refer to an ethical doctrine that claims that individuals are morally obliged to benefit others. Used in this sense, it
2494-544: Is present in some theological schools within Catholicism. The aim and focus of Christian life is a life that glorifies God, with obeying Christ's command to treat others equally, caring for them and understanding eternity in heaven is what Jesus' Resurrection at Calvary was all about. Many biblical authors draw a strong connection between love of others and love of God. John 1:4 states that for one to love God one must love his fellow man, and that hatred of one's fellow man
2580-501: Is the ancient morality of the gift, which has become a principle of justice. The gods and the spirits accept that the share of wealth and happiness that has been offered to them and had been hitherto destroyed in useless sacrifices should serve the poor and children. In the Science of ethology (the study of animal behaviour), and more generally in the study of social evolution , altruism refers to behavior by an individual that increases
2666-584: Is the literal believer in the letter of the Law, opposed to the Sufi , who believes in its spirit: hence the former is called a Zahiri (outsider), and the latter a Batini, sider." Notable persons with the name include: Altruism Altruism is the principle and practice of concern for the well-being and/or happiness of other humans or animals largely independent of that person's opinion of or reaction to oneself. While objects of altruistic concern vary, it
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2752-489: Is the most important phase in the proliferation of individuals or genes within a species: for this reason, there exist complex mating rituals , which can be very complex even if they are often regarded as fixed action patterns. The stickleback 's complex mating ritual, studied by Tinbergen, is regarded as a notable example. Often in social life , animals fight for the right to reproduce, as well as social supremacy. A common example of fighting for social and sexual supremacy
2838-444: Is the same as hatred of God. Thomas Jay Oord has argued in several books that altruism is but one possible form of love. An altruistic action is not always a loving action. Oord defines altruism as acting for the other's good, and he agrees with feminists who note that sometimes love requires acting for one's own good when the other's demands undermine overall well-being. German philosopher Max Scheler distinguishes two ways in which
2924-447: Is the so-called pecking order among poultry . Every time a group of poultry cohabitate for a certain time length, they establish a pecking order. In these groups, one chicken dominates the others and can peck without being pecked. A second chicken can peck all the others except the first, and so on. Chickens higher in the pecking order may at times be distinguished by their healthier appearance when compared to lower level chickens. While
3010-421: Is unquestionable". This type of sociology seeks contributions that aid popular and theoretical understandings of what motivates altruism and how it is organized, and promotes an altruistic focus in order to benefit the world and people it studies. How altruism is framed, organized, carried out, and what motivates it at the group level is an area of focus that sociologists investigate in order to contribute back to
3096-438: Is usually contrasted with egoism , which claims individuals are morally obligated to serve themselves first. Effective altruism is the use of evidence and reason to determine the most effective ways to benefit others. The concept of altruism has a history in philosophical and ethical thought. The term was coined in the 19th century by the founding sociologist and philosopher of science Auguste Comte , and has become
3182-506: Is when an individual performs an action at a cost to itself (in terms of e.g. pleasure and quality of life, time, probability of survival or reproduction) that benefits, directly or indirectly, another individual, without the expectation of reciprocity or compensation for that action. Altruism can be distinguished from feelings of loyalty or concern for the common good . The latter are predicated upon social relationships, whilst altruism does not consider relationships. Whether "true" altruism
3268-551: The Greek language : ἦθος , ethos meaning "character" and -λογία , -logia meaning "the study of". The term was first popularized by the American entomologist William Morton Wheeler in 1902. Ethologists have been concerned particularly with the evolution of behaviour and its understanding in terms of natural selection . In one sense, the first modern ethologist was Charles Darwin , whose 1872 book The Expression of
3354-528: The National Institutes of Health and LABS-D'Or Hospital Network, provided the first evidence for the neural bases of altruistic giving in normal healthy volunteers, using functional magnetic resonance imaging . In their research, they showed that both pure monetary rewards and charitable donations activated the mesolimbic reward pathway, a primitive part of the brain that usually responds to food and sex. However, when volunteers generously placed
3440-454: The Price equation , a mathematical equation used to study genetic evolution. An interesting example of altruism is found in the cellular slime moulds , such as Dictyostelium mucoroides . These protists live as individual amoebae until starved, at which point they aggregate and form a multicellular fruiting body in which some cells sacrifice themselves to promote the survival of other cells in
3526-491: The Ruhr University Bochum postulated that animals may have beliefs. Behaviour is determined by three major factors, namely inborn instincts , learning , and environmental factors . The latter include abiotic and biotic factors. Abiotic factors such as temperature or light conditions have dramatic effects on animals, especially if they are ectothermic or nocturnal . Biotic factors include members of
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3612-442: The common good , the good of the whole, more than any private good, the good of a part. However, he thought we should love God more than ourselves and our neighbours, and more than our bodily life—since the ultimate purpose of loving our neighbour is to share in eternal beatitude : a more desirable thing than bodily well-being. In coining the word "altruism", as stated above, Comte was probably opposing this Thomistic doctrine, which
3698-577: The fitness of another individual while decreasing the fitness of the actor. In evolutionary psychology this term may be applied to a wide range of human behaviors such as charity , emergency aid , help to coalition partners, tipping , courtship gifts, production of public goods , and environmentalism . Theories of apparently altruistic behavior were accelerated by the need to produce ideas compatible with evolutionary origins. Two related strands of research on altruism have emerged from traditional evolutionary analyses and evolutionary game theory :
3784-414: The gene-centred view of evolution . One advantage of group living is decreased predation. If the number of predator attacks stays the same despite increasing prey group size, each prey has a reduced risk of predator attacks through the dilution effect. Further, according to the selfish herd theory , the fitness benefits associated with group living vary depending on the location of an individual within
3870-515: The Darwinism associated with Wilson, Robert Trivers , and W. D. Hamilton . The related development of behavioural ecology has helped transform ethology. Furthermore, a substantial rapprochement with comparative psychology has occurred, so the modern scientific study of behaviour offers a spectrum of approaches. In 2020, Tobias Starzak and Albert Newen from the Institute of Philosophy II at
3956-632: The Emotions in Man and Animals influenced many ethologists. He pursued his interest in behaviour by encouraging his protégé George Romanes , who investigated animal learning and intelligence using an anthropomorphic method, anecdotal cognitivism , that did not gain scientific support. Other early ethologists, such as Eugène Marais , Charles O. Whitman , Oskar Heinroth , Wallace Craig and Julian Huxley , instead concentrated on behaviours that can be called instinctive in that they occur in all members of
4042-536: The Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov , who observed that dogs trained to associate food with the ringing of a bell would salivate on hearing the bell. Imprinting enables the young to discriminate the members of their own species, vital for reproductive success. This important type of learning only takes place in a very limited period of time. Konrad Lorenz observed that the young of birds such as geese and chickens followed their mothers spontaneously from almost
4128-435: The activity and social integration it encourages. One study examined the physical health of mothers who volunteered over 30 years and found that 52% of those who did not belong to a volunteer organization experienced a major illness while only 36% of those who did volunteer experienced one. A study on adults aged 55 and older found that during the four-year study period, people who volunteered for two or more organizations had
4214-424: The advantage for all members, groups may continue to increase in size until it is more advantageous to remain alone than to join an overly full group. Tinbergen argued that ethology needed to include four kinds of explanation in any instance of behaviour: These explanations are complementary rather than mutually exclusive—all instances of behaviour require an explanation at each of these four levels. For example,
4300-447: The amygdala is larger than in typical adults. Altruists' amygdalas are also more responsive than those of typical adults to the sight of others' distress, which is thought to reflect an empathic response to distress. This structure may also be involved in altruistic choices due to its role in encoding the value of outcomes for others. This is consistent with the findings of research in non-human animals, which has identified neurons within
4386-960: The amygdala that specifically encode the value of others' outcomes, activity in which appears to drive altruistic choices in monkeys. The International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences defines psychological altruism as "a motivational state to increase another's welfare". Psychological altruism is contrasted with psychological egoism , which refers to the motivation to increase one's welfare. In keeping with this, research in real-world altruists, including altruistic kidney donors, bone marrow donors, humanitarian aid workers, and heroic rescuers findings that these altruists are primarily distinguished from other adults by unselfish traits and decision-making patterns. This suggests that human altruism reflects genuinely high valuation of others' outcomes. There has been some debate on whether humans are capable of psychological altruism. Some definitions specify
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#17327879957654472-443: The biblical phrase "You should love your neighbour as yourself" as meaning that love for ourselves is the exemplar of love for others. Considering that "the love with which a man loves himself is the form and root of friendship", he quotes Aristotle that "the origin of friendly relations with others lies in our relations to ourselves",. Aquinas concluded that though we are not bound to love others more than ourselves, we naturally seek
4558-429: The brain. One brain region, the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex / basal forebrain , contributes to learning altruistic behavior, especially in people with trait empathy . The same study identified a link between giving to charity and the promotion of social bonding. Bill Harbaugh, a University of Oregon economist, in an fMRI scanner test conducted with his psychologist colleague Dr. Ulrich Mayr, reached
4644-427: The community for its own sake, is an important concept in Sikhism. Ethology Ethology is a branch of zoology that studies the behaviour of non-human animals . It has its scientific roots in the work of Charles Darwin and of American and German ornithologists of the late 19th and early 20th century, including Charles O. Whitman , Oskar Heinroth , and Wallace Craig . The modern discipline of ethology
4730-419: The company of researchers who imitated them to that of researchers who did not. The monkeys not only spent more time with their imitators but also preferred to engage in a simple task with them even when provided with the option of performing the same task with a non-imitator. Imitation has been observed in recent research on chimpanzees; not only did these chimps copy the actions of another individual, when given
4816-498: The concept of altruism for all living beings, from extending knowledge and experience to others to donation, giving oneself up for others, non-violence, and compassion for all living things. The principle of nonviolence seeks to minimize karmas which limit the capabilities of the soul. Jainism views every soul as worthy of respect because it has the potential to become Siddha ( God in Jainism ). Because all living beings possess
4902-399: The costs reduced by being more altruistic towards certain groups. Research has found that people are more altruistic to kin than to no-kin, to friends than strangers, to those attractive than to those unattractive, to non-competitors than competitors, and to members in-groups than to members of out-groups. The study of altruism was the initial impetus behind George R. Price 's development of
4988-450: The creator or God. Kabbalah defines God as the force of giving in existence . Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto focused on the "purpose of creation" and how the will of God was to bring creation into perfection and adhesion with this force of giving. Modern Kabbalah developed by Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag , in his writings about the future generation , focuses on how society could achieve an altruistic social framework. Ashlag proposed that such
5074-442: The ethology that had existed so far was really comparative ethology—examining animals as individuals—whereas, in the future, ethologists would need to concentrate on the behaviour of social groups of animals and the social structure within them. E. O. Wilson 's book Sociobiology: The New Synthesis appeared in 1975, and since that time, the study of behaviour has been much more concerned with social aspects. It has been driven by
5160-450: The first day after they were hatched, and he discovered that this response could be imitated by an arbitrary stimulus if the eggs were incubated artificially and the stimulus were presented during a critical period that continued for a few days after hatching. Imitation is an advanced behavior whereby an animal observes and exactly replicates the behavior of another. The National Institutes of Health reported that capuchin monkeys preferred
5246-636: The fruiting body. Selective investment theory proposes that close social bonds, and associated emotional, cognitive, and neurohormonal mechanisms, evolved to facilitate long-term, high-cost altruism between those closely depending on one another for survival and reproductive success. Such cooperative behaviors have sometimes been seen as arguments for left-wing politics, for example, by the Russian zoologist and anarchist Peter Kropotkin in his 1902 book Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution and Moral Philosopher Peter Singer in his book A Darwinian Left . Jorge Moll and Jordan Grafman , neuroscientists at
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#17327879957655332-467: The function of eating is to acquire nutrients (which ultimately aids survival and reproduction), but the immediate cause of eating is hunger (causation). Hunger and eating are evolutionarily ancient and are found in many species (evolutionary history), and develop early within an organism's lifespan (development). It is easy to confuse such questions—for example, to argue that people eat because they are hungry and not to acquire nutrients—without realizing that
5418-467: The group to quickly scramble down burrows. When prairie dog towns are located near trails used by humans, giving alarm calls every time a person walks by is expensive in terms of time and energy. Habituation to humans is therefore an important behavior in this context. Associative learning in animal behaviour is any learning process in which a new response becomes associated with a particular stimulus. The first studies of associative learning were made by
5504-401: The group. The theory suggests that conspecifics positioned at the centre of a group will reduce the likelihood predations while those at the periphery will become more vulnerable to attack. In groups, prey can also actively reduce their predation risk through more effective defence tactics, or through earlier detection of predators through increased vigilance. Another advantage of group living
5590-414: The groups it studies and "build the good society". The motivation of altruism is also the focus of study; for example, one study links the occurrence of moral outrage to altruistic compensation of victims. Studies show that generosity in laboratory and in online experiments is contagious – people imitate the generosity they observe in others. Most, if not all, of the world's religions promote altruism as
5676-490: The highest degree of nobility. This is similar to the notion of chivalry . A constant concern for God results in a careful attitude towards people, animals, and other things in this world. Judaism defines altruism as the desired goal of creation. Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook stated that love is the most important attribute in humanity. Love is defined as bestowal , or giving, which is the intention of altruism. This can be altruism towards humanity that leads to altruism towards
5762-530: The individuals living in contact with her; when they gave birth, this behaviour was also expressed by their young—a form of social transmission. Teaching is a highly specialized aspect of learning in which the "teacher" (demonstrator) adjusts their behaviour to increase the probability of the "pupil" (observer) achieving the desired end-result of the behaviour. For example, orcas are known to intentionally beach themselves to catch pinniped prey. Mother orcas teach their young to catch pinnipeds by pushing them onto
5848-406: The inland forest until the 1960s, when a group of researchers started giving them potatoes on the beach: soon, they started venturing onto the beach, picking the potatoes from the sand, and cleaning and eating them. About one year later, an individual was observed bringing a potato to the sea, putting it into the water with one hand, and cleaning it with the other. This behaviour was soon expressed by
5934-403: The interests of others before their own by making charitable donations, another brain circuit was selectively activated: the subgenual cortex/ septal region . These structures are related to social attachment and bonding in other species. The experiment suggested that altruism is not a higher moral faculty overpowering innate selfish desires, but a fundamental, ingrained, and enjoyable trait in
6020-413: The name of Konrad Lorenz though probably due more to his teacher, Oskar Heinroth , was the identification of fixed action patterns . Lorenz popularized these as instinctive responses that would occur reliably in the presence of identifiable stimuli called sign stimuli or "releasing stimuli". Fixed action patterns are now considered to be instinctive behavioural sequences that are relatively invariant within
6106-553: The number of bystanders. Many studies have observed the effects of volunteerism (as a form of altruism) on happiness and health and have consistently found that those who exhibit volunteerism also have better current and future health and well-being. In a study of older adults, those who volunteered had higher life satisfaction and will to live, and less depression , anxiety , and somatization . Volunteerism and helping behavior have not only been shown to improve mental health but physical health and longevity as well, attributable to
6192-445: The one medicine of love and compassion. These qualities are the ultimate source of human happiness, and the need for them lies at the very core of our being" ( Dalai Lama ). The notion of altruism is modified in such a world-view, since the belief is that such a practice promotes the practitioner's own happiness: "The more we care for the happiness of others, the greater our own sense of well-being becomes" (Dalai Lama). In Buddhism,
6278-435: The pecking order is establishing, frequent and violent fights can happen, but once established, it is broken only when other individuals enter the group, in which case the pecking order re-establishes from scratch. Several animal species, including humans, tend to live in groups. Group size is a major aspect of their social environment. Social life is probably a complex and effective survival strategy. It may be regarded as
6364-652: The reproductive success of as many individuals as possible, or why, amongst animals living in small groups like squirrels , an individual would risk its own life to save the rest of the group. These behaviours may be examples of altruism . Not all behaviours are altruistic, as indicated by the table below. For example, revengeful behaviour was at one point claimed to have been observed exclusively in Homo sapiens . However, other species have been reported to be vengeful including chimpanzees, as well as anecdotal reports of vengeful camels. Altruistic behaviour has been explained by
6450-463: The right ventral striatum is recruited during altruistic giving, as well as the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, bilateral anterior cingulate cortex , and bilateral anterior insula , which are regions previously implicated in empathy . Abigail Marsh has conducted studies of real-world altruists that have also identified an important role for the amygdala in human altruism. In real-world altruists, such as people who have donated kidneys to strangers,
6536-401: The same conclusions as Jorge Moll and Jordan Grafman about giving to charity, although they were able to divide the study group into two groups: "egoists" and "altruists". One of their discoveries was that, though rarely, even some of the considered "egoists" sometimes gave more than expected because that would help others, leading to the conclusion that there are other factors in charity, such as
6622-459: The same species (e.g. sexual behavior), predators (fight or flight), or parasites and diseases . Webster's Dictionary defines instinct as "A largely inheritable and unalterable tendency of an organism to make a complex and specific response to environmental stimuli without involving reason". This covers fixed action patterns like beak movements of bird chicks, and the waggle dance of honeybees. An important development, associated with
6708-443: The shore and encouraging them to attack the prey. Because the mother orca is altering her behaviour to help her offspring learn to catch prey, this is evidence of teaching. Teaching is not limited to mammals. Many insects, for example, have been observed demonstrating various forms of teaching to obtain food. Ants , for example, will guide each other to food sources through a process called " tandem running ," in which an ant will guide
6794-630: The small, the poor, the weak, and the oppressed is really disguised hatred, repressed envy, an impulse to detract, etc., directed against the opposite phenomena: wealth, strength, power, largesse." In the Arabic language , " 'iythar " (إيثار) means "preferring others to oneself". On the topic of donating blood to non-Muslims (a controversial topic within the faith), the Shia religious professor, Fadhil al-Milani has provided theological evidence that makes it positively justifiable. In fact, he considers it
6880-513: The social exchange theory. He identified four significant motives: to ultimately benefit the self (egoism), to ultimately benefit the other person (altruism), to benefit a group (collectivism), or to uphold a moral principle ( principlism ). Altruism that ultimately serves selfish gains is thus differentiated from selfless altruism, but the general conclusion has been that empathy -induced altruism can be genuinely selfless. The empathy-altruism hypothesis states that psychological altruism exists and
6966-437: The species and that almost inevitably run to completion. One example of a releaser is the beak movements of many bird species performed by newly hatched chicks, which stimulates the mother to regurgitate food for her offspring. Other examples are the classic studies by Tinbergen on the egg-retrieval behaviour and the effects of a " supernormal stimulus " on the behaviour of graylag geese . One investigation of this kind
7052-427: The strong can help the weak. One way is a sincere expression of Christian love, "motivated by a powerful feeling of security, strength, and inner salvation, of the invincible fullness of one's own life and existence". Another way is merely "one of the many modern substitutes for love,... nothing but the urge to turn away from oneself and to lose oneself in other people's business". At its worst, Scheler says, "love for
7138-609: The study suggests. While research supports the idea that altruistic acts bring about happiness, it has also been found to work in the opposite direction—that happier people are also kinder. The relationship between altruistic behavior and happiness is bidirectional. Studies found that generosity increases linearly from sad to happy affective states. Feeling over-taxed by the needs of others has negative effects on health and happiness. For example, one study on volunteerism found that feeling overwhelmed by others' demands had an even stronger negative effect on mental health than helping had
7224-459: The transmission of parasites and disease, and groups that are too large may also experience greater competition for resources and mates. Theoretically, social animals should have optimal group sizes that maximize the benefits and minimize the costs of group living. However, in nature, most groups are stable at slightly larger than optimal sizes. Because it generally benefits an individual to join an optimally-sized group, despite slightly decreasing
7310-587: The years prior to World War II . After the war, Tinbergen moved to the University of Oxford , and ethology became stronger in the UK , with the additional influence of William Thorpe , Robert Hinde , and Patrick Bateson at the University of Cambridge . Lorenz, Tinbergen, and von Frisch were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1973 for their work of developing ethology. Ethology
7396-478: Was the study of the waggle dance ("dance language") in bee communication by Karl von Frisch . Habituation is a simple form of learning and occurs in many animal taxa. It is the process whereby an animal ceases responding to a stimulus. Often, the response is an innate behavior. Essentially, the animal learns not to respond to irrelevant stimuli. For example, prairie dogs ( Cynomys ludovicianus ) give alarm calls when predators approach, causing all individuals in
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