The altruism thread

I made a thread about this on Loungin' and, unsurprisingly, it sank like granite.

quote

Thank goodness for that! I found some VW keys on the floor and handed them in to the police station today. To be honest I wasted 10 minutes of my life doing it and I'm not going to see so much as a 'thank you' from the VW owner. Why did I do it?


Points for discussion:
*What motivates you to do good deeds where there is no obvious gain?
*Is this altruism?
*Would you have done the same?

quote A selected response

To tell you the truth, I was gonna make a thread about the exact opposite; I'll post my experience here, as not to be confused with an illegal spinoff. My IO professor encourages to do the exact opposite, and tells us anecdotes of how he has been horrible towards people to further convince us. There was this time, I remember, that he visited one of his old students in the hospital who was dying out of a huge malformation on his neck. He offered himself watch on him while his father went to eat something; that "watch him" included holding on some drapes they were using to stop bleeding from the tumor. Well, the point is that he let go of the drapes until his dad came back 20 minutes later, and the guy died the day after. After telling us that, he proceeded on make fun on how food and water would come back out of the hole he had in the neck that allowed him to breathe.

He tells us those sort of things all the time; actually, he constantly tells us we have to be mean and evil; we have to sin once a day, and we have to commit at least each of the 7 deadly sins once in the semester, and that's a homework. I kinda highly respect him because he knows a lot and he teaches us well when he's not being generally evil, but sometimes I can't help but to feel bad for laughing at the things he tells us sometimes.

So yeah, altruism and selflessness is not something that's given to everybody D:.

A lot of people would argue that true altruism doesn't exist and that a lot of what some perceive as altruism is like buying your way into Heaven.

I found this 8 year old thread http://www.neoseeker.com/forums/16/t224292-selfless-deeds/2.htm

However, what I want to talk about is a bit different. Aside from what was said in the quote boxes above, I also wish to discuss what factors affect altruism and also how far one can go:

For example, picking up car keys without any reward is one thing but would people take a dying person to hospital or try and find the owner for a lost cat? That's something different.

quote Kedjown

I guess I'm just wired with good morals or something.

You might be on to something with that sentence there. Do you think altruism is nurtured when we are in our early years? Do you think you could do something altruistic if you were raised by parents who didn't approve of such behaviour?

I don't think altruism is nonexistent. I believe it very well exists as a result of there being true, legitimate caring people out there.

This doesn't offer much but yesterday at school, while drinking from a water fountain, a guy stopped in his tracks and waited for me to finish drinking. When I turned to look at him, he said "Ma'am, your bookbag is unzipped." Surely enough the pockets in my backpack were unzipped and gaping open, running the risk of my books falling out.

What motive did this guy have? None. He benefited in no way by taking a minute of his time to prevent my books from toppling onto the floor. He got no recognition, only a "thank you" from me. I see stuff like this all the time. Cashiers will call out to customers walking out the exit because the customer left their change at the checkout. This has happened to me. Why didn't the cashier just pocket my cash? Why did they make an effort to run up to me as I was making an exit, and say "You left your money behind?" It was only 75 cents. That could have easily been ignored.

I'll quit with the examples now and answer some of the questions.

quote ChinoWhelan

but would people take a dying person to hospital or try and find the owner for a lost cat? That's something different.

Yes, I think they would. You'd have to be heartless not to at least try to help. Now I'm not saying everyone falls under this category but I believe there definitely are people who will go out of their way to take a dying person to the hospital... I know I would... the only reason I wouldn't would be if I had no car or form of transportation to get them there, and if that were the case I'd call 911. If I found a lost cat and there was proof it belonged to someone (such as a collar, name tag, etc) (because it could easily be a stray) I would take a picture of the cat and make it aware to my community that I found it. I would hang flyers or ask around until I found out who was missing the cat.

On another note, I realize not everyone is like that. I have had a cat go missing and have high suspicions that Zoie (the cat) was kidnapped. She was expensive, had a fancy coat of fur, and was wearing a flea collar with a golden name tag on it. She walked out the door one day and was never seen again. Because of loads of evidence and suggestions it became obvious that someone picked her up and decided to keep her. Was I pissed off? Yes.
But there have been times I've found items and kept them so I am not exempt. But that doesn't mean altruism doesn't exist.

quote ChinoWhelan

A lot of people would argue that true altruism doesn't exist and that a lot of what some perceive as altruism is like buying your way into Heaven.

What if the altruistic individual is an atheist?

I've had things stolen from me (a cell phone, a wallet full of money) and yes I was furious and wondered who was pathetic enough to steal my phone. But I have also had things turn up missing that were returned to me. Also, one time 20+ dollars was stolen from me. I was distressed because at the time I was broke and bordering on homeless and no longer had any money. However there was one women who saw how upset I was at having nothing and she emptied her pockets and forked over all the cash she had left on her person. I told her no, that I couldn't possibly take her money but she insisted and refused to take no for an answer. So, what was she gaining by giving to me? Nothing, essentially she was losing, yet she did it anyway.

So what I'm saying is it goes both ways. Just because there's selfish people out there doesn't mean unselfish people are nonexistent.

Anyways this thread reminds me of the TV show "What Would You Do?" This show hosts real life experiments that present various situations to the public (such as domestic violence, prejudice, discrimination, even staged child abductions) to see how the people react.
The results are typically the same. The majority of populations just stare or ignore the scenes and refuse to get involved, however there are still people who - NOT knowing/completely unaware that they are on camera - jump in and try to get involved.

Those people are heroes.

I'm sort of in the middle when it comes to altruism... I'll definitely help people because I like the idea of helping people, but I'd gladly accept any rewards that come with it. I'd also help people if I have nothing to lose or gain, but I usually won't help people if I do have something to lose unless they are in an extremely tight spot and/or what I have to lose is not of much significance. I'm always looking for trouble but try my best to avoid it, will never start it and even try bettering myself so I get better at avoiding it. I won't turn in lost items unless I know who they belong to or if I can't benefit from the lost item and it is important enough to someone else. (car keys for example) I'll take freebies from vending machines. I don't abuse others, but I don't care what people think of me.

So basically, I'm a nice person and I'll make a lifestyle out of helping people, but I won't go way out of my way to do it. I think that is just the way I am, though.