LC Blog #4: Q&A on Altruism and Human Nature

1) How are we able to forget all the problems we know exist and continue on with our daily lives even if we actually do care?

Constantly I feel guilt for not helping when I know I should and could. One moment I’ll be watching an ad on TV about starving kids in Africa or reading an article about the child sex slavery problem- and I’ll feel horrible, and incredibly sympathetic, and also motivated to do something- but then a little while later when it’s off my mind I obviously go back to my normal life, indulging in luxuries I don’t even recognize as luxuries like going to the movies, doing homework, eating! Maybe this is more of a personal problem, but we are all aware of issues in the world and issues in our own communities, yet most of us are able to put them out of our minds and go on as usual because it doesn’t directly affect us. I find that to be a huge flaw in human nature. Some people might say, well it’s nice to help other people, but you should really only feel responsible for your “group”, whether that be your family, your community, your country, etc, because we need to look out for ourselves. That is how it is in the animal world, that is how it naturally is suppose to be, some would argue. Being so connected today though, we are able to know and understand what is happening on the other side of the country, or on the other side of the world, and are capable of helping, and because of that I feel we are in fact responsible for our species as a whole. To actually answer the question, we probably don’t help people we don’t have a direct relationship with because of sympathetic paralysis; if we were to take on all the issues of the world, we wouldn’t be able to function! “Nature’s wisdom has turned off our empathy before we can become overwrought and crippled with unhappiness at the suffering of others”^[1]. In my eyes though, that is a poor excuse; taking on the world’s pain is too much, but helping where you can rather than ignoring things is quite possible- yet it is not done nearly enough. As discussed when learning about kin selection, those who view everyone as their kin are the ones who are truly defined as altruists. This goes to show that some people overcome sympathetic paralysis- which makes me wonder why some people can’t.

2) If humans are biologically altruistic how come we have such a terrible history of wars, genocide, terrorism, etc.? How come there seems to be just as much bad as good in the world?

During our entire study of altruism I have wondered, if studies have shown that people are biologically good, how come there is still so much evil in the human race? I guess this depends on a variety of factors- infinite factors really. People as individuals have different experiences that shape them as they grow up; living circumstances, differences in culture and education that change their views, etc. Also, some people are just not capable of having compassion for those outside their “kin selection group”, they are selfish and uncompassionate towards people they don’t believe they have a connection to. Some studies have also shown that we are born preprogrammed with a sense of morality; “we generally do not commit wrong acts because we recognize that they are wrong and because we do not want to pay the emotional price of doing something we perceive as wrong”^[2]. The problem with that is that a lot of times people don’t realize what they’re doing is wrong due to cognitive dissonance. Small acts of unkindness lead to more and more cruelty because one step at a time they become worse and worse, justifying their actions every time by saying that theirprevious action was justified^[3]. Yet another reason is our obedience to authority figures; even if we realize we are doing something wrong, we feel we have to simply because we were told to and don’t feel we are the ones responsible. For example, in class you told us that some previous Nazi’s were interviewed and they said “we were just doing what we were told to”, and also in the Milgram Study 66% of people finished the experiment in which they were told to shock people at extremely dangerous levels. Studies also show that evil can spread just as much as goodness, which explains why there seems to be such a balance between good and bad in the world. It’s saddening that the power of good and evil seem to be fairly equal.

3) Why has our cultured evolved to believe caring isn’t cool?

Somehow along the way, it has in a sense become un-cool to care. I will admit that my generation tends to be rather self-centered, rude, materialistic, and inconsiderate towards others. People rarely stick up for each other and actually feel awkward showing compassion towards those outside their small group of people they feel responsible for. This was especially prevalent in middle school, although as we have grown up we definitely have gotten better. There are most definitely exceptions to this as well, but it seems to me that people are afraid to show kindness. This might be because we feel more vulnerable and almost weak when we care about something, but I am still greatly confused by this question. Why does being “bad” make you cool? Life would just be better for everyone is people were always nice to each other, but instead many people choose to try to bring other people down.

Unfortunately I don’t believe there is actually such a thing as “doing something out of the kindness of your heart”; psychological egoism controls every good deed we do! This is not to say that everything is selfish, but in way- even if it is at a cost to you- anything good you’ve ever done has benefited you somehow. You may feel like a better person, feel like your life has more meaning, or another person’s happiness brings you happiness, etc., etc. In the moment, your actual reason for helping may solely be for that other person, but why actually do something? Because you get the satisfaction of helping someone. “The real motive of these actions was that they fulfilled some need of the self….This “something” is usually referred to as a “good feeling” or avoidance of bad feelings”^[4]. Personally, I never thought that I was an altruist, but learning about these things made me realize, that I really do only do nice things because it makes me happy! The theory of psychological hedonism says that we only help others because we want to “experience pleasure or avoid pain”- and rather unfortunately, I believe that’s true (mostly because that has been my experience with things). It’s not entirely bad though, helping others is a great way to make everyone including yourself happy, and so everyone wins!

^[1] = “Why People May Not Help” Packet Hand Out

^[2] = “Is Morality Natural?” Article by Marc D. Hauser, Ph.D.

^[3] = Mistakes Were Made, But Not By Me by Carol Travis and Elliot Aronson

^[4] = “The Case Against Altruism” Packet Hand Out