What is true altruism?
True altruism is the idea that people do good for one another out of pure selflessness.
Does true altruism exist?
A lot that we have spoken about points towards no. It’s possible there is real altruism in our society, such as a mother who would sacrifice herself for her child. In the context of aid in developing countries, people’s intentions can be altruistic in some aspects but there will always ultimately be an ulterior motive, even if that motive is to simply feel good or to fulfill one’s desire “to help.” Is what we view as altruism just self-interest of a type we have not labeled?
– For instance Judy Lasker’s book Hoping to Help mentions a website, the Foundation for Medical Relief of Children, that sends volunteers on short visits to several countries. The reasons listed for why you should sign up for this program are all appealing to those volunteers; they give volunteers reasons to join that involve gaining something from the trip for themselves. The reasons do not focus on those in the developing country they should try to be helping on a trip such as this, but speak of it helping the volunteer look good on a resume.
In Hoping to Help Judy Lasker states, “The desire to give back is not the only motive, and it is often not the most important or even present at all” (p. 97). This suggests that having a purely altruistic motive for volunteering is rare and possibly unimportant.
Should we question the motives of volunteers?
Ethan Watters’ book examines the Sri Lankan tsunami crisis. Counseling groups flocked to Sri Lanka with the idea that they were going to help in the PTSD that they believed was sure to follow. I think the people who came to Sri Lanka have motives that need to be questioned, as they did more harm than help. Rivalries broke out between counseling groups over which populations would receive which services; foreign aid groups fighting over refugee camps “caused confusion and bad feelings among survivors.” Volunteers were vying to “make the most difference” among the groups, a sort of selfish attempt to fulfill their own desires to help.
Related thoughts: In a post entitled “Why Aid Should be Enduring, Not Episodic”, Taylor Kurz and Kelly O’Brien mention the problem of short-term volunteers and Haitians’ views on them when they come to help. “Short-term volunteers, in addition to often being ill-prepared and inexperienced, require time to learn how to function well and relate better to the host communities so that the volunteering experience is mutually beneficial,” they write. With increasing attention to this issue, we need to question the motives of our volunteers more than ever.
Food for thought: Even if a doctor goes to a developing country simply because they want to help people, are they not fulfilling their own wants? If all the doctor is searching for is to help people, is that an altruistic motivation even if they do gain a sense of fulfillment?
Our ultimate conclusion is that altruism exists always in conjunction with other motivations.
This comic supports our conclusion that altruism exists in conjunction with other motives. Becoming a cop has some altruistic reasons within society that can be seen: public service, sacrificing your safety for someone else, knowing that you’re making a difference for the people around you. However, it is not completely altruistic because those that because they accept a salary, gain respect from society, and have a sense of authority in the public eye which are all other things that benefit yourself.
In the New York Times article “Is Pure Altruism Possible,” Judith Lichtenberg discusses the psychological components of altruistic motives and reiterates our conclusion that people can have altruistic motives to volunteering yet other motives tend to be more prevalent. Lichtenberg gives the example of a doctor who travels to remote areas to to treat AIDS patients. The doctor left a comfortable life style in trade for helping AIDS patients because he/she wanted too and therefore gets satisfaction from what appears to be a selfless act.
In another New York Times article, “Ed Sheeran Raises Money for Liberia and is Promptly Shamed,” Tariro Mzezewa discusses the controversy of Ed Sheeran’s recent trip to Liberia and the video he made of his trip. Critics of Sheeran argued that his trip was purely based on self-interest and did more harm then good. On the surface, his visit to a severely underdeveloped nation may seem like a purely selfless act, yet this act results in increased positive attention for Sheeran, leading some to suspect that the motives behind his visit were not purely altruistic.
– Claire Nagelhout and Leah Pasch
Great organization of your post. I liked how you saw both sides of altruism. The pictures you added really make the post. I like your conclusion to altruism in saying that it exists with the conjunction of other motives.
I really like this post about whether or not true altruism actually exists. It seems impossible to have true altruism because there will always be some kind of underlying motive; it is a human response. I like how you include information from Hoping to Help by Judy Lasker because it offers good evidence to back up the argument that in fact altruism does not really exist… or at least is rare to find. I like how you include your own belief, however I question whether you can call it “altruism” if it “exists in conjunction with other motives.”
Here is an insightful video satire exposing the self-interested motivations of Westerners going to Africa in hopes of getting more “likes” on their selfies: “How to Get More Likes on Social Media”
This is always an interesting debate – the viability of true altruism. It reminds me of that time Lasker and Sullivan came to class in order to discuss their research and answer some questions. One particular instance of the lesson that stands out to me and relates to this article is whether or not the presence of “true altruism” actually matters in the context of humanitarian aid.
I just read an op-ed in the NY Times entitled “Why Do I Give on the Subway?” The writer says,
Then she asks,