Effective Altruism

The Path to Altruism

Biologists call that reciprocal altruism. OK.

And that's why it's the most powerful form of altruism.

And we find chimps are capable of true compassion and altruism.

To add insult to injury, self interest has been portrayed as altruism.

The mother is the model of all altruism for human beings, in spiritual traditions.

They're enriching others, not out of altruism but as a way of enriching themselves.

Our generosity, our altruism, our compassion, are all hardwired to the reward mechanism in our brain.

In chimpanzee society, we find many, many examples of compassion, precursors to love and true altruism.

PRINCETON Can humans really be motivated by altruism? My new book, The Most Good You Can Do, discusses the emerging new movement called Effective Altruism, and, in doing interviews about the book, I am surprised by how often that question is asked.

We looked at smoking and drinking behavior, and voting behavior, and divorce which can spread and altruism.

But this wasn't really out of altruism. This was just out of interest in doing something cool.

It's a form, if you like, of ecological altruism perhaps something along those lines. Maybe it's that.

It's the opposite on the left side more tendency to altruism, to happiness, to express, and curiosity and so forth.

Similarly, social networks are required for the spread of good and valuable things, like love and kindness and happiness and altruism and ideas.

Now none of these companies are doing this out of altruism they're doing it because they're learning that a certain kind of sharing is in their self interest.

It is here that China is currently investing billions of dollars in mega projects like expressways, tunnels, and oil and gas pipelines. This, Sering says, is surely not on account of any overflowing altruism.

Again, I know this is not as inspiring a notion of compassion as you may have heard in the past, but from a biologist's point of view, this reciprocal altruism kind of compassion is ultimately self serving too.

Their altruism may include their time and talents, and influence their choice of career. To achieve their aims, they use reason and evidence to ensure that whatever resources they devote to doing good will be as effective as possible.

There is also an added advantage in replacing CSR with PSR there is virtue in diversity of approaches to altruism. Chairman Mao wanted a hundred flowers to bloom, but only so that he could cut them all off at their roots.

The Effective Altruism movement consists of people who give in the latter way, combining the head and the heart. Their aim is to do the most good they can with the resources that they are willing to set aside for that purpose.

Now, there's one other result of this dynamic called reciprocal altruism, which I think is kind of good news, which is that the way that this is played out in the human species, it has given people an intuitive appreciation of the golden rule.

Friendship, altruism, compassion, service all the perennial truths that we talked about that are part of all religion and all cultures once you stop trying to see the differences, these are the things in our own self interest, because they free us from our suffering and from disease.

Research on the evolution of cultures suggests that human values can change more quickly than our genes. Thus, if we are to engender a more caring world, we must first recognize the importance of altruism and then cultivate it among individuals and promote cultural change in our societies.

Corporations can, of course, be asked to conform to a don t list don t dump mercury into rivers, don t employ children for hazardous tasks, etc. But what they practice as do s by way of altruism is surely a matter of what they consider virtuous to spend their money on.

Studies have also shown that an individual can learn to be altruistic. Neuroscientists have identified three components of altruism that anyone can develop as acquired skills empathy (understanding and sharing the feelings of another), loving kindness (the wish to spread happiness), and compassion (a desire to relieve the suffering of another).

With the rise of the business corporation, large family firms have generally disappeared. But that does not mean that a corporation is the right entity to engage in altruism though its various stakeholders obviously can spend any portion of the income they earn from the corporation and other sources in altruistic ways.

All these rationales for CSR suggest that it should be left to each corporation to determine, just as PSR leaves altruism to each individual s conscience and sense of what needs supporting. The attempt by some NGOs and activists to impose a straitjacket on CSR, reflecting their priorities, is misguided and must be rejected.

In evolutionary terms, we can easily understand altruism toward kin and others who can reciprocate our help. It seems plausible that once our ability to reason and reflect has developed sufficiently enough to enable us to understand that strangers can suffer and enjoy life just as we can, then at least some of us would act altruistically toward strangers, too.

For example, anything that spreads by a form of social contagion could be understood in this way, from abstract ideas on the left like patriotism, or altruism, or religion to practices like dieting behavior, or book purchasing, or drinking, or bicycle helmet other safety practices, or products that people might buy, purchases of electronic goods, anything in which there's kind of an interpersonal spread.

But research over the past 30 years indicates that true altruism does exist and can extend beyond kin and community to encompass the welfare of humans generally and that of other species. Moreover, the altruist does not have to suffer for his good deeds on the contrary, he often benefits indirectly from them, while the selfish actor often creates misery for himself as well as others.

Third, because skills are necessary for nearly all activities in most of Africa, here and now, we need to organize ways to supply such skills to these countries. I have long argued that, because many in rich countries are retiring while still in sound health, and because altruism increases with age, we could organize a Grey Peace Corps of senior citizens to share their skills in countries whose own trained professionals prefer to settle abroad.