The Role of Altruism in Sending and Spending Remittances

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Akira Shimada

2011-06-01

Full Text Available We investigate the effects of altruism on migrants' decisions to send money home and on their households' decisions to invest or to consume those remittances. Previous studies have devoted extensive attention to migrants' altruism toward recipients and little to recipients'altruism toward migrants. We find that the migrant sends larger remittances home when he feels more altruistic toward other household members, while he may send nothing if he feels less altruistic. We also find that other household members in the home country likely consume rather than invest remittances if they are highly altruistic toward the migrant. Our results may partially explain why countries receiving large remittances do not always make large investments, and suggest that altruism among household members does not necessarily enhance a country's development and growth through remittances.

Insect compassion, evidence of altruism, reciprocity, and midwifery behavior in aphids

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Altruism is characterized by an act provided by a donor to a recipient that is considered detrimental to the donor yet benefits the recipient. Evidence of altruism is abundant in nature. In insects, altruism is manifest by ant and bee colonies where sterile workers provide labor, care of young, co...

Defining and measuring blood donor altruism: a theoretical approach from biology, economics and psychology.

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Evans, R; Ferguson, E

2014-02-01

While blood donation is traditionally described as a behaviour motivated by pure altruism, the assessment of altruism in the blood donation literature has not been theoretically informed. Drawing on theories of altruism from psychology, economics and evolutionary biology, it is argued that a theoretically derived psychometric assessment of altruism is needed. Such a measure is developed in this study that can be used to help inform both our understanding of the altruistic motives of blood donors and recruitment intervention strategies. A cross-sectional survey (N = 414), with a 1-month behavioural follow-up (time 2, N = 77), was designed to assess theoretically derived constructs from psychological, economic and evolutionary biological theories of altruism. Theory of planned behaviour (TPB) variables and co-operation were also assessed at time 1 and a measure of behavioural co-operation at time 2. Five theoretical dimensions (impure altruism, kinship, self-regarding motives, reluctant altruism and egalitarian warm glow) of altruism were identified through factor analyses. These five altruistic motives differentiated blood donors from non-donors (donors scored higher on impure altruism and reluctant altruism), showed incremental validity over TPB constructs to predict donor intention and predicted future co-operative behaviour. These findings show that altruism in the context of blood donation is multifaceted and complex and, does not reflect pure altruism. This has implication for recruitment campaigns that focus solely on pure altruism. © 2013 The Authors. Vox Sanguinis published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. on behalf of International Society of Blood Transfusion.

Altruism within the Family Reconsidered: Do Nice Guys Finish Last?

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Bernheim, B Douglas; Stark, Oded

1988-01-01

In this paper, the authors criticize the view that the presence of altruism either increases the benefits of group interactions or improves the allocation of resources within families. They demonstrate first that altruism can alter the social utility possibility frontier in surprising and sometimes unfortunate ways. Next, they argue that, in a variety of situations, altruism entails exploitability and therefore causes family members to behav e in ways that leave all parties worse off. Specifi...

Birds of Different Feathers Cooperate Together: No Evidence for Altruism Homophily in Networks

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Brent Simpson

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Many evolutionary models of cooperation assume that altruists possess telltale signs of disposition that they use to find and selectively associate with each other. Prior research finds that people can detect these signs of altruism in strangers, but we do not yet know whether this results in altruism homophily. We argue that dispositions should matter less in repeated interactions, where behavior is based on reciprocity. As a consequence, we should not expect people to have accurate insight into the dispositions (egoism vs. altruism of their friends, nor should we expect these relations to be characterized by altruism homophily. Three studies, employing diverse methodologies and measures, find no evidence of altruism homophily. Moreover, we find that people have poor insight into their friends’ altruism. We discuss the implications of these findings for the emergence of altruism and the role of embedded interactions in sustaining human cooperation.

Altruism and Popularity

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Egilmez, Eda; Naylor-Tincknell, Janett

2017-01-01

Popularity, as a manifestation of social status, has been widely researched and determined by group members. Prosocial behaviors are actions with intention of benefiting others or society as whole with little or no personal gain and may include helping, cooperating, and other voluntary works. Altruism is a type of prosocial behavior that could…

The evolutionary interplay of intergroup conflict and altruism in humans: a review of parochial altruism theory and prospects for its extension.

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Rusch, Hannes

2014-11-07

Drawing on an idea proposed by Darwin, it has recently been hypothesized that violent intergroup conflict might have played a substantial role in the evolution of human cooperativeness and altruism. The central notion of this argument, dubbed 'parochial altruism', is that the two genetic or cultural traits, aggressiveness against the out-groups and cooperativeness towards the in-group, including self-sacrificial altruistic behaviour, might have coevolved in humans. This review assesses the explanatory power of current theories of 'parochial altruism'. After a brief synopsis of the existing literature, two pitfalls in the interpretation of the most widely used models are discussed: potential direct benefits and high relatedness between group members implicitly induced by assumptions about conflict structure and frequency. Then, a number of simplifying assumptions made in the construction of these models are pointed out which currently limit their explanatory power. Next, relevant empirical evidence from several disciplines which could guide future theoretical extensions is reviewed. Finally, selected alternative accounts of evolutionary links between intergroup conflict and intragroup cooperation are briefly discussed which could be integrated with parochial altruism in the future. © 2014 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.

Communicative genes in the evolution of empathy and altruism.

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Buck, Ross

2011-11-01

This paper discusses spontaneous communication and its implications for understanding empathy and altruism. The question of the possibility of "true" altruism-giving up one's genetic potential in favor of the genetic potential of another-is a fundamental issue common to the biological, behavioral, and social sciences. Darwin regarded "social instincts and sympathies" to be critical to the social order, but the possibility of biologically-based prosocial motives and emotions was questioned when selection was interpreted as operating at the level of the gene. In the selfish gene hypothesis, Dawkins argued that the unit of evolutionary selection must be an active, germ-line replicator: a unit whose activities determine whether copies of it are made across evolutionary timescales. He argued that the only active replicator existing across evolutionary timescales is the gene, so that the "selfish gene" is a replicator motivated only to make copies of itself. The communicative gene hypothesis notes that genes function by communicating, and the phenotype communication involves not only the individual sending and receiving abilities of the individual genes involved, but also the relationship between them relative to other genes. Therefore the selection of communication as phenotype involves the selection of individual genes and also their relationship. Relationships become replicators, and are selected across evolutionary timescales including social relationships (e.g., sex, nurturance, dominance-submission). An interesting implication of this view: apparent altruism has been interpreted by selfish gene theorists as due to kin selection and reciprocity, in which the survival of kin and comrade indirectly favor the genetic potential of the altruist. From the viewpoint of the communicative gene hypothesis, rather than underlying altruism, kin selection and reciprocity are ways of restricting altruism to kin and comrade: they are mechanisms not of altruism but of xenophobia.

Extraterrestrial altruism evolution and ethics in the cosmos

CERN Document Server

2014-01-01

Extraterrestrial Altruism examines a basic assumption of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI): that extraterrestrials will be transmitting messages to us for our benefit. This question of whether extraterrestrials will be altruistic has become increasingly important in recent years as SETI scientists have begun contemplating transmissions from Earth to make contact. Should we expect altruism to evolve throughout the cosmos, or is this only wishful thinking? Would this make biological sense? Is it dangerous to send messages to other worlds, as Stephen Hawking has suggested? Would extraterrestrial societies be based on different ethical principles? Extraterrestrial Altruism explores these and related questions about the motivations of civilizations beyond Earth, providing new insights that are critical for SETI. Chapters are authored by leading scholars from diverse disciplines—anthropology, astronomy, biology, chemistry, computer science, cosmology, engineering, history of science, law, philos...

Genetic Models in Evolutionary Game Theory: The Evolution of Altruism

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Rubin, Hannah

2015-01-01

While prior models of the evolution of altruism have assumed that organisms reproduce asexually, this paper presents a model of the evolution of altruism for sexually reproducing organisms using Hardy–Weinberg dynamics. In this model, the presence of reciprocal altruists allows the population to

How altruism works: An evolutionary model of supply networks

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Ge, Zehui; Zhang, Zi-Ke; Lü, Linyuan; Zhou, Tao; Xi, Ning

2012-02-01

Recently, supply networks have attracted increasing attention from the scientific community. However, it lacks serious consideration of social preference in Supply Chain Management. In this paper, we develop an evolutionary decision-making model to characterize the effects of suppliers' altruism in supply networks, and find that the performances of both suppliers and supply chains are improved by introducing the role of altruism. Furthermore, an interesting and reasonable phenomenon is discovered that the suppliers' and whole network's profits do not change monotonously with suppliers' altruistic preference, η, but reach the best at η=0.6 and η=0.4, respectively. This work may shed some light on the in-depth understanding of the effects of altruism for both research and commercial applications.

Detrimental effects of sanctions on human altruism.

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Fehr, Ernst; Rockenbach, Bettina

2003-03-13

The existence of cooperation and social order among genetically unrelated individuals is a fundamental problem in the behavioural sciences. The prevailing approaches in biology and economics view cooperation exclusively as self-interested behaviour--unrelated individuals cooperate only if they face economic rewards or sanctions rendering cooperation a self-interested choice. Whether economic incentives are perceived as just or legitimate does not matter in these theories. Fairness-based altruism is, however, a powerful source of human cooperation. Here we show experimentally that the prevailing self-interest approach has serious shortcomings because it overlooks negative effects of sanctions on human altruism. Sanctions revealing selfish or greedy intentions destroy altruistic cooperation almost completely, whereas sanctions perceived as fair leave altruism intact. These findings challenge proximate and ultimate theories of human cooperation that neglect the distinction between fair and unfair sanctions, and they are probably relevant in all domains in which voluntary compliance matters--in relations between spouses, in the education of children, in business relations and organizations as well as in markets.

Exploring the Premise of Lost Altruism: Content Analysis of Two Codes of Ethics

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Haddara, Wael; Lingard, Lorelei

2017-01-01

As an ideal, altruism has long enjoyed privileged status in medicine and medical education. As a practice, altruism is perceived to be in decline in the current generation. A number of educational efforts are underway to reclaim this "lost value" of medicine. In this paper we explore constructions of altruism over a defined period of…

The ambiguity of altruism in nursing: A qualitative study.

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Slettmyr, Anna; Schandl, Anna; Arman, Maria

2017-01-01

For a long time, altruism was the basis for caring. Today, when society is more individualized, it is of interest to explore the meaning of altruism in nursing. In all, 13 nurses from a Swedish acute care setting participated in two focus group interviews performed as Socratic dialogues. Data were analyzed using a phenomenological hermeneutical method. Ethical considerations: Ethical issues were considered throughout the process according to established ethical principles. Informed consent was obtained from all participants, confidentiality regarding the data was guaranteed and quotations anonymized. Altruism created a sense of ambivalence and ambiguity, described as a rise of sovereign expressions of life caused by "the other's" need, but also unwillingness to take unconditional responsibility for "the other." Society's expectations of altruism and nurses' perception of their work as a salaried job collide in modern healthcare. Nurses are not willing to fully respond to the ethical demand of the patients. In case of a disaster, when nurses personal safety, life and health may be at risk, there might be reasons to question whether the healthcare organization would be able to fulfill its obligations of providing healthcare to an entire population.

Theory of Mind, Material Altruism and Family Context in Preschoolers

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Keskin, Burhanettin; Jones, Ithel

2011-01-01

The relationship between theory of mind, material altruism, and family context was examined. Forty-one preschool children (16 females and 25 males) enrolled in a private school participated in the study. Results of this study showed no relationship between theory of mind and altruism. There were no significant correlations between theory of mind…

The Development of Altruism with Special Reference to Human Relationships: A 10-Stage Theory

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Hing Keung Ma

2017-10-01

Full Text Available All human relationships involve some form of cost and benefit and altruism forms the foundation upon which human relationships are built. In this paper, a taxonomy of human relationships in terms of altruism was constructed. In the proposed taxonomy, human relationships are categorized into three major groups: primary group, secondary group, and tertiary group. The primary group consists of members that are very closely related to each other either by genetic relatedness (e.g., parents, siblings, and cousins or social relatedness (e.g., mate and close friends or both. The secondary group consists of members that are socially related but also less closely related with each other (e.g., people of the same political or religious group, teachers, mentors, acquaintances, neighbors, working colleagues, and strangers. Lastly, the tertiary group consists of members of other species. A 10-stage theory of altruism with special reference to human relationships is proposed. The affective, cognitive, and relationship aspects of each stage are delineated in details. There are two developmental principles of altruism. The first principle states that the development of altruism follows the 10-stage theory and moves from Stage 1: Egoism toward the higher stages of altruism slowly. The second developmental principle states that the taxonomy of human relationships is valid at any stage of altruism development. In other words, people at any stage of altruism are more altruistic toward their kin and mate, and then close friends, extended family members, and so on. They are least altruistic toward enemies and members of non-human species. In summary, the proposed developmental principle of altruism and human relationships is logical and robust. It is formulated based on the major developmental and social psychological theories. The theory has the potential in providing a useful framework for future studies on the development and evolution of human relationships.

The Development of Altruism with Special Reference to Human Relationships: A 10-Stage Theory

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Ma, Hing Keung

2017-01-01

All human relationships involve some form of cost and benefit and altruism forms the foundation upon which human relationships are built. In this paper, a taxonomy of human relationships in terms of altruism was constructed. In the proposed taxonomy, human relationships are categorized into three major groups: primary group, secondary group, and tertiary group. The primary group consists of members that are very closely related to each other either by genetic relatedness (e.g., parents, siblings, and cousins) or social relatedness (e.g., mate and close friends) or both. The secondary group consists of members that are socially related but also less closely related with each other (e.g., people of the same political or religious group, teachers, mentors, acquaintances, neighbors, working colleagues, and strangers). Lastly, the tertiary group consists of members of other species. A 10-stage theory of altruism with special reference to human relationships is proposed. The affective, cognitive, and relationship aspects of each stage are delineated in details. There are two developmental principles of altruism. The first principle states that the development of altruism follows the 10-stage theory and moves from Stage 1: Egoism toward the higher stages of altruism slowly. The second developmental principle states that the taxonomy of human relationships is valid at any stage of altruism development. In other words, people at any stage of altruism are more altruistic toward their kin and mate, and then close friends, extended family members, and so on. They are least altruistic toward enemies and members of non-human species. In summary, the proposed developmental principle of altruism and human relationships is logical and robust. It is formulated based on the major developmental and social psychological theories. The theory has the potential in providing a useful framework for future studies on the development and evolution of human relationships. PMID:29085818

The Development of Altruism with Special Reference to Human Relationships: A 10-Stage Theory.

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Hing Keung

2017-01-01

All human relationships involve some form of cost and benefit and altruism forms the foundation upon which human relationships are built. In this paper, a taxonomy of human relationships in terms of altruism was constructed. In the proposed taxonomy, human relationships are categorized into three major groups: primary group, secondary group, and tertiary group. The primary group consists of members that are very closely related to each other either by genetic relatedness (e.g., parents, siblings, and cousins) or social relatedness (e.g., mate and close friends) or both. The secondary group consists of members that are socially related but also less closely related with each other (e.g., people of the same political or religious group, teachers, mentors, acquaintances, neighbors, working colleagues, and strangers). Lastly, the tertiary group consists of members of other species. A 10-stage theory of altruism with special reference to human relationships is proposed. The affective, cognitive, and relationship aspects of each stage are delineated in details. There are two developmental principles of altruism. The first principle states that the development of altruism follows the 10-stage theory and moves from Stage 1: Egoism toward the higher stages of altruism slowly. The second developmental principle states that the taxonomy of human relationships is valid at any stage of altruism development. In other words, people at any stage of altruism are more altruistic toward their kin and mate, and then close friends, extended family members, and so on. They are least altruistic toward enemies and members of non-human species. In summary, the proposed developmental principle of altruism and human relationships is logical and robust. It is formulated based on the major developmental and social psychological theories. The theory has the potential in providing a useful framework for future studies on the development and evolution of human relationships.

Pro-Social Behaviours: Between Altruism and Self-interest

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Paula-Elena Diacon

2014-10-01

Full Text Available A widely discussed attribute in the economic literature is the prevalence of self-interest. In this article we seek to analyze the concept of altruism from the economic perspective and from the general perspective of human action. We endeavour to clarify the relative confusion around it and to analyze its relation with charity and volunteering. Then, we go further and analyse what is causing such actions. Based on this, we attempt to find out whether the pro-social actions can be considered an effect of self-interest, or, conversely, of altruism.

Where do human organs come from? Trends of generalized and restricted altruism in organ donations.

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Boas, Hagai

2011-11-01

The supply of human organs for transplantation is undergoing a dramatic transformation. Using data from 30 countries for the years 1995-2007, this paper suggests that organ supply today is more dependent on direct donations than on the collective organ pool. This trend is analyzed by studying different modes of altruism: "generalized altruism" relates to the procurement of organs through a one-for-all collectivized system of donations whereas "restricted altruism" relates to one-to-one donations with organs considered personal gifts. The data suggest that transplants are becoming less and less social goods and more and more personal gifts. This trend is documented and discussed in light of the linkage that social scientists hypothesize between altruism and social solidarity. Whereas altruism is conceived as generating social solidarity, the rise in direct organ donations restricts the effect of altruism to one-to-one interactions rather than one-for-all giving. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Gender-Biased Expectations of Altruism in Adolescents

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Mauricio Salgado

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Research suggests that women, but not men, manifest gender-biased expectations of altruism: while women expect other women to be more altruistic, men expect women to be as generous as men. Do adolescents expect women and men to behave differently regarding altruism? I analyse adolescents' gender beliefs about altruism using a modified Dictator Game. Results indicate that adolescents believe that others of same gender are more altruistic than others of the opposite gender. I also found that adolescents' agreement with the existence of different societal roles for men and women moderates the relationship between gender and gender beliefs. Although it was expected that adolescents who agree with different gender roles would expect women to be more generous, surprisingly, the results presented here confirm this only for male adolescents, but in the opposite direction: the more male adolescents agree with the existence of different gender roles, the more they seem to believe that men are more generous than women. Meanwhile, female adolescents believe that women are more altruistic unconditionally. Thus, the previously documented bias seems to be already in place during adolescence, above and beyond other confounding factors. Adolescents' in-group bias, and their socialization into different cultural values regarding gender roles are discussed as potential explanatory mechanisms for these gender beliefs.

Social long-term care insurance with two-sided altruism

OpenAIRE

Cremer, Helmuth; Pestieau, Pierre; Roeder, Kerstin

2015-01-01

This paper studies the design of a social long-term care (LTC) insurance when altruism is two-sided. The laissez-faire solution is not efficient, unless there is perfect altruism. Under full information, the first-best can be decentralized by a linear subsidy on informal aid, a linear tax on bequests when the parent is dependent and state specific lump-sum transfers which provide insurance. We also study a second-best scheme comprising a LTC benefit, a payroll tax on children's earnings and a...

Empathy and universal values explicated by the empathy-altruism hypothesis.

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Persson, Björn N; Kajonius, Petri J

2016-01-01

Research reports that empathy is on the decline in present-day society, together with an increasing trend in self-enhancing values. Based on the empathy-altruism hypothesis, we investigated whether these constructs are interlinked by analyzing the relationships between emotional and cognitive empathy and 10 universal values. In the first study, using a middle-aged U.S. sample, the results showed that empathy was strongly and positively related to altruistic values and negatively to self-enhancing values in a pattern that aligned with the empathy-altruism hypothesis. In a second confirmation study, these findings were replicated and extended, while also controlling for the Big Five personality traits, to discount that empathy is only captured by basic personality. Only emotional empathy, not cognitive empathy, accounted for up to 18% additional variance in altruistic values, which further confirmed the emphasis on feelings, as postulated by the empathy-altruism hypothesis.

Altruism in clinical research: coordinators' orientation to their professional roles.

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Fisher, Jill A; Kalbaugh, Corey A

2012-01-01

Research coordinators have significant responsibilities in clinical trials that often require them to find unique ways to manage their jobs, thus reshaping their professional identities. The purpose of this study was to identify how research coordinators manage role and ethical conflicts within clinical research trials. A qualitative study combining observation and 63 semistructured interviews at 25 research organizations was used. Altruism is a recurring theme in how research coordinators define and view their work. Altruism is adopted by research coordinators to: (1) Teach patient-subjects the appropriate reasons to participate in clinical research, (2) minimize the conflict between research and care, and (3) contest the undervaluation of coordinating. Altruism is a strategy used to handle the various conflicts they experience in a difficult job, and it has become part of the professional identity of clinical research coordinators. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Neuropeptide Oxytocin Induces a Social Altruism Bias.

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Marsh, Nina; Scheele, Dirk; Gerhardt, Holger; Strang, Sabrina; Enax, Laura; Weber, Bernd; Maier, Wolfgang; Hurlemann, René

2015-11-25

Current psychological concepts of social and ecological responsibility emphasize the relevance of altruism, suggesting that more altruistic individuals are more likely to engage in sustainable behaviors. Emerging evidence indicates a central role of the neuropeptide oxytocin in promoting altruism. Whether this influence extends to ecological responsibility or is limited to the social domain remains unknown. In two independent experiments involving 172 human participants, we addressed this question by exposing subjects to a sustainability-related monetary donation task, with the option to support either socially or ecologically framed charities. We found that oxytocin induced a context-dependent change in altruistic behavior away from pro-environmental toward pro-social donations, while keeping constant the overall proportion of donated money. This pro-social bias transcended to the domain of sustainable consumption. Collectively, our findings demonstrate that altruistic priorities vary as a function of oxytocin system activity, which has implications for the promotion of pro-environmental attitudes and eco-friendly behaviors. Individual responses to ecological and social sustainability require a shift in personal priorities away from selfish to more altruistic behaviors. Emerging evidence indicates a central role of the hypothalamic peptide oxytocin in promoting altruism, but whether the influence of oxytocin benefits altruistic decision-making in the context of ecological and social sustainability is unclear. In two independent behavioral experiments involving 172 human subjects, we show that heightened oxytocin system activity induces a social altruism bias at the cost of ecological responsibility. Our results have fundamental implications for policy interventions and business strategies designed to sustain ecological resources by suggesting that a social framing may attract more individuals to engage in pro-environmental and eco-friendly behaviors. Copyright �

The relationship between self-control and altruism in the light of discounting literature

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Osiński Jerzy

2017-12-01

Full Text Available On the basis of literature on delay discounting, potential mechanisms of relations between self-control and altruism are considered. The discussed possibilities are: cause-and-effect relationship (self-control enabling sacrificing immediate benefits caused by selfish behaviour in favor of future benefits associated with altruism, e.g. reciprocation, common mechanism (ability to learn behavioural patterns covering longer time periods, role of intelligence as a factor related both to self-control and altruism, and role of psychological distance (the idea of extended self and construal level theory. Relations between described perspectives are pointed out, and directions for further research are suggested.

Evolution of cooperation: combining kin selection and reciprocal altruism into matrix games with social dilemmas.

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Som B Ale

Full Text Available Darwinian selection should preclude cooperation from evolving; yet cooperation is widespread among organisms. We show how kin selection and reciprocal altruism can promote cooperation in diverse 2×2 matrix games (prisoner's dilemma, snowdrift, and hawk-dove. We visualize kin selection as non-random interactions with like-strategies interacting more than by chance. Reciprocal altruism emerges from iterated games where players have some likelihood of knowing the identity of other players. This perspective allows us to combine kin selection and reciprocal altruism into a general matrix game model. Both mechanisms operating together should influence the evolution of cooperation. In the absence of kin selection, reciprocal altruism may be an evolutionarily stable strategy but is unable to invade a population of non-co-operators. Similarly, it may take a high degree of relatedness to permit cooperation to supplant non-cooperation. Together, a little bit of reciprocal altruism can, however, greatly reduce the threshold at which kin selection promotes cooperation, and vice-versa. To properly frame applications and tests of cooperation, empiricists should consider kin selection and reciprocal altruism together rather than as alternatives, and they should be applied to a broader class of social dilemmas than just the prisoner's dilemma.

Altruism, gift giving and reciprocity in organ donation: a review of cultural perspectives and challenges of the concepts.

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Sharp, C; Randhawa, G

2014-10-01

Living and deceased organ donation are couched in altruism and gift discourse and this article reviews explores cultural views towards these concepts. Altruism and egoism theories and gift and reciprocity theories are outlined from a social exchange theory perspective to highlight the key differences between altruism and the gift and the wider implications of reciprocation. The notion of altruism as a selfless act without expectation or want for repayment juxtaposed with the Maussian gift where there are the obligations to give, receive and reciprocate. Lay perspectives of altruism and the gift in organ donation are outlined and illustrate that there are differences in motivations to donate in different programmes of living donation and for families who decide to donate their relative's organs. These motivations reflect cultural views of altruism and the gift and perceptions of the body and death. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The evolution of extreme altruism and inequality in insect societies.

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Ratnieks, Francis L W; Helanterä, Heikki

2009-11-12

In eusocial organisms, some individuals specialize in reproduction and others in altruistic helping. The evolution of eusociality is, therefore, also the evolution of remarkable inequality. For example, a colony of honeybees (Apis mellifera) may contain 50 000 females all of whom can lay eggs. But 100 per cent of the females and 99.9 per cent of the males are offspring of the queen. How did such extremes evolve? Phylogenetic analyses show that high relatedness was almost certainly necessary for the origin of eusociality. However, even the highest family levels of kinship are insufficient to cause the extreme inequality seen in e.g. honeybees via 'voluntary altruism'. 'Enforced altruism' is needed, i.e. social pressures that deter individuals from attempting to reproduce. Coercion acts at two stages in an individual's life cycle. Queens are typically larger so larvae can be coerced into developing into workers by being given less food. Workers are coerced into working by 'policing', in which workers or the queen eat worker-laid eggs or aggress fertile workers. In some cases, individuals rebel, such as when stingless bee larvae develop into dwarf queens. The incentive to rebel is strong as an individual is the most closely related to its own offspring. However, because individuals gain inclusive fitness by rearing relatives, there is also a strong incentive to 'acquiesce' to social coercion. In a queenright honeybee colony, the policing of worker-laid eggs is very effective, which results in most workers working instead of attempting to reproduce. Thus, extreme altruism is due to both kinship and coercion. Altruism is frequently seen as a Darwinian puzzle but was not a puzzle that troubled Darwin. Darwin saw his difficulty in explaining how individuals that did not reproduce could evolve, given that natural selection was based on the accumulation of small heritable changes. The recognition that altruism is an evolutionary puzzle, and the solution was to wait another

Evolution of parochial altruism by multilevel selection

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Garcia, J.; van den Bergh, J.C.J.M.

2011-01-01

The evolution of parochial altruism is not well understood. We study this problem by considering a prisoner's dilemma game with four strategies: altruists who cooperate with everyone; parochialists who only cooperate with members of their own group; traitors who only cooperate with outgroup

Altruism in Taras Shevchenko’ poetic philosophical creation

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O. B. Feldman

2015-02-01

The word «soul» extends and deepens  the symbolic value of altruism, specifies him: soul­love, soul­suffering, soul­mercy, soul­sympathy. In poems and stories Mr. Shevchenko’s altruistic displays have appearance of kobza­player.

Hero or has-been: is there a future for altruism in medical education?

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Bishop, Jeffrey P; Rees, Charlotte E

2007-08-01

The term 'altruism' is often used without definition, leading to contradictions in what we expect from medical students. In this reflection paper, we critique the concept of 'altruism' from the perspective of moral philosophy and social psychology and challenge its unquestioned usage within the medical education literature, especially that emerging from the USA. We will argue that 'altruism' is a social construction with a particular history, stemming from Kantian philosophy and perpetuated within newer disciplines such as social psychology. As it currently stands, 'altruism' seems to mean utter self-sacrifice--a position contradictory to recent recommendations by regulatory bodies in the UK, which suggest that graduates should look after the 'self' and achieve a work-life balance. In this article, we argue that it is undesirable to have 'altruism' as a learning outcome for medical students and we also argue that 'altruism' is not an observable behavior that can be measured. Instead, we suggest that medical educators should employ a more balanced term, borrowed from the social psychology literature i.e. pro-social behavior. We argue that whilst 'pro-social behavior' focuses on actions that benefit others, it does not do so at the expense of the self. In addition, it focuses on students' observable behaviors rather than their inner motivations, so is measurable. We conclude our article by discussing the formation of physicians based upon a virtue ethics, where society and the profession are in dialogue about the telos of medicine and its virtues, and where the character of the young physician is formed within the crucible of that dialogue. Thus, central to this pro-social behavior is the concept of phronesis or prudence, including the balancing of self-interest such as self-care, and the interests of the other.

Self-interest and Altruism: Pluralism as a Basis for Leadership in Business

OpenAIRE

Jay Joseph

2015-01-01

The paper outlines the case for pluralism between self-interest (egoism) and altruism in business leadership. Scientific progression demonstrating pluralism is discussed, providing a multidisciplinary view of pluralism from evolutionary biology, psychology, moral philosophy, economic theory and organisational behavior. Findings show that myopic views of self-interest and altruism were once dominant in a number of fields however shifts in contemporary theory have provided a basis for pluralism...

Reason, emotion, compassion: can altruism survive professionalisation in the humanitarian sector?

Science.gov (United States)

Carbonnier, Gilles

2015-04-01

The humanitarian sector has grown enormously over the past two decades. Some fear that professionalisation comes at the expense of altruistic volunteering. This may be a valid concern if altruism is the product of organisational culture and individual experiences rather than an innate trait. This paper examines advances in evolutionary biology and neurology that provide evidence in support of both the nature and nurture arguments, echoing earlier insights from social sciences. It then questions to what extent humanitarian principles build on altruistic impulses or instead seek to constrain them, and reviews recruitment profiles of selected humanitarian organisations and applicants' letters accordingly. This initial investigation warrants further research to identify how altruism as a personal trait and an organisational principle has influenced diverse humanitarian actors and traditions. This paper outlines how training curricula and organisational reward systems can build on-rather than stifle-natural altruism to nurture critical, reflexive practitioners. © 2015 The Author(s). Disasters © Overseas Development Institute, 2015.

Socially Enforced Nepotism: How Norms and Reputation Can Amplify Kin Altruism.

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Jones, Doug

2016-01-01

Kin selection, which can lead organisms to behave altruistically to their genetic relatives, works differently when-as is often the case in human societies-altruism can be boosted by social pressure. Here I present a model of social norms enforced by indirect reciprocity. In the model there are many alternative stable allocations of rewards ("distributional norms"); a stable norm is stable in the sense that each player is best off following the norm if other players do the same. Stable norms vary widely in how equally they reward players with unequal abilities. In a population of mixed groups (some group members follow one norm, some follow another, and some compromise) with modest within-group coefficients of relatedness, selection within groups favors those who compromise, and selection between groups favors generous generalized reciprocity rather than balanced reciprocity. Thus evolved social norms can amplify kin altruism, giving rise to a uniquely human mode of kin-based sociality distinct from spontaneous altruism among close kin, or cooperation among non-kin.

Altruism revisited: a comparison of medical, law and business students' altruistic attitudes.

Science.gov (United States)

Coulter, Ian D; Wilkes, Michael; Der-Martirosian, Claudia

2007-04-01

Although the concept of altruism in medicine has a long tradition in Western thought, little empirical research has been carried out recently in this area. This study compares the altruistic attitudes of medical, legal and business students. We used a cross-sectional survey to compare the altruistic attitudes of 3 types of contemporary 'professional' students, those in medicine, law and business. The results suggest that medical students report more altruistic attitudes than legal students, but not than business students. Overall, female students reported stronger attitudes consistent with altruism compared with males; African-American and Hispanic students reported more altruistic attitudes compared with White students. Our results suggest that the recent trend in recruiting more women and under-represented minority group members into medicine may have a positive impact on altruism in the profession, if we can assume that attitudes correlate with behaviours.

Evolution of discrimination in populations at equilibrium between selfishness and altruism.

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Sibly, Richard M; Curnow, Robert N

2012-11-21

Where there is genetically based variation in selfishness and altruism, as in man, altruists with an innate ability to recognise and thereby only help their altruistic relatives may evolve. Here we use diploid population genetic models to chart the evolution of genetically-based discrimination in populations initially in stable equilibrium between altruism and selfishness. The initial stable equilibria occur because help is assumed subject to diminishing returns. Similar results were obtained whether we used a model with two independently inherited loci, one controlling altruism the other discrimination, or a one locus model with three alleles. The latter is the opposite extreme to the first model, and can be thought of as involving complete linkage between two loci on the same chromosome. The introduction of discrimination reduced the benefits obtained by selfish individuals, more so as the number of discriminators increased, and selfishness was eventually eliminated in some cases. In others selfishness persisted and the evolutionary outcome was a stable equilibrium involving selfish individuals and both discriminating and non-discriminating altruists. Heritable variation in selfishness, altruism and discrimination is predicted to be particularly evident among full sibs. The suggested coexistence of these three genetic dispositions could explain widespread interest within human social groups as to who will and who will not help others. These predictions merit experimental and observational investigation by primatologists, anthropologists and psychologists. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Social heuristics and social roles: Intuition favors altruism for women but not for men.

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Rand, David G; Brescoll, Victoria L; Everett, Jim A C; Capraro, Valerio; Barcelo, Hélène

2016-04-01

Are humans intuitively altruistic, or does altruism require self-control? A theory of social heuristics, whereby intuitive responses favor typically successful behaviors, suggests that the answer may depend on who you are. In particular, evidence suggests that women are expected to behave altruistically, and are punished for failing to be altruistic, to a much greater extent than men. Thus, women (but not men) may internalize altruism as their intuitive response. Indeed, a meta-analysis of 13 new experiments and 9 experiments from other groups found that promoting intuition relative to deliberation increased giving in a Dictator Game among women, but not among men (Study 1, N = 4,366). Furthermore, this effect was shown to be moderated by explicit sex role identification (Study 2, N = 1,831): the more women described themselves using traditionally masculine attributes (e.g., dominance, independence) relative to traditionally feminine attributes (e.g., warmth, tenderness), the more deliberation reduced their altruism. Our findings shed light on the connection between gender and altruism, and highlight the importance of social heuristics in human prosociality. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

The Cultivation of Pure Altruism via Gratitude: A Functional MRI Study of Change with Gratitude Practice.

Science.gov (United States)

Karns, Christina M; Moore, William E; Mayr, Ulrich

2017-01-01

Gratitude is an emotion and a trait linked to well-being and better health, and welcoming benefits to oneself is instrumentally valuable. However, theoretical and empirical work highlights that gratitude is more fully understood as an intrinsically valuable moral emotion. To understand the role of neural reward systems in the association between gratitude and altruistic motivations we tested two hypotheses: First, whether self-reported propensity toward gratitude relates to fMRI-derived indicators of "pure altruism," operationalized as the neural valuation of passive, private transfers to a charity versus to oneself. In young adult female participants, self-reported gratitude and altruism were associated with "neural pure altruism" in ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) and nucleus accumbens. Second, whether neural pure altruism can be increased through practicing gratitude. In a double-blind study, we randomly assigned participants to either a gratitude-journal or active-neutral control journal group for 3 weeks. Relative to pre-test levels, gratitude journaling increased the neural pure altruism response in the VMPFC. We posit that as a context-dependent value-sensitive cortical region, the VMPFC supports change with gratitude practice, a change that is larger for benefits to others versus oneself.

Socially Enforced Nepotism: How Norms and Reputation Can Amplify Kin Altruism.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Doug Jones

Full Text Available Kin selection, which can lead organisms to behave altruistically to their genetic relatives, works differently when-as is often the case in human societies-altruism can be boosted by social pressure. Here I present a model of social norms enforced by indirect reciprocity. In the model there are many alternative stable allocations of rewards ("distributional norms"; a stable norm is stable in the sense that each player is best off following the norm if other players do the same. Stable norms vary widely in how equally they reward players with unequal abilities. In a population of mixed groups (some group members follow one norm, some follow another, and some compromise with modest within-group coefficients of relatedness, selection within groups favors those who compromise, and selection between groups favors generous generalized reciprocity rather than balanced reciprocity. Thus evolved social norms can amplify kin altruism, giving rise to a uniquely human mode of kin-based sociality distinct from spontaneous altruism among close kin, or cooperation among non-kin.

Altruism or solidarity? The motives for organ donation and two proposals.

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Saunders, Ben

2012-09-01

Proposals for increasing organ donation are often rejected as incompatible with altruistic motivation on the part of donors. This paper questions, on conceptual grounds, whether most organ donors really are altruistic. If we distinguish between altruism and solidarity--a more restricted form of other-concern, limited to members of a particular group--then most organ donors exhibit solidarity, rather than altruism. If organ donation really must be altruistic, then we have reasons to worry about the motives of existing donors. However, I argue that altruism is not necessary, because organ donation supplies important goods, whatever the motivation, and we can reject certain dubious motivations, such as financial profit, without insisting on altruism. Once solidaristic donation is accepted, certain reforms for increasing donation rates seem permissible. This paper considers two proposals. Firstly, it has been suggested that registered donors should receive priority for transplants. While this proposal appears based on a solidaristic norm of reciprocity, it is argued that such a scheme would be undesirable, since non-donors may contribute to society in other ways. The second proposal is that donors should be able to direct their organs towards recipients that they feel solidarity with. This is often held to be inconsistent with altruistic motivation, but most donation is not entirely undirected in the first place (for instance, donor organs usually go to co-nationals). While allowing directed donation would create a number of practical problems, such as preventing discrimination, there appears to be no reason in principle to reject it. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Does Asking Make a Difference? Effects of Initiator, Possible Gain, and Risk on Attributed Altruism.

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Quigley, Barbara; And Others

1989-01-01

Investigates three variables related to attributed altruism: (1) the effects of initiating prosocial behavior; (2) the potential gain or loss for the prosocial actor; and (3) the possible risk for the prosocial actor. Determines that any evidence of selfish motivation detracts from perceived altruism, and that no evidence of selfish motivation…

The development of trust and altruism during childhood

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Evans, A.M.; Athenstaedt, U.; Krueger, J.I.

2013-01-01

Knowing when to trust is an essential skill, but little is known about its cognitive development. No previous studies have examined the development of trust while controlling for age differences in altruism. We hypothesized that older children are more likely to trust, and that this age-related

Associations among altruism, burnout dimensions, and organizational citizenship behaviour

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Emmerik, IJ. Hetty van; Jawahar, I.M.; Stone, Thomas H.

2005-01-01

Most studies of burnout have focused on lack of resources, prevalence of burnout, and negative outcomes. In contrast, this study examined the relationships among altruism, burnout and a positive outcome, namely, the engagement in organizational citizenship behaviour. Web questionnaires were

Procreative altruism: beyond individualism in reproductive selection.

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Douglas, Thomas; Devolder, Katrien

2013-08-01

Existing debate on procreative selection focuses on the well-being of the future child. However, selection decisions can also have significant effects on the well-being of others. Moreover, these effects may run in opposing directions; some traits conducive to the well-being of the selected child may be harmful to others, whereas other traits that limit the child's well-being may preserve or increase that of others. Prominent selection principles defended to date instruct parents to select a child, of the possible children they could have, likely to have a good (or nonbad) life, but they do not instruct parents to independently take the well-being of others into account. We refer to these principles as individualistic selection principles. We propose a new selection principle-Procreative Altruism-according to which parents have significant moral reason to select a child whose existence can be expected to contribute more to (or detract less from) the well-being of others than any alternative child they could have. We present the case for adopting Procreative Altruism alongside any of the major individualistic selection principles proposed to date and defend this two-principle model against a range of objections.

Mutual altruism: evidence from Alzheimer patients and their spouse caregivers.

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König, Markus; Pfarr, Christian; Zweifel, Peter

2014-01-01

Preferences of both Alzheimer patients and their spouse caregivers are related to a willingness-to-pay (WTP) measure which is used to test for the presence of mutual (rather than conventional unilateral) altruism. Contingent valuation experiments were conducted in 2000-2002, involving 126 Alzheimer patients and their caregiving spouses living in the Zurich metropolitan area (Switzerland). WTP values for three hypothetical treatments of the demented patient were elicited. The treatment Stabilization prevents the worsening of the disease, bringing dementia to a standstill. Cure restores patient health to its original level. In No burden, dementia takes its normal course while caregiver's burden is reduced to its level before the disease. The three different types of therapies are reflected in different WTP values of both caregivers and patients, suggesting that moderate levels of Alzheimer's disease still permit clear expression of preference. According to the WTP values found, patients do not rank Cure higher than No burden, implying that their preferences are entirely altruistic. Caregiving spouses rank Cure before Burden, reflecting less than perfect altruism which accounts for some 40 percent of their total WTP. Still, this constitutes evidence of mutual altruism. VALUE: The evidence suggests that WTP values reflect individuals' preferences even in Alzheimer patients. The estimates suggest that an economically successful treatment should provide relief to caregivers, with its curative benefits being of secondary importance.

The mystery of altruism and transcultural nursing.

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Dowd, Steven; Davidhizar, Ruth; Giger, Joyce Newman

2007-01-01

Why do some individuals choose the professions they do? Is it for altruistic reasons? This article examines this question from the standpoints of sociobiology, evolutionary biology, game theory, and memetics. Implications for transcultural nursing are included. The Giger-Davidhizar Transcultural Assessment Model is presented as a nursing model and might explain altruism even beyond other models. An overview of the Giger-Davidhizar Transcultural Assessment Model is included.

Human altruism, evolution and moral philosophy

Science.gov (United States)

2017-01-01

This paper has two central aims. The first is to explore philosophical complications that arise when we move from (i) explaining the evolutionary origins of genetically influenced traits associated with human cooperation and altruism, to (ii) explaining present manifestations of human thought, feeling and behaviour involving cooperation and altruism. While the former need only appeal to causal factors accessible to scientific inquiry, the latter must engage also with a distinctive form of explanation, i.e. reason-giving explanation, which in turn raises important philosophical questions, the answers to which will affect the nature of the ultimate explanations of our moral beliefs and related actions. On one possibility I will explore, this explanatory project cannot avoid engaging with first-order ethical theory. The second aim is to apply lessons from these explanatory complications to the critique of ‘evolutionary debunking arguments’, which seek to debunk morality, or at least objective construals of it (i.e. moral realism), by appeal to allegedly scientific debunking explanations of our moral beliefs that would defeat our justification for them. The explanatory complications brought out in the first half raise difficulties for such debunking arguments. If we avoid begging central philosophical questions then such debunking arguments pose little threat of saddling us with moral scepticism or subjectivism, though they do pose an important challenge for those developing a moral realist view. PMID:28878990

The Negative Association between Religiousness and Children's Altruism across the World.

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Decety, Jean; Cowell, Jason M; Lee, Kang; Mahasneh, Randa; Malcolm-Smith, Susan; Selcuk, Bilge; Zhou, Xinyue

2015-11-16

Prosocial behaviors are ubiquitous across societies. They emerge early in ontogeny and are shaped by interactions between genes and culture. Over the course of middle childhood, sharing approaches equality in distribution. Since 5.8 billion humans, representing 84% of the worldwide population, identify as religious, religion is arguably one prevalent facet of culture that influences the development and expression of prosociality. While it is generally accepted that religion contours people's moral judgments and prosocial behavior, the relation between religiosity and morality is a contentious one. Here, we assessed altruism and third-party evaluation of scenarios depicting interpersonal harm in 1,170 children aged between 5 and 12 years in six countries (Canada, China, Jordan, Turkey, USA, and South Africa), the religiousness of their household, and parent-reported child empathy and sensitivity to justice. Across all countries, parents in religious households reported that their children expressed more empathy and sensitivity for justice in everyday life than non-religious parents. However, religiousness was inversely predictive of children's altruism and positively correlated with their punitive tendencies. Together these results reveal the similarity across countries in how religion negatively influences children's altruism, challenging the view that religiosity facilitates prosocial behavior. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A neural signature of fairness in altruism: a game of theta?

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Rodrigues, Johannes; Ulrich, Natalie; Hewig, Johannes

2015-04-01

In the dictator game, a proposer can share a certain amount of money between himself or herself and a receiver, who has no opportunity of influencing the offer. Rational choice theory predicts that dictators keep all money for themselves. But people often are offering money to receivers, despite their opportunity to maximize their own profit and therefore showing altruistic behavior. In this study, we investigated the influence of the altruism of the dictator, the anonymity of the decision and the income of the receiver on the offer made by a dictator. Additionally, we were interested in the influence of midfrontal theta activity prior to the offer, indicating the upcoming decision. The height of the offer made by the dictator was dependent on all variables investigated: Altruism of the dictator led to higher offers and income of the receiver led to higher offer the poorer the receivers are. The anonymity of the decision had two effects, depending on the altruism of the dictator, with higher offers for highly altruistic dictators, when they were not observed, and lower offers for less altruistic dictators in this condition. Finally, midfrontal theta activity predicts upcoming fair offers, maybe indicating altruistic motivation or empathy on physiological basis.

The Development of Altruism with Special Reference to Human Relationships: A 10-Stage Theory

OpenAIRE

Hing Keung Ma

2017-01-01

All human relationships involve some form of cost and benefit and altruism forms the foundation upon which human relationships are built. In this paper, a taxonomy of human relationships in terms of altruism was constructed. In the proposed taxonomy, human relationships are categorized into three major groups: primary group, secondary group, and tertiary group. The primary group consists of members that are very closely related to each other either by genetic relatedness (e.g., parents, sibli...

Can Appealing to Patient Altruism Reduce Overuse of Health Care Services? An Experimental Survey.

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Riggs, Kevin R; Ubel, Peter A; Saloner, Brendan

2017-07-01

A challenge to reducing overuse of health services is communicating recommendations against unnecessary health services to patients. The predominant approach has been to highlight the limited benefit and potential harm of such services for that patient, but the prudent use of health resources can also benefit others. Whether appealing to patient altruism can reduce overuse is unknown. To determine whether altruistic appeals reduce hypothetical requests for overused services and affect physician ratings. Experimental survey using hypothetical vignettes describing three overused health services (antibiotics for acute sinusitis, imaging for acute low back pain, and annual exams for healthy adults). U.S. adults recruited from Research Now, an online panel of individuals compensated for performing academic and marketing research surveys. In the control version of the vignettes, the physician's rationale for recommending against the service was the minimal benefit and potential for harm. In the altruism version, the rationale additionally included potential benefit to others by forgoing that service. Differences in requests for overused services and physician ratings between participants randomized to the control and altruism versions of the vignettes. A total of 1001 participants were included in the final analyses. There were no significant differences in requests for overused services for any of the clinical scenarios (P values ranged from 0.183 to 0.547). Physician ratings were lower in the altruism version for the acute sinusitis (6.68 vs. 7.03, P = 0.012) and back pain scenarios (6.14 vs. 6.83, P < 0.001), and marginally lower for the healthy adult scenario (5.27 vs. 5.57, P = 0.084). In this experimental survey, altruistic appeals delivered by physicians did not reduce requests for overused services, and resulted in more negative physician ratings. Further studies are warranted to determine whether alternative methods of appealing to patient altruism

A history of altruism focusing on Darwin, Allee and E.O. Wilson.

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Domondon, Andrew T

2013-06-01

The problem of altruism refers to the apparent difficulty in reconciling the existence of altruists, individuals who reduce their own fitness to increase the fitness of others, with natural selection. A historical and philosophical overview of solutions to this apparent contradiction is presented through a close reading of the key texts of Charles Darwin, Warder C. Allee and Edward O. Wilson. Following an analysis of Darwin's explanation for altruism, I examine the ideas of group selection and kin selection advanced by Allee and Wilson, respectively, Attention is also given to the philosophical implications each associated with their respective solutions. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sex Differences in Violent versus Non-Violent Life-Threatening Altruism

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carey J. Fitzgerald

2009-07-01

Full Text Available Many studies on Hamilton's (1964 inclusive fitness theory have used the burning house and kidney donation examples of life-threatening altruism. However, these examples may not be sufficiently exhibiting the risk involved with life-threatening altruism that would have occurred in hunter-gatherer societies, such as fighting off attackers and/or predators. The present study examined participants' estimated likelihood to perform altruistic acts for specific kin members/friends in two violent life-threatening situations (i.e., being mugged and being chased and two non-violent life-threatening situations (i.e., the burning house and kidney donation examples. Participants were 216 undergraduate students who completed a questionnaire on altruism toward an actual kin member/friend. Each questionnaire contained four life-or-death scenarios (two violent and two non-violent in which either the participant's sibling, cousin, or best friend was in danger and needed help. Results indicated that people were more likely to help siblings than cousins and friends in both the violent and non-violent hypothetical scenarios. Participants indicated a greater likelihood to help people in violent situations than in non-violent situations. Women indicated a greater estimated likelihood than men to help people in non-violent situations while men indicated a greater estimated likelihood than women to help people in violent situations. Both male and female participants indicated a greater estimated likelihood to help women than men in violent situations.

Neural substrates of male parochial altruism are modulated by testosterone and behavioral strategy.

Science.gov (United States)

Reimers, Luise; Büchel, Christian; Diekhof, Esther K

2017-08-01

Parochial altruism refers to ingroup favoritism and outgroup hostility and has recently been linked to testosterone. Here, we investigated the neurobiological mechanism of parochial altruism in male soccer fans playing the ultimatum game (UG) against ingroup and outgroup members (i.e., fans of the favorite or of a rivalling team) using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Our results suggest that individual differences in altruistic tendency influence the tendency for parochialism. While altruistic subjects rejected unfair offers independent of team membership, the more self-oriented 'pro-selfs' displayed a stronger ingroup bias and rejected outgroup offers more often. However, during a second session that introduced a team competition the altruists adapted to this parochial pattern. Behavioral strategy was further characterized by dissociable and context-dependent correlations between endogenous testosterone and neural responses in the anterior insula and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. In sum, the present findings indicate that parochial altruism is shaped by individual differences in testosterone and behavioral strategy. In that way the results are in line with evolutionary theories of both individual and group selection. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Altruism, the values dimension of caring self-efficacy concept in Iranian pediatric nurses.

Science.gov (United States)

Alavi, Azam; Zargham-Boroujeni, Ali; Yousefy, Alireza; Bahrami, Masoud

2017-01-01

Self-efficacy is the most influential among factors affecting nurses' performance. Yet, understanding of the constituent elements of the caring self-efficacy concept was not considered. This study was to introduce altruism as one of the main aspects of caring self-efficacy in pediatric nurses. This is part of a larger study on the concept of caring self-efficacy conducted with qualitative content analysis approach in Iran. Participants included 27 clinical pediatric nurses and instructors, selected purposively. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and analyzed using conventional content analysis method. Theme "altruism" as one of the main themes extracted from the analysis of the interviews in this study. This theme includes two main categories of "humanistic care" and "caring attitude." This paper introduces altruism as one of the values aspects of caring self-efficacy in pediatric nurses. Efficient nurse with features Humanistic care, through the provision of maternal care and family-centered care and caring attitudes resulting from religious beliefs and loving children to care for the children.

Empathy, Altruism, and Moral Development in Home Schooled Children

Science.gov (United States)

Kingston, Skylar T.; Medlin, Richard G.

2005-01-01

The purpose of the present study was to compare empathy, altruism, moral reasoning, and prosocial behavior in home schooled children and children attending public schools, and to assess attitudes toward religion and values in their parents. Homeschooling parents were more concerned with teaching their children their values and religious beliefs,…

Lives and choices, give and take: Altruism and organ procurement.

Science.gov (United States)

Thornton, Vicky

2017-01-01

In 2015, Wales introduced a deemed consent: soft opt-out system for organ procurement in order to address the chronic shortage of organs for transplant. Early statistical evidence suggests that this has had a positive impact on cadaveric organ donation. Such a system for procurement has previously been dismissed by the Organ Donation Taskforce, who suggested that opting out could potentially undermine the concept of donated organs as gifts and this could then negatively impact the number of organs offered for transplant. Considerable weight was placed upon the need to retain the altruistic gift element associated with an opt-in system. This article will consider the role of altruism in an organ procurement policy. A broad utilitarian approach will be taken when putting forward the arguments in favour of adopting a weak altruism position in a soft opt-out system for procurement with a combined registry.

The evolutionary interplay of intergroup conflict and altruism in humans: a review of parochial altruism theory and prospects for its extension

Science.gov (United States)

Rusch, Hannes

2014-01-01

Drawing on an idea proposed by Darwin, it has recently been hypothesized that violent intergroup conflict might have played a substantial role in the evolution of human cooperativeness and altruism. The central notion of this argument, dubbed ‘parochial altruism’, is that the two genetic or cultural traits, aggressiveness against the out-groups and cooperativeness towards the in-group, including self-sacrificial altruistic behaviour, might have coevolved in humans. This review assesses the explanatory power of current theories of ‘parochial altruism’. After a brief synopsis of the existing literature, two pitfalls in the interpretation of the most widely used models are discussed: potential direct benefits and high relatedness between group members implicitly induced by assumptions about conflict structure and frequency. Then, a number of simplifying assumptions made in the construction of these models are pointed out which currently limit their explanatory power. Next, relevant empirical evidence from several disciplines which could guide future theoretical extensions is reviewed. Finally, selected alternative accounts of evolutionary links between intergroup conflict and intragroup cooperation are briefly discussed which could be integrated with parochial altruism in the future. PMID:25253457

Altruism: Should it be Included as an Attribute of Medical Professionalism?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joanne Harris

2018-03-01

Next steps: For many, the future of the medical profession lies in abandoning altruism as part of its defining qualities and adopting a new ethical definition of professionalism that fits with the complexities of modern society

The Cultivation of Pure Altruism via Gratitude: A Functional MRI Study of Change with Gratitude Practice

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christina M. Karns

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Gratitude is an emotion and a trait linked to well-being and better health, and welcoming benefits to oneself is instrumentally valuable. However, theoretical and empirical work highlights that gratitude is more fully understood as an intrinsically valuable moral emotion. To understand the role of neural reward systems in the association between gratitude and altruistic motivations we tested two hypotheses: First, whether self-reported propensity toward gratitude relates to fMRI-derived indicators of “pure altruism,” operationalized as the neural valuation of passive, private transfers to a charity versus to oneself. In young adult female participants, self-reported gratitude and altruism were associated with “neural pure altruism” in ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC and nucleus accumbens. Second, whether neural pure altruism can be increased through practicing gratitude. In a double-blind study, we randomly assigned participants to either a gratitude-journal or active-neutral control journal group for 3 weeks. Relative to pre-test levels, gratitude journaling increased the neural pure altruism response in the VMPFC. We posit that as a context-dependent value-sensitive cortical region, the VMPFC supports change with gratitude practice, a change that is larger for benefits to others versus oneself.

Biologically Costly Altruism Depends on Emotional Closeness among Step but Not Half or Full Sibling

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paola Bressan

2009-01-01

Full Text Available We studied altruistic behaviors of varying biological cost (high, medium, and low among siblings of varying genetic relatedness (full, half, and step. In agreement with inclusive fitness theory, the relative importance of either reliable (such as co-residence or heuristic (such as emotional closeness kinship cues depended crucially on the costs of help. When help did not endanger the altruist's life, thus making reciprocation possible, emotional closeness was the strongest predictor of altruism; perceived physical and psychological similarity to the sibling amplified altruistic behavior via their association with emotional closeness. When help endangered the altruist's life, thus making reciprocation unlikely, the strongest predictor of altruism was the ancestrally valid kinship cue of co-residence duration. Emotional closeness predicted costly altruism only for step siblings; its effects were nonsignificant when siblings were genetically related. Our findings support the idea that emotional closeness promotes costly altruistic behavior by serving as a surrogate kinship cue when more reliable cues are missing.

An experiment on individual 'parochial altruism' revealing no connection between individual 'altruism' and individual 'parochialism'.

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Corr, Philip J; Hargreaves Heap, Shaun P; Seger, Charles R; Tsutsui, Kei

2015-01-01

Is parochial altruism an attribute of individual behavior? This is the question we address with an experiment. We examine whether the individual pro-sociality that is revealed in the public goods and trust games when interacting with fellow group members helps predict individual parochialism, as measured by the in-group bias (i.e., the difference in these games in pro-sociality when interacting with own group members as compared with members of another group). We find that it is not. An examination of the Big-5 personality predictors of each behavior reinforces this result: they are different. In short, knowing how pro-social individuals are with respect to fellow group members does not help predict their parochialism.

Nonmathematical models for evolution of altruism, and for group selection (peck order-territoriality-ant colony-dual-determinant model-tri-determinant model).

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Darlington, P J

1972-02-01

Mathematical biologists have failed to produce a satisfactory general model for evolution of altruism, i.e., of behaviors by which "altruists" benefit other individuals but not themselves; kin selection does not seem to be a sufficient explanation of nonreciprocal altruism. Nonmathematical (but mathematically acceptable) models are now proposed for evolution of negative altruism in dual-determinant and of positive altruism in tri-determinant systems. Peck orders, territorial systems, and an ant society are analyzed as examples. In all models, evolution is primarily by individual selection, probably supplemented by group selection. Group selection is differential extinction of populations. It can act only on populations preformed by selection at the individual level, but can either cancel individual selective trends (effecting evolutionary homeostasis) or supplement them; its supplementary effect is probably increasingly important in the evolution of increasingly organized populations.

In intergroup conflict, self-sacrifice is stronger among pro-social individuals, and parochial altruism emerges especially among cognitively taxed individuals

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Dreu, C.K.W.; Dussel, D.B.; ten Velden, F.S.

2015-01-01

Parochial altruism is decomposed in a tendency to benefit the in-group along with a tendency to ignore, derogate, and harm rivaling out-groups. Building off recent work suggesting that decisions to cooperate can be relatively fast and intuitive, we examine parochial altruism in intergroup conflict

[Language Manipulation, Surrogacy, Altruism].

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Serrano Ruiz-Calderón, José Miguel

2017-01-01

The Newspeak propitiates a change of the sense of the words and next to the double thinking forms the picture of totalitarianism described by Orwell in 1984. The purpose of the Newspeak is to make all other forms of thought impossible. In bioethics the Newspeak is applied, not because Bioethics is a new science but by the manipulative intention. The twentieth-century political language has, according to Orwell, the intention to remove the ″mental image ″ of what really happens. This is clear in the terms ″surrogacy ″. On the one hand, the mother is deprived of her child. On the other, there is no legal subrogation. As has been said the technique reduces a woman to the condition of a vessel. The excuse of gratuity does not change the exploitative relationship, since gratuitousness in the provision of women is not the altruism of all those involved in surrogacy.

How informed is declared altruism in clinical trials? A qualitative interview study of patient decision-making about the QUEST trials (Quality of Life after Mastectomy and Breast Reconstruction).

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Bidad, Natalie; MacDonald, Lindsay; Winters, Zoë E; Edwards, Sarah J L; Emson, Marie; Griffin, Clare L; Bliss, Judith; Horne, Rob

2016-09-02

Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) often fail to recruit sufficient participants, despite altruism being cited as their motivation. Previous investigations of factors influencing participation decisions have been methodologically limited. This study evaluated how women weigh up different motivations after initially expressing altruism, and explored their understanding of a trial and its alternatives. The trial was the 'Quality of Life after Mastectomy and Breast Reconstruction' (QUEST) trial. Thirty-nine women participated in qualitative interviews 1 month post-surgery. Twenty-seven women (10 trial decliners and 17 acceptors) who spontaneously mentioned 'altruism' were selected for thematic analysis. Verbatim transcripts were coded independently by two researchers. Participants' motivations to accept or decline randomisation were cross-referenced with their understanding of the QUEST trials and the process of randomisation. The seven emerging themes were: (1) altruism expressed by acceptors and decliners; (2) overriding personal needs in decliners; (3) pure altruism in acceptors; (4) 'hypothetical altruism' amongst acceptors; (5) weak altruism amongst acceptors; (6) conditional altruism amongst acceptors; and (7) sense of duty to participate. Poor understanding of the trial rationale and its implications was also evident. Altruism was a motivating factor for participation in the QUEST randomised controlled trials where the main outcomes comprised quality of life and allocated treatments comprised established surgical procedures. Women's decisions were influenced by their understanding of the trial. Both acceptors and decliners of the trial expressed 'altruism', but most acceptors lacked an obvious treatment preference, hoped for personal benefits regarding a treatment allocation, or did not articulate complete understanding of the trial. QUEST A, ISRCTN38846532 ; Date assigned 6 January 2010. QUEST B, ISRCTN92581226 ; Date assigned 6 January 2010.

Power that Builds Others and Power that Breaks: Effects of Power and Humility on Altruism and Incivility in Female Employees.

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Yoon, David J; Farmer, Steven M

2018-01-02

Building on the approach/inhibition theory of power and the situated focus theory of power, we examine the roles of positional and personal power on altruism and incivility in workplace dyads. Results from a field study in daycare centers showed that legitimate power (a dimension of positional power) was positively associated with incivility. In contrast, personal power-referent power and expert power-was positively associated altruism and was negatively associated with incivility. Referent power was a stronger predictor of both altruism and incivility for individuals with low humility than those with high humility. Coercive power was a stronger predictor of incivility for individuals with high humility than those with low humility.

The evolution of utility functions and psychological altruism.

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Clavien, Christine; Chapuisat, Michel

2016-04-01

Numerous studies show that humans tend to be more cooperative than expected given the assumption that they are rational maximizers of personal gain. As a result, theoreticians have proposed elaborated formal representations of human decision-making, in which utility functions including "altruistic" or "moral" preferences replace the purely self-oriented "Homo economicus" function. Here we review mathematical approaches that provide insights into the mathematical stability of alternative utility functions. Candidate utility functions may be evaluated with help of game theory, classical modeling of social evolution that focuses on behavioral strategies, and modeling of social evolution that focuses directly on utility functions. We present the advantages of the latter form of investigation and discuss one surprisingly precise result: "Homo economicus" as well as "altruistic" utility functions are less stable than a function containing a preference for the common welfare that is only expressed in social contexts composed of individuals with similar preferences. We discuss the contribution of mathematical models to our understanding of human other-oriented behavior, with a focus on the classical debate over psychological altruism. We conclude that human can be psychologically altruistic, but that psychological altruism evolved because it was generally expressed towards individuals that contributed to the actor's fitness, such as own children, romantic partners and long term reciprocators. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Altruism and the Flourishing Teacher: Exploring a Christian Theology of Love

Science.gov (United States)

Matthias, Laurie R.

2016-01-01

This article responds to Chris Higgins' (2010) claim that perpetuating the myth of altruism is a factor that leads to teacher burnout, thus making "flourishing teacher" an oxymoron. It does so by exploring various views of the Christian concepts of agape, kenosis, and desire, debunking some persistent definitions that linger in Christian…

Altruism Can Proliferate through Population Viscosity despite High Random Gene Flow

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Schonmann, Roberto H.; Vicente, Renato; Caticha, Nestor

2013-01-01

The ways in which natural selection can allow the proliferation of cooperative behavior have long been seen as a central problem in evolutionary biology. Most of the literature has focused on interactions between pairs of individuals and on linear public goods games. This emphasis has led to the conclusion that even modest levels of migration would pose a serious problem to the spread of altruism through population viscosity in group structured populations. Here we challenge this conclusion, by analyzing evolution in a framework which allows for complex group interactions and random migration among groups. We conclude that contingent forms of strong altruism that benefits equally all group members, regardless of kinship and without greenbeard effects, can spread when rare under realistic group sizes and levels of migration, due to the assortment of genes resulting only from population viscosity. Our analysis combines group-centric and gene-centric perspectives, allows for arbitrary strength of selection, and leads to extensions of Hamilton’s rule for the spread of altruistic alleles, applicable under broad conditions. PMID:23991035

Altruism can proliferate through population viscosity despite high random gene flow.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Roberto H Schonmann

Full Text Available The ways in which natural selection can allow the proliferation of cooperative behavior have long been seen as a central problem in evolutionary biology. Most of the literature has focused on interactions between pairs of individuals and on linear public goods games. This emphasis has led to the conclusion that even modest levels of migration would pose a serious problem to the spread of altruism through population viscosity in group structured populations. Here we challenge this conclusion, by analyzing evolution in a framework which allows for complex group interactions and random migration among groups. We conclude that contingent forms of strong altruism that benefits equally all group members, regardless of kinship and without greenbeard effects, can spread when rare under realistic group sizes and levels of migration, due to the assortment of genes resulting only from population viscosity. Our analysis combines group-centric and gene-centric perspectives, allows for arbitrary strength of selection, and leads to extensions of Hamilton's rule for the spread of altruistic alleles, applicable under broad conditions.

Parenting with style: Altruism and paternalism in intergenerational preference transmission

OpenAIRE

Doepke, Matthias; Zilibotti, Fabrizio

2012-01-01

We develop a theory of intergenerational transmission of preferences that rationalizes the choice between alternative parenting styles (as set out in Baumrind 1967). Parents maximize an objective function that combines Beckerian altruism and paternalism towards children. They can affect their children's choices via two channels: either by influencing children's preferences or by imposing direct restrictions on their choice sets. Different parenting styles (authoritarian, authoritative, and pe...

Cooperative Networks: Altruism, Group Solidarity, Reciprocity, and Sanctioning in Ugandan Producer Organizations.

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Baldassarri, Delia

2015-09-01

Repeated interaction and social networks are commonly considered viable solutions to collective action problems. This article identifies and systematically measures four general mechanisms--that is, generalized altruism, group solidarity, reciprocity, and the threat of sanctioning--and tests which of them brings about cooperation in the context of Ugandan producer organizations. Using an innovative methodological framework that combines "lab-in-the-field" experiments with survey interviews and complete social networks data, the article goes beyond the assessment of a relationship between social networks and collective outcomes to study the mechanisms that favor cooperative behavior. The article first establishes a positive relationship between position in the network structure and propensity to cooperate in the producer organization and then uses farmers' behavior in dictator and public goods games to test different mechanisms that may account for such a relationship. Results show that cooperation is induced by patterns of reciprocity that emerge through repeated interaction rather than other-regarding preferences like altruism or group solidarity.

Are Women’s Mate Preferences for Altruism Also Influenced by Physical Attractiveness?

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Daniel Farrelly

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Altruism plays a role in mate choice, particularly in women’s preferences and in long-term (LT relationships. The current study analyzed how these preferences interacted with another important mate choice variable, physical attractiveness. Here, female participants were presented with photographs of men of varying levels of physical attractiveness, alongside descriptions of them behaving either altruistically or not in different scenarios. The results showed women preferred altruistic men, particularly in LT relationships and that this interacted with physical attractiveness such that being both attractive and altruistic made a man more desirable than just the sum of the two desirable parts. Also, being altruistic made low attractive men more desirable but only for LT relationships. Finally, men who were just altruistic were rated more desirable than men who were just attractive, especially for LT relationships. Overall, these findings are discussed in terms of the role of altruism in mate choice, particularly in LT relationships and directions of future research.

The legacy of altruism in health care: the promotion of empathy, prosociality and humanism.

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Burks, Derek J; Kobus, Amy M

2012-03-01

This study aimed to examine concepts of altruism and empathy among medical students and professionals in conjunction with health care initiatives designed to support the maintenance of these qualities. We searched for the terms 'altruism', 'altruistic', 'helping', 'prosocial behaviour' and 'empathy' in the English-language literature published from 1980 to the present within the Ovid MEDLINE, PsycInfo and PubMed databases. We used conceptual analysis to examine the relationships among altruism, empathy and related prosocial concepts in health care in order to understand how such factors may relate to emotional and career burnout, cynicism, decreased helping and decreased patient-centredness in care. Altruistic ideals and qualities of empathy appear to decrease among some medical students as they progress through their education. During this process, students face increasingly heavy workloads, deal with strenuous demands and become more acquainted with non-humanistic informal practices inherent in the culture of medicine. In combination, these factors increase the likelihood that emotional suppression, detachment from patients, burnout and other negative consequences may result, perhaps as a means of self-preservation. Alternatively, by making a mindful and intentional choice to endeavour for self-care and a healthy work-life balance, medical students can uphold humanistic and prosocial attitudes and behaviours. Promoting altruism in the context of a compensated health care career is contradictory and misguided. Instead, an approach to clinical care that is prosocial and empathic is recommended. Training in mindfulness, self-reflection and emotion skills may help medical students and professionals to recognise, regulate and behaviourally demonstrate empathy within clinical and professional encounters. However, health care initiatives to increase empathy and other humanistic qualities will be limited unless more practical and feasible emotion skills training is

Altruism as hedonism: a social development perspective on the relationship of negative mood state and helping.

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Cialdini, R B; Kenrick, D T

1976-11-01

A study was conducted to provide a means for reconciliation of the conflicting data on the relationship of negative mood state to altruism. Whereas some studies have shown that negative mood leads to increases in altruistic action, others have shown the reverse. It was hypothesized that the inconsistency of these results was due to differences in the ages and consequent levels of socialization of the subjects employed in the earlier studies. In order to test the hypothesis, subjects from three age groups (6-8, 10-12, and 15-18 years old) were asked to think of either depressing or neutral events and were subsequently given the opportunity to be privately generous. Consistent with predictions from the negative state relief model of altruism, the youngest, least socialized subjects were somewhat less generous in the negative mood condition, but this relationship progressively reversed itself until in the oldest, most socialized group, the negative mood subjects were significantly more generous than neutral mood controls. The data were taken as support for a hedonistic conception of altruism that views adult benevolence as self-gratification. It is suggested that the reward character of benevolence derives from the socialization experience.

Testosterone is associated with cooperation during intergroup competition by enhancing parochial altruism

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Luise eReimers

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The steroid hormone testosterone is widely associated with negative behavioral effects, such as aggression or dominance. However, recent studies applying economic exchange tasks revealed conflicting results. While some point to a prosocial effect of testosterone by increasing altruistic behavior, others report that testosterone promotes antisocial tendencies. Taking into account additional factors such as parochial altruism (i.e., ingroup favoritism and outgroup hostility might help to explain this contradiction. First evidence for a link between testosterone and parochial altruism comes from recently reported data of male soccer fans playing the ultimatum game. In this study high levels of endogenous testosterone predicted increased altruistic punishment during outgroup interactions and at the same time heightened ingroup generosity. Here, we report findings of another experimental task, the prisoner’s dilemma, applied in the same context to examine the role of testosterone on parochial tendencies in terms of cooperation. In this task, fifty male soccer fans were asked to decide whether or not they wanted to cooperate with partners marked as either fans of the subject’s own favorite team (ingroup or fans of other teams (outgroups. Our results show that high testosterone levels were associated with increased ingroup cooperation during intergroup competition. In addition, subjects displaying a high degree of parochialism during intergroup competition had significantly higher levels of testosterone than subjects who did not differentiate much between the different groups. In sum, the present data demonstrate that the behavioral effects of testosterone are not limited to aggressive and selfish tendencies but may imply prosocial aspects depending on the context. By this means, our results support the previously reported findings on testosterone-dependent intergroup bias and indicate that this social hormone might be an important factor driving

Testosterone is associated with cooperation during intergroup competition by enhancing parochial altruism.

Science.gov (United States)

Reimers, Luise; Diekhof, Esther K

2015-01-01

The steroid hormone testosterone is widely associated with negative behavioral effects, such as aggression or dominance. However, recent studies applying economic exchange tasks revealed conflicting results. While some point to a prosocial effect of testosterone by increasing altruistic behavior, others report that testosterone promotes antisocial tendencies. Taking into account additional factors such as parochial altruism (i.e., ingroup favoritism and outgroup hostility) might help to explain this contradiction. First evidence for a link between testosterone and parochial altruism comes from recently reported data of male soccer fans playing the ultimatum game. In this study high levels of endogenous testosterone predicted increased altruistic punishment during outgroup interactions and at the same time heightened ingroup generosity. Here, we report findings of another experimental task, the prisoner's dilemma, applied in the same context to examine the role of testosterone on parochial tendencies in terms of cooperation. In this task, 50 male soccer fans were asked to decide whether or not they wanted to cooperate with partners marked as either fans of the subject's own favorite team (ingroup) or fans of other teams (outgroups). Our results show that high testosterone levels were associated with increased ingroup cooperation during intergroup competition. In addition, subjects displaying a high degree of parochialism during intergroup competition had significantly higher levels of testosterone than subjects who did not differentiate much between the different groups. In sum, the present data demonstrate that the behavioral effects of testosterone are not limited to aggressive and selfish tendencies but may imply prosocial aspects depending on the context. By this means, our results support the previously reported findings on testosterone-dependent intergroup bias and indicate that this social hormone might be an important factor driving parochial altruism.

A model for gossip-mediated evolution of altruism with various types of false information by speakers and assessment by listeners.

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Seki, Motohide; Nakamaru, Mayuko

2016-10-21

Indirect reciprocity is considered to be important for explaining altruism among humans. The evolution of altruism has been modeled using several types of reputational scores, most of which were assumed to be updated immediately after each game session. In this study, we introduce gossip sessions held between game sessions to capture the spread of reputation and examine the effects of false information intentionally introduced by some players. Analytical and individual-based simulation results indicated that the frequent exchange of gossip favored the evolution of altruism when no players started false information. In contrast, intermediate repetitions of gossip sessions were favored when the population included liars or biased gossipers. In addition, we found that a gossip listener's strategy of incorporating any gossip regardless of speakers usually worked better than an alternative strategy of not believing gossip from untrustworthy players. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Altruism as a courtship display: some effects of third-party generosity on audience perceptions.

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Barclay, Pat

2010-02-01

Public generosity may be a means to convincingly advertise one's good character. This hypothesis suggests that altruistic individuals will be desirable as romantic partners. Few studies have tested this prediction, and these showed mixed results. Some studies have found that altruism is not particularly attractive; other studies showed that altruism is attractive by contrasting descriptions of 'nice guys' with 'jerks'. The present study sought to resolve this debate by having participants read a series of experimentally manipulated vignettes of persons with corresponding photographs, such that altruistic vignettes were compared with control descriptions that differed only in the presence or absence of small hints of altruistic tendencies. Altruists were more desirable for long-term relationships than neutral individuals. Women also preferred altruists for single dates whereas men had no such preference. These results are discussed with regard to the idea that people (males in particular) signal their good character via generosity.

Hamilton's inclusive fitness maintains heritable altruism polymorphism through rb = c.

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Wang, Changcao; Lu, Xin

2018-02-20

How can altruism evolve or be maintained in a selfish world? Hamilton's rule shows that the former process will occur when rb > c -the benefits to the recipients of an altruistic act b , weighted by the relatedness between the social partners r , exceed the costs to the altruists c -drives altruistic genotypes spreading against nonaltruistic ones. From this rule, we infer that altruistic genotypes will persist in a population by forming a stable heritable polymorphism with nonaltruistic genotypes if rb = c makes inclusive fitness of the two morphs equal. We test this prediction using the data of 12 years of study on a cooperatively breeding bird, the Tibetan ground tit Pseudopodoces humilis , where helping is performed by males only and kin-directed. Individual variation in ever acting as a helper was heritable ( h 2 = 0.47), and the resultant altruism polymorphism remained stable as indicated by low-level annual fluctuation of the percentage of helpers among all adult males (24-28%). Helpers' indirect fitness gains from increased lifetime reproductive success of related breeders statistically fully compensated for their lifetime direct fitness losses, suggesting that rb = c holds. While our work provides a fundamental support for Hamilton's idea, it highlights the equivalent inclusive fitness returns to altruists and nonaltruists mediated by rb = c as a theoretically and realistically important mechanism to maintain social polymorphism.

Altruism and skepticism in public attitudes toward food nanotechnologies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brown, J.; Fatehi, L.; Kuzma, J.

2015-01-01

To better explore and understand the public's perceptions of and attitudes toward emerging technologies and food products, we conducted a US-based focus group study centered on nanotechnology, nano-food, and nano-food labeling. Seven focus groups were conducted in seven locations in two different US metropolitan areas from September 2010 to January 2011. In addition to revealing context-specific data on already established risk and public perception factors, our goal was to inductively identify other nano-food perception factors of significance for consideration when analyzing why and how perceptions and attitudes are formed to nanotechnology in food. Two such factors that emerged—altruism and skepticism—are particularly interesting in that they may be situated between different theoretical frameworks that have been used for explaining perception and attitude. We argue that they may represent a convergence point among theories that each help explain different aspects of both how food nanotechnologies are perceived and why those perceptions are formed. In this paper, we first review theoretical frameworks for evaluating risk perception and attitudes toward emerging technologies, then review previous work on public perception of nanotechnology and nano-food, describe our qualitative content analysis results for public perception toward nano-food—focusing especially on altruism and skepticism, and discuss implications of these findings in terms of how public attitudes toward nano-food could be formed and understood. Finally, we propose that paying attention to these two factors may guide more responsible development of nano-food in the future

Altruism and skepticism in public attitudes toward food nanotechnologies

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Brown, J. [University of Minnesota, Department of Educational Psychology, College of Education and Human Development (United States); Fatehi, L. [Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota (United States); Kuzma, J., E-mail: jkuzma@ncsu.edu [North Carolina State University, School of Public and International Affairs and Genetic Engineering and Society Center (United States)

2015-03-15

To better explore and understand the public's perceptions of and attitudes toward emerging technologies and food products, we conducted a US-based focus group study centered on nanotechnology, nano-food, and nano-food labeling. Seven focus groups were conducted in seven locations in two different US metropolitan areas from September 2010 to January 2011. In addition to revealing context-specific data on already established risk and public perception factors, our goal was to inductively identify other nano-food perception factors of significance for consideration when analyzing why and how perceptions and attitudes are formed to nanotechnology in food. Two such factors that emerged—altruism and skepticism—are particularly interesting in that they may be situated between different theoretical frameworks that have been used for explaining perception and attitude. We argue that they may represent a convergence point among theories that each help explain different aspects of both how food nanotechnologies are perceived and why those perceptions are formed. In this paper, we first review theoretical frameworks for evaluating risk perception and attitudes toward emerging technologies, then review previous work on public perception of nanotechnology and nano-food, describe our qualitative content analysis results for public perception toward nano-food—focusing especially on altruism and skepticism, and discuss implications of these findings in terms of how public attitudes toward nano-food could be formed and understood. Finally, we propose that paying attention to these two factors may guide more responsible development of nano-food in the future.

Are Women’s Mate Preferences for Altruism Also Influenced by Physical Attractiveness?

OpenAIRE

Daniel Farrelly; Paul Clemson; Melissa Guthrie

2016-01-01

Altruism plays a role in mate choice, particularly in women’s preferences, and particularly for long-term relationships. The current study analyzed how these preferences interacted with another important mate choice variable, physical attractiveness. Here, female participants were presented with photographs of men of varying levels of physical attractiveness, alongside descriptions of them behaving either altruistically or not in different scenarios. The results showed women preferred altruis...

Intelligence, competitive altruism, and "clever silliness" may underlie bias in academe.

Science.gov (United States)

Madison, Guy; Dutton, Edward; Stern, Charlotta

2017-01-01

Why is social bias and its depressing effects on low-status or low-performing groups exaggerated? We show that the higher intelligence of academics has at best a very weak effect on reducing their bias, facilitates superficially justifying their biases, and may make them better at understanding the benefits of social conformity in general and competitive altruism specifically. We foresee a surge in research examining these mechanisms and recommend, meanwhile, reviving and better observing scientific ideals.

Origins of altruism diversity I: The diverse ecological roles of altruistic strategies and their evolutionary responses to local competition.

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Van Dyken, J David; Wade, Michael J

2012-08-01

Nature abounds with a rich variety of altruistic strategies, including public resource enhancement, resource provisioning, communal foraging, alarm calling, and nest defense. Yet, despite their vastly different ecological roles, current theory typically treats diverse altruistic traits as being favored under the same general conditions. Here, we introduce greater ecological realism into social evolution theory and find evidence of at least four distinct modes of altruism. Contrary to existing theory, we find that altruistic traits contributing to "resource-enhancement" (e.g., siderophore production, provisioning, agriculture) and "resource-efficiency" (e.g., pack hunting, communication) are most strongly favored when there is strong local competition. These resource-based modes of helping are "K-strategies" that increase a social group's growth yield, and should characterize species with scarce resources and/or high local crowding caused by low mortality, high fecundity, and/or mortality occurring late in the process of resource-acquisition. The opposite conditions, namely weak local competition (abundant resource, low crowding), favor survival (e.g., nest defense) and fecundity (e.g., nurse workers) altruism, which are "r-strategies" that increase a social group's growth rate. We find that survival altruism is uniquely favored by a novel evolutionary force that we call "sunk cost selection." Sunk cost selection favors helping that prevents resources from being wasted on individuals destined to die before reproduction. Our results contribute to explaining the observed natural diversity of altruistic strategies, reveal the necessary connection between the evolution and the ecology of sociality, and correct the widespread but inaccurate view that local competition uniformly impedes the evolution of altruism. © 2012 The Author(s). Evolution© 2012 The Society for the Study of Evolution.

Why Do Babies Cry: Once Again About Egoism and Altruism

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Levit L.Z.

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The article deals with a ratio between egoistic and altruistic components in a person’s motivation and activity. The author provides new interpretations for the widely known examples of altruistic behavior. The results of experimental investigations discovering positive correlations, which exist between egoism and altruism in a person’s daily activity, are quoted. The author touches upon the problem of egoism as a new possible subject of psychology. The incorporation of egoism concept into the structure of modern humanitarian science opens new perspectives for theorizing and experimental investigations

The (Null) Effect of Affective Touch on Betrayal Aversion, Altruism, and Risk Taking.

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Koppel, Lina; Andersson, David; Morrison, India; Västfjäll, Daniel; Tinghög, Gustav

2017-01-01

Pleasant touch is thought to increase the release of oxytocin. Oxytocin, in turn, has been extensively studied with regards to its effects on trust and prosocial behavior, but results remain inconsistent. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of touch on economic decision making. Participants ( n = 120) were stroked on their left arm using a soft brush (touch condition) or not at all (control condition; varied within subjects), while they performed a series of decision tasks assessing betrayal aversion (the Betrayal Aversion Elicitation Task), altruism (donating money to a charitable organization), and risk taking (the Balloon Analog Risk Task). We found no significant effect of touch on any of the outcome measures, neither within nor between subjects. Furthermore, effects were not moderated by gender or attachment. However, attachment avoidance had a significant effect on altruism in that those who were high in avoidance donated less money. Our findings contribute to the understanding of affective touch-and, by extension, oxytocin-in social behavior, and decision making by showing that touch does not directly influence performance in tasks involving risk and prosocial decisions. Specifically, our work casts further doubt on the validity of oxytocin research in humans.

The development of egalitarianism, altruism, spite and parochialism in childhood and adolescence?

OpenAIRE

FEHR, Ernst; GLÄTZLE-RÜTZLER, Daniela; SUTTER, Matthias

2013-01-01

Available online 15 October 2013. We study how the distribution of other-regarding preferences develops with age. Based on a set of allocation choices, we classify each of 717 subjects, aged 8 to 17 years, as either egalitarian, altruistic, or spiteful. We find a strong decrease in spitefulness with increasing age. Egalitarianism becomes less frequent, and altruism much more prominent, with age. Females are more frequently classified as egalitarian than males, and less often as altruistic....

Does Theorizing on Reciprocal Altruism Apply to the Relationships of Individuals with a Spinal Cord Injury?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Buunk, A. P.; Zurriaga, Rosario; Gonzalez, Pilar

2012-01-01

From the perspective of reciprocal altruism, we examined the role of reciprocity in the close relationships of people inflicted with a spinal cord injury (SCI) (n = 70). We focused on the help receiver rather than on the help giver. Participants perceived more reciprocity in relationships with

Protecting the Environment for Self-interested Reasons: Altruism Is Not the Only Pathway to Sustainability.

Science.gov (United States)

De Dominicis, Stefano; Schultz, P Wesley; Bonaiuto, Marino

2017-01-01

Concerns for environmental issues are important drivers of sustainable and pro-environmental behaviors, and can be differentiated between those with a self-enhancing (egoistic) vs. self-transcendent (biospheric) psychological foundation. Yet to date, the dominant approach for promoting pro-environmental behavior has focused on highlighting the benefits to others or nature, rather than appealing to self-interest. Building on the Inclusion Model for Environmental Concern, we argue that egoistic and biospheric environmental concerns, respectively, conceptualized as self-interest and altruism, are hierarchically structured, such that altruism is inclusive of self-interest. Three studies show that self-interested individuals will behave more pro-environmentally when the behavior results in a personal benefit (but not when there is exclusively an environmental benefit), while altruistic individuals will engage in pro-environmental behaviors when there are environmental benefits, and critically, also when there are personal benefits. The reported findings have implications for programs and policies designed to promote pro-environmental behavior, and for social science research aimed at understanding human responses to a changing environment.

Protecting the Environment for Self-interested Reasons: Altruism Is Not the Only Pathway to Sustainability

Science.gov (United States)

De Dominicis, Stefano; Schultz, P. Wesley; Bonaiuto, Marino

2017-01-01

Concerns for environmental issues are important drivers of sustainable and pro-environmental behaviors, and can be differentiated between those with a self-enhancing (egoistic) vs. self-transcendent (biospheric) psychological foundation. Yet to date, the dominant approach for promoting pro-environmental behavior has focused on highlighting the benefits to others or nature, rather than appealing to self-interest. Building on the Inclusion Model for Environmental Concern, we argue that egoistic and biospheric environmental concerns, respectively, conceptualized as self-interest and altruism, are hierarchically structured, such that altruism is inclusive of self-interest. Three studies show that self-interested individuals will behave more pro-environmentally when the behavior results in a personal benefit (but not when there is exclusively an environmental benefit), while altruistic individuals will engage in pro-environmental behaviors when there are environmental benefits, and critically, also when there are personal benefits. The reported findings have implications for programs and policies designed to promote pro-environmental behavior, and for social science research aimed at understanding human responses to a changing environment. PMID:28701979

Protecting the Environment for Self-interested Reasons: Altruism Is Not the Only Pathway to Sustainability

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Stefano De Dominicis

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Concerns for environmental issues are important drivers of sustainable and pro-environmental behaviors, and can be differentiated between those with a self-enhancing (egoistic vs. self-transcendent (biospheric psychological foundation. Yet to date, the dominant approach for promoting pro-environmental behavior has focused on highlighting the benefits to others or nature, rather than appealing to self-interest. Building on the Inclusion Model for Environmental Concern, we argue that egoistic and biospheric environmental concerns, respectively, conceptualized as self-interest and altruism, are hierarchically structured, such that altruism is inclusive of self-interest. Three studies show that self-interested individuals will behave more pro-environmentally when the behavior results in a personal benefit (but not when there is exclusively an environmental benefit, while altruistic individuals will engage in pro-environmental behaviors when there are environmental benefits, and critically, also when there are personal benefits. The reported findings have implications for programs and policies designed to promote pro-environmental behavior, and for social science research aimed at understanding human responses to a changing environment.

The (Null Effect of Affective Touch on Betrayal Aversion, Altruism, and Risk Taking

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Lina Koppel

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Pleasant touch is thought to increase the release of oxytocin. Oxytocin, in turn, has been extensively studied with regards to its effects on trust and prosocial behavior, but results remain inconsistent. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of touch on economic decision making. Participants (n = 120 were stroked on their left arm using a soft brush (touch condition or not at all (control condition; varied within subjects, while they performed a series of decision tasks assessing betrayal aversion (the Betrayal Aversion Elicitation Task, altruism (donating money to a charitable organization, and risk taking (the Balloon Analog Risk Task. We found no significant effect of touch on any of the outcome measures, neither within nor between subjects. Furthermore, effects were not moderated by gender or attachment. However, attachment avoidance had a significant effect on altruism in that those who were high in avoidance donated less money. Our findings contribute to the understanding of affective touch—and, by extension, oxytocin—in social behavior, and decision making by showing that touch does not directly influence performance in tasks involving risk and prosocial decisions. Specifically, our work casts further doubt on the validity of oxytocin research in humans.

Overlapping generations or infinitely-lived agents. Intergenerational altruism and the economics of global warming

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stephan, G.; Mueller-Fuerstenberger, G.; Previdoli, P.

1997-01-01

Do we need an overlapping generations model for the economics of global warming? To answer this question, an infinitely-lived agent (ILA) approach and an overlapping generations (OLG) model are contrasted. ILA and OLG can be viewed as polar representations of intergenerational altruism. With ILA an immortal agent acts through his investments/savings decisions as trustee on the behalf of the future generations. With OLG, agents need not behave altruistic. They simply save during working years and dissave completely during retirement. Nevertheless, ILA and OLG must not differ in their implication for greenhouse policy. Greenhouse gas abatement is a straightforward alternative to physical capital formation and, even without altruism, each age cohort has an incentive to provide current abatement in order to reduce future damages attributable to climate change. Indeed, under reasonable assumptions and parameter values, our simulations reveal such an invariance result. Provided carbon taxes are the only policy tool and tax revenues are recycled through socially mandated rules, projections of economic growth, climate change and energy consumption are only insignificantly affected by the choice of approach. 4 figs., 2 tabs., 14 refs

Overlapping generations or infinitely-lived agents. Intergenerational altruism and the economics of global warming

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Stephan, G.; Mueller-Fuerstenberger, G.; Previdoli, P. [Department of Applied Microeconomics, University of Bern, Bern (Switzerland)

1997-07-01

Do we need an overlapping generations model for the economics of global warming? To answer this question, an infinitely-lived agent (ILA) approach and an overlapping generations (OLG) model are contrasted. ILA and OLG can be viewed as polar representations of intergenerational altruism. With ILA an immortal agent acts through his investments/savings decisions as trustee on the behalf of the future generations. With OLG, agents need not behave altruistic. They simply save during working years and dissave completely during retirement. Nevertheless, ILA and OLG must not differ in their implication for greenhouse policy. Greenhouse gas abatement is a straightforward alternative to physical capital formation and, even without altruism, each age cohort has an incentive to provide current abatement in order to reduce future damages attributable to climate change. Indeed, under reasonable assumptions and parameter values, our simulations reveal such an invariance result. Provided carbon taxes are the only policy tool and tax revenues are recycled through socially mandated rules, projections of economic growth, climate change and energy consumption are only insignificantly affected by the choice of approach. 4 figs., 2 tabs., 14 refs.

RATIONAL-IRRATIONAL ELECTORAL PREFERENCES, ALTRUISM AND EXPRESSIVE BEHAVIOR

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Mihai Ungureanu

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Caplan (2000, 2001, 2006 proposed the rational-irrationality model arguing that irrationality is a good as any other, whose consumption is maximized in relation to its costs and benefits. Applying this model to the problem of electoral behavior Caplan implies that voters ‘afford’ many irrational beliefs, because the lack of individual decisiveness renders vote as a consequenceless act. This paper contributes to the development of knowledge by analyzing the compatibility of rational irrationality with active electoral behavior. Two important arguments are being proposed: First, Wittman’s (2008 intuition that rational irrationality is incompatible with voting could be supported only about a particular type of altruism, which Caplan actually seems to reject. Second, rational irrationality seems to be compatible with expressive motivations, reinforcing the conclusion that rational-irrational individuals are active voters in mass elections.

How informed is declared altruism in clinical trials? A qualitative interview study of patient decision-making about the QUEST trials (Quality of Life after Mastectomy and Breast Reconstruction)

OpenAIRE

Bidad, Natalie; MacDonald, Lindsay; Winters, Zoë E; Edwards, Sarah J L; Emson, Marie; Griffin, Clare L.; Bliss, Judith; Horne, Rob

2016-01-01

Background: Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) often fail to recruit sufficient participants, despite altruism being cited as their motivation. Previous investigations of factors influencing participation decisions have been methodologically limited. This study evaluated how women weigh up different motivations after initially expressing altruism, and explored their understanding of a trial and its alternatives. The trial was the 'Quality of Life after Mastectomy and Breast Reconstruction' (...

'You scratch my back and I scratch yours' versus 'love thy neighbour' : two proximate mechanisms of reciprocal altruism

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Smaniotto, Rita Caterina

2004-01-01

Evolutionary psychologists generally believe that reciprocal altruism, the mutual providing of benefits, is governed by a ‘You scratch my back and I scratch yours’, or scorekeeping mechanism. According to this view, individuals are primarily concerned with maintaining a balanced relationship; that

Career motivation and burnout among medical students in Hungary - could altruism be a protection factor?

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Győrffy, Zsuzsa; Birkás, Emma; Sándor, Imola

2016-07-18

Burnout is a major issue among medical students. Its general characteristics are loss of interest in study and lack of motivation. A study of the phenomenon must extend beyond the university environment and personality factors to consider whether career choice has a role in the occurrence of burnout. Quantitative, national survey (n = 733) among medical students, using a 12-item career motivation list compiled from published research results and a pilot study. We measured burnout by the validated Hungarian version of MBI-SS. The most significant career choice factor was altruistic motivation, followed by extrinsic motivations: gaining a degree, finding a job, accessing career opportunities. Lack of altruism was found to be a major risk factor, in addition to the traditional risk factors, for cynicism and reduced academic efficacy. Our study confirmed the influence of gender differences on both career choice motivations and burnout. The structure of career motivation is a major issue in the transformation of the medical profession. Since altruism is a prominent motivation for many women studying medicine, their entry into the profession in increasing numbers may reinforce its traditional character and act against the present trend of deprofessionalization.

Biofilms promote altruism.

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Kreft, Jan-Ulrich

2004-08-01

The origin of altruism is a fundamental problem in evolution, and the maintenance of biodiversity is a fundamental problem in ecology. These two problems combine with the fundamental microbiological question of whether it is always advantageous for a unicellular organism to grow as fast as possible. The common basis for these three themes is a trade-off between growth rate and growth yield, which in turn is based on irreversible thermodynamics. The trade-off creates an evolutionary alternative between two strategies: high growth yield at low growth rate versus high growth rate at low growth yield. High growth yield at low growth rate is a case of an altruistic strategy because it increases the fitness of the group by using resources economically at the cost of decreased fitness, or growth rate, of the individual. The group-beneficial behaviour is advantageous in the long term, whereas the high growth rate strategy is advantageous in the short term. Coexistence of species requires differences between their niches, and niche space is typically divided into four 'axes' (time, space, resources, predators). This neglects survival strategies based on cooperation, which extend the possibilities of coexistence, arguing for the inclusion of cooperation as the fifth 'axis'. Here, individual-based model simulations show that spatial structure, as in, for example, biofilms, is necessary for the origin and maintenance of this 'primitive' altruistic strategy and that the common belief that growth rate but not yield decides the outcome of competition is based on chemostat models and experiments. This evolutionary perspective on life in biofilms can explain long-known biofilm characteristics, such as the structural organization into microcolonies, the often-observed lack of mixing among microcolonies, and the shedding of single cells, as promoting the origin and maintenance of the altruistic strategy. Whereas biofilms enrich altruists, enrichment cultures, microbiology's paradigm

A Comparative Investigation of TPB and Altruism Frameworks for an Empirically Based Communication Approach to Enhance Paper Recycling

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Chaisamrej, Rungrat; Zimmerman, Rick S.

2014-01-01

This research compared the ability of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and the altruism framework (AM) to predict paper-recycling behavior. It was comprised of formative research and a major survey. Data collected from 628 undergraduate students in Thailand were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results showed that TPB was superior…

Vocation and altruism in nursing: the habits of practice.

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Carter, Melody

2014-09-01

At a time when British nursing has been under scrutiny for an apparent lack of compassion in education and practice, this paper based offers a perspective on the notions of vocation and altruism in nursing. To understand the vocational and altruistic motivations of nurses through the application of Pierre Bourdieu's concepts of 'symbolic capital', 'field' and 'habitus' through a long interview with nurse respondents. A reflexive qualitative study was undertaken using the long interview. A thematic analysis of the data, using a qualitative data software package for analysis, was undertaken. The ideas of Pierre Bourdieu (Habitus, Capital and Field) were used to analyse and explain the content of community nurses' 'talk'. Twelve Community Nurses working in a variety of local primary care settings volunteered to participate in the study. It was a self-selecting convenience sample of nurses responding to an invitation to be interviewed. A study in support of a doctoral thesis conducted within NHS primary care settings with registered nurses. The key considerations for this study were to be mindful of the possibility of emotional harm or distress being caused to the respondents during the retelling of their experiences. It was also essential to ensure that the locations or names of patients or staff (if discussed) were anonymised. Ethical approval was sought and granted by both the Local NHS Primary Care and the University Ethics committees before the study commenced. The nurse respondents had highly individual and at times contradictory views on their motivations to nurse including their views on vocation and altruism in nursing careers. Bourdieu's ideas apply well to the nursing context and provided a useful theoretical framework to explore the social and cultural influences on nursing careers. Gender is important consideration in all aspects of nursing but class and educational experience is an important dimension in the stories nurses tell. The culturally determined

Reputational concerns, not altruism, motivate restraint when gambling with other people's money

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Kodi B. Arfer

2015-06-01

Full Text Available People may behave prosocially not only because they value the welfare of others, but also to protect their own reputation. We examined the separate roles of altruism and reputational concerns in moral-hazard gambling tasks, which allowed subjects to gamble with a partner's money. In Study 1, subjects who were told that their partner would see their choices were more prosocial. In Study 2, subjects were more prosocial to a single partner when their choices were transparent than when their choices were attributed to a third party. We conclude that reputational concerns are a key restraint on selfish exploitation under moral hazard.

In Intergroup Conflict, Self-sacrifice is Stronger among Pro-social Individuals and Parochial Altruism Emerges specially among Cognitively Taxed Individuals

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Carsten K.W. De Dreu

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Parochial altruism is decomposed in a tendency to benefit the in-group along with a tendency to ignore, derogate, and harm rivaling out-groups. Building off recent work suggesting that decisions to cooperate can be relatively fast and intuitive, we examine parochial altruism in intergroup conflict when cognitive deliberation is rendered difficult or not. Predictions were tested in an experiment using an incentivized Intergroup Prisoner’s Dilemma—Maximizing Differences Game (IPD-MD with ninety-five subjects classified as either pro-social or pro-self being randomly allocated to high vs. low impulse-control conditions. Results showed, first of all, that decisions to contribute and self-sacrifice were made faster than decisions not to contribute, and that longer decision time associated with less positive expectations of in-group members. Second, we observed that lowering impulse control with a difficult rather than easy Stroop Task increased the amount contributed to a pool that benefited in-group members while harming out-group members; thus reducing deliberation increased parochial altruism. Finally, results replicated earlier work showing that especially pro-social (versus pro-self individuals contributed more to the in-group and did not lower their contributions to the between-group pool that benefitted their in-group and, simultaneously, hurt the out-group. This pattern emerged independent of their impulse control. Thus, (in-group bounded cooperation is more prominent among individuals with strong rather than weak other-regarding preferences. Moreover, the intuitive tendency to cooperate may have evolved in the context of intergroup conflict and therefore is sharp-edged—in-group bounded and including willingness to aggress out-groups.

Evolution of altruism in spatial prisoner's dilemma: Intra- and inter-cellular interactions

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Yokoi, Hiroki; Uehara, Takashi; Sakata, Tomoyuki; Naito, Hiromi; Morita, Satoru; Tainaka, Kei-ichi

2014-12-01

Iterated prisoner's dilemma game is carried out on lattice with “colony” structure. Each cell is regarded as a colony which contains plural players with an identical strategy. Both intra- and inter-cellular interactions are assumed. In the former a player plays with all other players in the same colony, while in the latter he plays with one player each from adjacent colonies. Spatial patterns among four typical strategies exhibit various dynamics and winners. Both theory and simulation reveal that All Cooperation (AC) wins, when the members of colony or the intensity of noise increases. This result explains the evolution of altruism in animal societies, even though errors easily occur in animal communications.

Chill-inducing music enhances altruism in humans

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Hajime eFukui

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Music is a universal feature of human cultures, and it has both fascinated and troubled many researchers. In this paper we show through the Dictator Game that an individual’s listening to preferred chill-inducing music may promote altruistic behavior that extends beyond the bounds of kin selection or reciprocal altruism. Participants were 22 undergraduate and postgraduate students who were divided into two groups, the In-group (IG and the Out-group (OG, and they acted as dictators. The dictators listened to their own preferred chill-inducing music, to music they disliked, or to silence, and then played the Dictator Game. In this hypothetical experiment, the dictators were given real money (which they did not keep and were asked to distribute it to the recipients, who were presented as stylized images of men and women displayed on a computer screen. The dictators played the Dictator Game both before and after listening to the music. Both male and female dictators gave more money after listening to their preferred music and less after listening to the music they disliked, whereas silence had no effect on the allocated amounts. The group to which the recipient belonged did not influence these trends. The results suggest that listening to preferred chill-inducing music promotes altruistic behavior.

Chill-inducing music enhances altruism in humans.

Science.gov (United States)

Fukui, Hajime; Toyoshima, Kumiko

2014-01-01

Music is a universal feature of human cultures, and it has both fascinated and troubled many researchers. In this paper we show through the dictator game (DG) that an individual's listening to preferred "chill-inducing" music may promote altruistic behavior that extends beyond the bounds of kin selection or reciprocal altruism. Participants were 22 undergraduate and postgraduate students who were divided into two groups, the in-group and the out-group, and they acted as dictators. The dictators listened to their own preferred "chill-inducing" music, to music they disliked, or to silence, and then played the DG. In this hypothetical experiment, the dictators were given real money (which they did not keep) and were asked to distribute it to the recipients, who were presented as stylized images of men and women displayed on a computer screen. The dictators played the DG both before and after listening to the music. Both male and female dictators gave more money after listening to their preferred music and less after listening to the music they disliked, whereas silence had no effect on the allocated amounts. The group to which the recipient belonged did not influence these trends. The results suggest that listening to preferred "chill-inducing" music promotes altruistic behavior.

Altruism, Rivalry and Crowding-Out in the Nonprofit Firm's Supply of Charity Services: The Case of Hospitals

OpenAIRE

Richard G. Frank; David S. Salkever

1988-01-01

This paper extends previous research on Individuals' supply of charitable donations to the behavior of nonprofit firms. Specifically, we study provision of charity care by private, nonprofit hospitals. We demonstrate that In the absence of large positive income effects on charity care supply, convex preferences for the nonprofit hospital imply crowding out by other private or government hospitals. Extending our model to include patient heterogeneity and impure altruism (rivalry) provides a po...

Does Competition Really Bring Out the Worst? Testosterone, Social Distance and Inter-Male Competition Shape Parochial Altruism in Human Males

Science.gov (United States)

Diekhof, Esther Kristina; Wittmer, Susanne; Reimers, Luise

2014-01-01

Parochial altruism, defined as increased ingroup favoritism and heightened outgroup hostility, is a widespread feature of human societies that affects altruistic cooperation and punishment behavior, particularly in intergroup conflicts. Humans tend to protect fellow group members and fight against outsiders, even at substantial costs for themselves. Testosterone modulates responses to competition and social threat, but its exact role in the context of parochial altruism remains controversial. Here, we investigated how testosterone influences altruistic punishment tendencies in the presence of an intergroup competition. Fifty male soccer fans played an ultimatum game (UG), in which they faced anonymous proposers that could either be a fan of the same soccer team (ingroup) or were fans of other teams (outgroups) that differed in the degree of social distance and enmity to the ingroup. The UG was played in two contexts with varying degrees of intergroup rivalry. Our data show that unfair offers were rejected more frequently than fair proposals and the frequency of altruistic punishment increased with increasing social distance to the outgroups. Adding an intergroup competition led to a further escalation of outgroup hostility and reduced punishment of unfair ingroup members. High testosterone levels were associated with a relatively increased ingroup favoritism and also a change towards enhanced outgroup hostility in the intergroup competition. High testosterone concentrations further predicted increased proposer generosity in interactions with the ingroup. Altogether, a significant relation between testosterone and parochial altruism could be demonstrated, but only in the presence of an intergroup competition. In human males, testosterone may promote group coherence in the face of external threat, even against the urge to selfishly maximize personal reward. In that way, our observation refutes the view that testosterone generally promotes antisocial behaviors and

Doing Good, Feeling Good, and Having More: Resources Mediate the Health Benefits of Altruism Differently for Males and Females with Lumbar Spine Disorders

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schwartz, Carolyn E.; Quaranto, Brian R.; Bode, Rita; Finkelstein, Joel A.; Glazer, Paul A.; Sprangers, Mirjam A. G.

2012-01-01

We evaluated whether resources mediate and/or moderate the relationship between altruism and health outcomes in adults with lumbar spine disorders. Hierarchical regression modeling on 243 persons with lumbar spine disorders evaluated gender differences and whether physical, emotional, and economic

Digital altruists: Resolving key questions about the empathy-altruism hypothesis in an Internet sample.

Science.gov (United States)

McAuliffe, William H B; Forster, Daniel E; Philippe, Joachner; McCullough, Michael E

2018-06-01

Researchers have identified the capacity to take the perspective of others as a precursor to empathy-induced altruistic motivation. Consequently, investigators frequently use so-called perspective-taking instructions to manipulate empathic concern. However, most experiments using perspective-taking instructions have had modest sample sizes, undermining confidence in the replicability of results. In addition, it is unknown whether perspective-taking instructions work because they increase empathic concern or because comparison conditions reduce empathic concern (or both). Finally, some researchers have found that egoistic factors that do not involve empathic concern, including self-oriented emotions and self-other overlap, mediate the relationship between perspective-taking instructions and helping. The present investigation was a high-powered, preregistered effort that addressed methodological shortcomings of previous experiments to clarify how and when perspective-taking manipulations affect emotional arousal and prosocial motivation in a prototypical experimental paradigm administered over the Internet. Perspective-taking instructions did not clearly increase empathic concern; this null finding was not due to ceiling effects. Instructions to remain objective, on the other hand, unequivocally reduced empathic concern relative to a no-instructions control condition. Empathic concern was the most strongly felt emotion in all conditions, suggesting that distressed targets primarily elicit other-oriented concern. Empathic concern uniquely predicted the quality of social support provided to the target, which supports the empathy-altruism hypothesis and contradicts the role of self-oriented emotions and self-other overlap in explaining helping behavior. Empathy-induced altruism may be responsible for many prosocial acts that occur in everyday settings, including the increasing number of prosocial acts that occur online. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights

Pro-community altruism and social status in a Shuar village.

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Price, Michael E

2003-06-01

Reciprocity theory (RT) and costly signaling theory (CST) provide different explanations for the high status of pro-community altruists: RT proposes that altruists are positively and negatively sanctioned by others, whereas CST proposes that altruists are attractive to others. Only RT, however, is beset by first- and higher-order free rider problems, which must be solved in order for RT to explain status allocations. In this paper, several solutions to RT's free rider problems are proposed, and data about status allocations to Ecuadorian Shuar pro-community altruists are analyzed in light of RT and CST. These data confirm that perceived pro-community altruists are indeed high status and suggest that (1) community residents skillfully monitor the altruism of coresidents, (2) residents who engage in opportunities to broadcast desirable qualities are high status only to the extent that they are considered altruistic, and (3) individuals who sanction coresidents based on coresidents' contributions to the community are themselves relatively high status. To a greater extent than CST, RT straightforwardly predicts all of these results.

Altruism, Helping, and Volunteering: Pathways to Well-Being in Late Life

Science.gov (United States)

Kahana, Eva; Bhatta, Tirth; Lovegreen, Loren D.; Kahana, Boaz; Midlarsky, Elizabeth

2013-01-01

Objectives We examined the influence of prosocial orientations including altruism, volunteering, and informal helping on positive and negative well-being outcomes among retirement community dwelling elders. Method We utilize data from 2 waves, 3 years apart, of a panel study of successful aging (N = 585). Psychosocial well-being outcomes measured include life satisfaction, positive affect, negative affect, and depressive symptomatology. Results Ordinal logistic regression results indicate that altruistic attitudes, volunteering, and informal helping behaviors make unique contributions to the maintenance of life satisfaction, positive affect and other well being outcomes considered in this research. Predictors explain variance primarily in the positive indicators of psychological well-being, but are not significantly associated with the negative outcomes. Female gender and functional limitations are also associated with diminished psychological well-being. Discussion Our findings underscore the value of altruistic attitudes as important additional predictors, along with prosocial behaviors in fostering life satisfaction and positive affect in old age. PMID:23324536

Testing for altruism and social pressure in charitable giving.

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DellaVigna, Stefano; List, John A; Malmendier, Ulrike

2012-01-01

Every year, 90% of Americans give money to charities. Is such generosity necessarily welfare enhancing for the giver? We present a theoretical framework that distinguishes two types of motivation: individuals like to give, for example, due to altruism or warm glow, and individuals would rather not give but dislike saying no, for example, due to social pressure. We design a door-to-door fund-raiser in which some households are informed about the exact time of solicitation with a flyer on their doorknobs. Thus, they can seek or avoid the fund-raiser. We find that the flyer reduces the share of households opening the door by 9% to 25% and, if the flyer allows checking a Do Not Disturb box, reduces giving by 28% to 42%. The latter decrease is concentrated among donations smaller than $10. These findings suggest that social pressure is an important determinant of door-to-door giving. Combining data from this and a complementary field experiment, we structurally estimate the model. The estimated social pressure cost of saying no to a solicitor is $3.80 for an in-state charity and $1.40 for an out-of-state charity. Our welfare calculations suggest that our door-to-door fund-raising campaigns on average lower the utility of the potential donors.

Anorexia Nervosa and First-Person Perspective: Altruism, Family System, and Body Experience.

Science.gov (United States)

Englebert, Jérôme; Follet, Valérie; Valentiny, Caroline

2018-01-01

Based on the case study of Jeanne, the objective of this article is to study patterns of specific subjectivity in anorexic subjects. We seek to identify, in a first-person perspective, the core vulnerability features of anorexic existence, beyond the dimension of food alone. The identification of a psychopathological structure results in a better understanding of Jeanne's clinical situation and helps formulate psychotherapeutic and prophylactic recommendations. We suggest that so-called "denial" is a psychological mechanism that should be reconsidered. Denial is not a mechanism pertaining to anorexic subjects alone, but is also a process encountered both in the patient's family and in the therapeutic environment. Anorexic denial is based on anosognosia and the refusal to see one's own thinness, while other people's denial consists in a widespread inability to perceive the altruism and intersubjective problematic on which the existence of an anorexic subject fundamentally depends. © 2017 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Altruism relates to health in an ethnically diverse sample of older adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, William Michael; Consedine, Nathan S; Magai, Carol

2005-05-01

The existing literature indicates links between aspects of social network functioning and health outcomes. It is generally believed that networks that are larger or provide greater instrumental and emotional support contribute to improved health and, perhaps, greater longevity. Recently, it has been suggested that giving as well as receiving social support may be of benefit. On the basis of evolutionary theories of emotion and altruism, the current study sought to test this thesis in a large, ethnically diverse sample of community-dwelling older adults. As expected, levels of social support given were associated with lower morbidity, whereas levels of receiving were not. It is important that these relations held even when (a) socioeconomic status, education, marital status, age, gender, ethnicity, and (b) absolute network size and activity limitation were controlled for. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for theory regarding the relations among social exchanges, giving, and later life adaptation among older adults.

Media and children's aggression, fear, and altruism.

Science.gov (United States)

Wilson, Barbara J

2008-01-01

Noting that the social and emotional experiences of American children today often heavily involve electronic media, Barbara Wilson takes a close look at how exposure to screen media affects children's well-being and development. She concludes that media influence on children depends more on the type of content that children find attractive than on the sheer amount of time they spend in front of the screen. Wilson begins by reviewing evidence on the link between media and children's emotions. She points out that children can learn about the nature and causes of different emotions from watching the emotional experiences of media characters and that they often experience empathy with those characters. Although research on the long-term effects of media exposure on children's emotional skill development is limited, a good deal of evidence shows that media exposure can contribute to children's fears and anxieties. Both fictional and news programming can cause lasting emotional upset, though the themes that upset children differ according to a child's age. Wilson also explores how media exposure affects children's social development. Strong evidence shows that violent television programming contributes to children's aggressive behavior. And a growing body of work indicates that playing violent video games can have the same harmful effect. Yet if children spend time with educational programs and situation comedies targeted to youth, media exposure can have more prosocial effects by increasing children's altruism, cooperation, and even tolerance for others. Wilson also shows that children's susceptibility to media influence can vary according to their gender, their age, how realistic they perceive the media to be, and how much they identify with characters and people on the screen. She concludes with guidelines to help parents enhance the positive effects of the media while minimizing the risks associated with certain types of content.

The hitchhiker's guide to altruism: gene-culture coevolution, and the internalization of norms.

Science.gov (United States)

Gintis, Herbert

2003-02-21

An internal norm is a pattern of behavior enforced in part by internal sanctions, such as shame, guilt and loss of self-esteem, as opposed to purely external sanctions, such as material rewards and punishment. The ability to internalize norms is widespread among humans, although in some so-called "sociopaths", this capacity is diminished or lacking. Suppose there is one genetic locus that controls the capacity to internalize norms. This model shows that if an internal norm is fitness enhancing, then for plausible patterns of socialization, the allele for internalization of norms is evolutionarily stable. This framework can be used to model Herbert Simon's (1990) explanation of altruism, showing that altruistic norms can "hitchhike" on the general tendency of internal norms to be personally fitness-enhancing. A multi-level selection, gene-culture coevolution argument then explains why individually fitness-reducing internal norms are likely to be prosocial as opposed to socially harmful.

Altruism, Noise, and the Paradox of Voter Turnout: An Experimental Study

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Sarah A. Tulman

2015-01-01

Full Text Available This paper addresses the paradox of voter turnout, wherein observed voting participation rates are far greater than what rational choice theory would predict. Voters face multiple voting choices, stochastic voting costs, and candidates offering different economic platforms. A combination of two approaches attempts to resolve this paradox: quantal response equilibrium (QRE analysis, which introduces noise into the decision-making process, and the possibility of ethical (altruism-motivated voting. A series of laboratory experiments empirically tests the predictions of the resulting model. Participants in the experiments are also given opportunities for communicating online with their immediate neighbors, in order to enhance the chances that subjects would realize the possibility of ethical voting. The results show that ethical voting occurs but gains momentum only in the presence of a vocal advocate and even then it mostly dissipated by the second half of the session. The QRE-based model was able to explain some but not all of the overvoting that was observed, relative to the Nash equilibrium prediction. There is evidence to suggest that communication via the chat feature generated some of the voting and also some of the ethical voting.

Parental regret regarding children's vaccines-The correlation between anticipated regret, altruism, coping strategies and attitudes toward vaccines.

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Hamama-Raz, Yaira; Ginossar-David, Eyal; Ben-Ezra, Menachem

2016-01-01

Parental hesitancy for recommended childhood vaccines is a growing public health concern influenced by various factors. This study aimed to explore regret regarding parental decisions to vaccinate their children via possible correlations between anticipated regret, altruism, coping strategies, and parents' attitudes toward the vaccination of their children. The study was conducted during 2014 in Israel. Data were collected via snowballing methodology (i.e., Internet forums, Facebook and e- mails). 314 parents of children ages 0-6 years participated in the study. Questionnaires were distributed and completed on-line including attitudes toward vaccines, altruism, coping strategies, regret and anticipated regret. Pearson analysis revealed a moderate negative association between attitudes toward vaccinations and regret. In addition, weak but significant positive associations emerged between anticipated regret and regret as well as between gender and regret. Performing hierarchical regression analysis revealed contribution of 35.9 % to the explained variance of regret suggesting that coping strategy of instrumental support, attitudes toward vaccinations and anticipated regret are linked significantly to regret. Parental attitudes toward vaccines and anticipated regret have a salient role when deciding whether or not to vaccinate children and contribute to the prediction of regret regarding vaccination. In order to increase parental consent to vaccination of their children, it is important to minimize possible regret through the strength of the recommendation and/or knowledge base about risk/benefit (perceived, heuristic) of vaccines that might influence parental attitudes and lessen their anticipated regret. N/A. This is not a clinical trial and thus does not require registration. Ethics approval was received from Ariel University School of Social Work Ethics committee (18/02/14). This was an attitude survey. The Ariel University School of Social Work Ethics committee

Terminal values and meaning in life among university students with varied levels of altruism in the present period of socio-cultural change

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Głaz Stanisław

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract The author of this paper, interested in the issues of values preference, meaning in life and altruism among university students has attempted to show a relation between them in the present period of clearly noticeable socio-cultural change. The study was conducted in 2009-2010 in Kraków among university students. The age of the respondents ranged from 21 to 25. 200 sets of correctly completed questionnaires were used for the results analysis.

A quantitative genetic model of reciprocal altruism: a condition for kin or group selection to prevail.

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Aoki, K

1983-01-01

A condition is derived for reciprocal altruism to evolve by kin or group selection. It is assumed that many additively acting genes of small effect and the environment determine the probability that an individual is a reciprocal altruist, as opposed to being unconditionally selfish. The particular form of reciprocal altruism considered is TIT FOR TAT, a strategy that involves being altruistic on the first encounter with another individual and doing whatever the other did on the previous encounter in subsequent encounters with the same individual. Encounters are restricted to individuals of the same generation belonging to the same kin or breeding group, but first encounters occur at random within that group. The number of individuals with which an individual interacts is assumed to be the same within any kin or breeding group. There are 1 + i expected encounters between two interacting individuals. On any encounter, it is assumed that an individual who behaves altruistically suffers a cost in personal fitness proportional to c while improving his partner's fitness by the same proportion of b. Then, the condition for kin or group selection to prevail is [Formula: see text] if group size is sufficiently large and the group mean and the within-group genotypic variance of the trait value (i.e., the probability of being a TIT-FOR-TAT strategist) are uncorrelated. Here, C, Vb, and Tb are the population mean, between-group variance, and between-group third central moment of the trait value and r is the correlation between the additive genotypic values of interacting kin or of individuals within the same breeding group. The right-hand side of the above inequality is monotone decreasing in C if we hold Tb/Vb constant, and kin and group selection become superfluous beyond a certain threshold value of C. The effect of finite group size is also considered in a kin-selection model. PMID:6575395

Assessing the extent of altruism in the valuation of community drinking water quality improvements

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Zhang, Jing; Adamowicz, Wiktor; Dupont, Diane P.; Krupnick, Alan

2013-10-01

Improvements in publically provided goods and services, like community drinking water treatment, have values to people arising from their self-interest, but may as well have value from their altruistic concerns. The extent to which the value is altruistic versus self-interested is an important empirical issue for policy analysis because the benefits to improving drinking water quality may be larger than previously thought. We conducted an internet survey across Canada to identify both self-interested willingness-to-pay and altruistic willingness-to-pay obtained through hypothetical responses to a series of stated choice tasks and actual self-protection data against health risks from tap water. We use the information on self-protection to identify altruistic WTP. We find significant differences between self-interested and altruistic WTP: the latter can be three times greater than the former. Whether benefits of water protection are actually larger, however, depends on whether the altruism is paternalistic or nonpaternalistic.

Risking your life without a second thought: intuitive decision-making and extreme altruism.

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David G Rand

Full Text Available When faced with the chance to help someone in mortal danger, what is our first response? Do we leap into action, only later considering the risks to ourselves? Or must instinctive self-preservation be overcome by will-power in order to act? We investigate this question by examining the testimony of Carnegie Hero Medal Recipients (CHMRs, extreme altruists who risked their lives to save others. We collected published interviews with CHMRs where they described their decisions to help. We then had participants rate the intuitiveness versus deliberativeness of the decision-making process described in each CHMR statement. The statements were judged to be overwhelmingly dominated by intuition; to be significantly more intuitive than a set of control statements describing deliberative decision-making; and to not differ significantly from a set of intuitive control statements. This remained true when restricting to scenarios in which the CHMRs had sufficient time to reflect before acting if they had so chosen. Text-analysis software found similar results. These findings suggest that high-stakes extreme altruism may be largely motivated by automatic, intuitive processes.

Economic behavior under the influence of alcohol: an experiment on time preferences, risk-taking, and altruism.

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Luca Corazzini

Full Text Available We report results from an incentivized laboratory experiment undertaken with the purpose of providing controlled evidence on the causal effects of alcohol consumption on risk-taking, time preferences and altruism. Our design disentangles the pharmacological effects of alcohol intoxication from those mediated by expectations, as we compare the behavior of three groups of subjects: those who participated in an experiment with no reference to alcohol, those who were exposed to the possibility of consuming alcohol but were given a placebo and those who effectively consumed alcohol. All subjects participated in a series of economic tasks administered in the same sequence across treatments. After controlling for both the willingness to pay for an object and the potential misperception of probabilities as elicited in the experiment, we detect no effect of alcohol in depleting subjects' risk tolerance. However, we find that alcohol intoxication increases impatience and makes subjects less altruistic.

Selection for altruism through random drift in variable size populations

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Houchmandzadeh Bahram

2012-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Altruistic behavior is defined as helping others at a cost to oneself and a lowered fitness. The lower fitness implies that altruists should be selected against, which is in contradiction with their widespread presence is nature. Present models of selection for altruism (kin or multilevel show that altruistic behaviors can have ‘hidden’ advantages if the ‘common good’ produced by altruists is restricted to some related or unrelated groups. These models are mostly deterministic, or assume a frequency dependent fitness. Results Evolutionary dynamics is a competition between deterministic selection pressure and stochastic events due to random sampling from one generation to the next. We show here that an altruistic allele extending the carrying capacity of the habitat can win by increasing the random drift of “selfish” alleles. In other terms, the fixation probability of altruistic genes can be higher than those of a selfish ones, even though altruists have a smaller fitness. Moreover when populations are geographically structured, the altruists advantage can be highly amplified and the fixation probability of selfish genes can tend toward zero. The above results are obtained both by numerical and analytical calculations. Analytical results are obtained in the limit of large populations. Conclusions The theory we present does not involve kin or multilevel selection, but is based on the existence of random drift in variable size populations. The model is a generalization of the original Fisher-Wright and Moran models where the carrying capacity depends on the number of altruists.

Tainted altruism: when doing some good is evaluated as worse than doing no good at all.

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Newman, George E; Cain, Daylian M

2014-03-01

In four experiments, we found that the presence of self-interest in the charitable domain was seen as tainting: People evaluated efforts that realized both charitable and personal benefits as worse than analogous behaviors that produced no charitable benefit. This tainted-altruism effect was observed in a variety of contexts and extended to both moral evaluations of other agents and participants' own behavioral intentions (e.g., reported willingness to hire someone or purchase a company's products). This effect did not seem to be driven by expectations that profits would be realized at the direct cost of charitable benefits, or the explicit use of charity as a means to an end. Rather, we found that it was related to the accessibility of different counterfactuals: When someone was charitable for self-interested reasons, people considered his or her behavior in the absence of self-interest, ultimately concluding that the person did not behave as altruistically as he or she could have. However, when someone was only selfish, people did not spontaneously consider whether the person could have been more altruistic.

KANTIAN'S ETHICS AND THE POSSIBILITY OF ALTRUISM (THOMAS NAGEL A ÉTICA KANTIANA E A POSSIBILIDADE DO ALTRUÍSMO (THOMAS NAGEL

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Jürgen Stolzenberg

2010-12-01

Full Text Available The present article discusses the relation of Th. Nagel’s ethics of altruism with kantian ethics. According to Nagel himself, his position resembles that of Kant in two respects: it defends the thesis of the autonomy of moral motivation, and it bases moral on a determinate self-conception of persons. However, differently from Kant, the principle of Nagel’s ethics is just the modest presupposition that persons essentially understand themselves as being one among a plurality of other persons. Starting from the nagelian argument in The Possibility of Altruism (1970, but contemplating also Nagel’s more recent position in The Last Word (1999, it is argued that in order to defend his conception of a rational ethics in a convincing way, Nagel has to approximate himself more to the kantian foundation of ethics than he wants to admit.O presente artigo discute a relação da ética do altruísmo, defendida por Thomas Nagel, com a ética kantiana. Segundo o próprio Nagel, sua posição é semelhante à de Kant sob dois aspectos: ela defende a tese da autonomia da motivação moral, e ela funda a moral numa determinada autoconcepção da pessoa. No entanto, diferentemente de Kant, o princípio da ética nageliana é apenas o pressuposto modesto de que uma pessoa essencialmente considera a si mesma como sendo uma numa pluralidade de pessoas. Partindo do argumento nageliano em The Possibility of Altruísmo (1970, mas contemplando também a posição mais recente de Nagel em The Last Word (1999, argumenta-se que Nagel só pode defender sua concepção de uma ética racional de modo convincente, se ele se aproximar mais da fundamentação kantiana da ética do que ele pretende.

American Jewish Altruism in Support of International Humanitarian Intervention and Kosovo Peace-building

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Dr.Sc. Samet Dalipi

2015-06-01

Full Text Available At the end of 20th century, parts of Europe get caught again by xenophobia’s which were hidden under the rug of the Cold War. Balkans was again at the heart of eruptions of nationalistic ideas and hegemonistic aspirations. In resolving the last unsettled Kosovo case in the Balkans, west democracies corrected the mistake made at the beginning of the same century. In this direction gave input the Jewish community of USA. “We need to come out in defence of the defenceless victims ... cannot let people like Milosevic to continue killing men, women and children. We had to do this earlier, but not later or now”, said Elie Wiesel, the most prominent Jewish Nobel Prize winner, in a meeting with Holocaust survivors and veterans. This was not the only voice of the Jewish members in defence of Kosovo Albanians. A significant number of elite American-Jewish prominent politicians and diplomats, senior U.S. administration, from public life,...have been cautious in pursuit of developments in Kosovo before the war. Altruism within Jewish elite influenced or advised U.S. policy makers on the necessity of intervention in Kosovo, to prevent scenarios prepared by the Serbian regime to de'albanize Kosovo. They decided and implemented the diplomacy of dynamic actions in stopping the repetition of the similarities of holocaust within the same century. What prompted this perfectly organized community in the U.S., with distinctive culture and other religious affiliations to people of Kosovo to support them during exterminating circumstances? Which were the driving factors on influencing the policy of most powerful state in the world in support of Albanians? This paper aims to illuminate some of the answers on the raised question as well as analyze the activities of most prominent AmericanJewish personalities, some of their philanthropic actions that are associated with emotions, their principles and beliefs to prevent human suffering and exodus of Kosovo

Insuficiencia de los constructos psicológicos en la educación del altruismo Insuficiência dos construtos psicológicos no ensino do altruísmo Insufficiency of psychological constructs in education in altruism

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Alfonso Osorio

2010-04-01

Full Text Available Con frecuencia los estudios relacionados con el altruismo lo abordan desde constructos psicológicos como la memoria, la afectividad, la motivación o el aprendizaje. Son escasas, en cambio, las aproximaciones desde la voluntad y la virtud. El presente artículo pretende vincular estos conceptos con ese campo de investigación, para aportar nuevas claves de interpretación sobre la educación del altruismo y para el diseño de estrategias pedagógicas en este campo. Algunas evidencias empíricas muestran que los constructos psicológicos resultan insuficientes para explicar la conducta altruista y suformación, mientras que recurriendo también a la visión aristotélica de la voluntad y de la virtud se alcanza una comprensión más íntegra y pedagógica del altruismo como objeto educativo.Freqüentemente, estudos associados com altruísmo o abordam desde construtos psicológicos como memória, emoção, motivação ou aprendizagem. São poucas, entretanto, as abordagens a partir da vontade e da virtude. Este artigo tenta vincular esses conceitos com esse campo da investigação, para fornecer novas pistas na interpretação acerca do ensino do altruísmo e na concepção de estratégias de ensino nesta área. Algumas evidências empíricas indicam que os constructos psicológicos são insuficientes para explicar o comportamento altruísta e sua formação, enquanto se recorrer à visão aristotélica da vontade e da virtude chega-se a uma compreensão mais plena e pedagógica do altruísmo como objeto de ensinoStudies dealing with altruism often approach the subject from psychological constructs such as memory, feelings, motivation or learning. Very few deal with it from the standpoint of volition and virtue. This article attempts to link these concepts to that field of research in an effort to provide new keys for interpretation regarding education in altruism and for the design of teaching strategies in this field. Some empirical evidence

Blood Products and the Commodification Debate: The Blurry Concept of Altruism and the 'Implicit Price' of Readily Available Body Parts.

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Dufner, Annette

2015-12-01

There is a widespread consensus that a commodification of body parts is to be prevented. Numerous policy papers by international organizations extend this view to the blood supply and recommend a system of uncompensated volunteers in this area--often, however, without making the arguments for this view explicit. This situation seems to indicate that a relevant source of justified worry or unease about the blood supply system has to do with the issue of commodification. As a result, the current health minister of Ontario is proposing a ban on compensation even for blood plasma--despite the fact that Canada can only generate 30 % of the plasma needed for fractionation into important plasma protein products and has to purchase the rest abroad. In the following, I am going to suggest a number of alternative perspectives on the debate in order to facilitate a less dogmatic and more differentiated debate about the matter. Especially in light of the often over-simplified notions of altruism and commodification, I conclude that the debate has not conclusively established that it would be morally objectionable to provide blood plasma donors with monetary compensation or with other forms of explicit social recognition as an incentive. This is especially true of donations for fractionation into medicinal products by profit-oriented pharmaceutical companies.

Face-to-Face Sharing with Strangers and Altruistic Punishment of Acquaintances for Strangers: Young Adolescents Exhibit Greater Altruism than Adults

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Hao, Jian; Yang, Yue; Wang, Zhiwen

2016-01-01

Young adolescents are generally considered to be self-absorbed. Studies indicate that they lack relevant general cognitive abilities, such as impulse control, that mature in early adulthood. However, their idealism may cause them to be more intolerant of unfair treatment to others and thus result in their engaging in more altruistic behavior. The present study aimed to clarify whether young adolescents are more altruistic than adults and thus indicate whether altruistic competence is domain-specific. One hundred 22 young adolescents and adults participated in a face-to-face, two-round, third-party punishment experiment. In each interaction group, a participant served as an allocator who could share money units with a stranger; another participant who knew the allocator could punish the acquaintance for the stranger. Participants reported their emotions after the first round, and at the end of the experiment, the participants justified their behavior in each round. The results indicated that the young adolescents both shared more and punished more than did the adults. Sharing was associated with a reference to fairness in the justifications, but altruistic punishment was associated with subsequent positive emotion. In sum, greater altruism in young adolescents compared to adults with mature cognitive abilities provides evidence of domain-specificity of altruistic competence. Moreover, sharing and altruistic punishment are related to specific cognitive and emotional mechanisms, respectively. PMID:27752246

Face-to-face sharing with strangers and altruistic punishment of acquaintances for strangers: Young adolescents exhibit greater altruism than adults

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Jian Hao

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Young adolescents are generally considered to be self-absorbed. Studies indicate that they lack relevant general cognitive abilities, such as impulse control, that mature in early adulthood. However, their idealism may cause them to be more intolerant of unfair treatment to others and thus result in their engaging in more altruistic behavior. The present study aimed to clarify whether young adolescents are more altruistic than adults and thus indicate whether altruistic competence is domain-specific. One hundred twenty-two young adolescents and adults participated in a face-to-face, two-round, third-party punishment experiment. In each interaction group, a participant served as an allocator who could share money units with a stranger; another participant who knew the allocator could punish the acquaintance for the stranger. Participants reported their emotions after the first round, and at the end of the experiment, the participants justified their behavior in each round. The results indicated that the young adolescents both shared more and punished more than did the adults. Sharing was associated with a reference to fairness in the justifications, but altruistic punishment was associated with subsequent positive emotion. In sum, greater altruism in young adolescents compared to adults with mature cognitive abilities provides evidence of domain-specificity of altruistic competence. Moreover, sharing and altruistic punishment is related to specific cognitive and emotional mechanisms respectively.

ALTRUISME SEMU DI SEKOLAH: Analisis terhadap Praktek-praktek Kekerasan dan Keterlibatan School Stakeholder dalam Kegiatan Inisiasi Sekolah

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Meredian Alam

2016-09-01

Full Text Available For over decades in Indonesian public high school, freshmen orientation program in form of school initiation has been perceived as process that leads to altruistic behavior; consisted of solidarity, closely group interaction, deeper understanding on school’s living values, and internal norms. However, its implementation is currently raising many protests of educational experts and scholars as well as become a point of vocal in public areas because violent actions are profoundly practiced as ways to infitrate those altruism and potentially inflct another precedent thought that the activities could be alternative for individual’ growth in near future. Accordingly, this research conducted in one of public school in Yogyakarta province attempts to analyze the involvement of school stakeholders throughout the ongoing process in the school initiation and to identify why misleading concept of education remains applied by school’ stakeholders. Therefore, the fial recommendation of this research is subjected not only to the school stakeholders, but also relevant boards in the government, where the school aparatus should highly involve parents in making decision and implement accountable action in disseminating information pertinent to education process, the relevant board of education in governmental sector should also increase the partnership with local non-governmental organization who has areas of working in the peace and education to seek and design relevant alternative programs for the sake of eradicating violent actions in the school. Local community situated in the school’s surroundings should be also actively involved by respective schools for some of community development-related activities. The last mentioned recommendation is purposively to have students understand deeper and comprehend throroughly the use of knowledge that they learn at school for society.

Altruism in the wild: when affiliative motives to help positive people overtake empathic motives to help the distressed.

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Hauser, David J; Preston, Stephanie D; Stansfield, R Brent

2014-06-01

Psychological theories of human altruism suggest that helping results from an evolved tendency in caregiving mammals to respond to distress or need with empathy and sympathy. However, theories from biology, economics, and social psychology demonstrate that social animals also evolved to affiliate with and help desirable social partners. These models make different predictions about the affect of those we should prefer to help. Empathic models predict a preference to help sad, distressed targets in need, while social affiliative models predict a preference for happy, positive, successful targets. We compared these predictions in 3 field studies that measured the tendency to help sad, happy, and neutral confederates in a real-world, daily context: holding the door for a stranger in public. People consistently held the door more for happy over sad or neutral targets. To allow empathic motivations to compete more strongly against social affiliative ones, a 4th study examined a more consequential form of aid for hypothetical hospital patients in clear need. These conditions enhanced the preference to help a sad over a happy patient, because sadness made the patient appear sicker and in greater need. However, people still preferred the happy patient when the aid required a direct social interaction, attesting to the strength of social affiliation motives, even for sick patients. Theories of prosocial behavior should place greater emphasis on the role of social affiliation in motivating aid, particularly in everyday interpersonal contexts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved). PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Attitudes of the selfless

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zettler, Ingo; Hilbig, B.E.

2010-01-01

Previous research on political orientations, which can be understood as one's left- versus right-wing attitude, has shown that some personality factors yield explanatory power. In the current work, we consider the role of altruism - a personality construct which does not exclusively map onto one...... of the broad personality dimensions typically studied. Altruism was predicted to relate to left-wing attitudes due to an overlap regarding concerns for social equality, and a discrepancy between well-known attributes of right-wingers and altruistic individuals, respectively. Moreover, altruism was expected...... association between altruism and left-wing attitudes, and altruism was found to account for substantial variance in political orientation after controlling for the HEXACO factors of personality. We conclude that altruism is an important construct which deserves attention whenever political attitudes or other...

Attitudes and behaviours of Greeks concerning blood donation: recruitment and retention campaigns should be focused on need rather than altruism.

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Kalargirou, Aikaterini A; Beloukas, Apostolos I; Kosma, Alexandra G; Nanou, Christina I; Saridi, Maria I; Kriebardis, Anastasios G

2014-07-01

Blood supplies in Greece are insufficient to meet the high transfusion needs arising from car accidents and treatment of thalassaemia. This study was designed to determine Greeks' opinions about blood donation, in order to identify the reasons for the lack of motivation to donate and allow experts to establish better recruitment campaigns for the enrichment of the donor pool, based on our findings. The opinions of randomly selected Greek citizens (n=800) about volunteer blood donation were assessed by means of a standardised, anonymous questionnaire. The results were analysed using the χ(2) test and Spearman's correlation coefficient. With regards to attitudes towards intention to donate, only 7.1% were indifferent, while 88.0% of the individuals believed that donating blood was an "offer". Reasons for not donating mainly involved safety (36.0%) and fear (24.0%), whereas need (77.9%) was the most fundamental positive motivation. Of the people enrolled in the present study, 10.0% were active donors, 31.3% occasional donors, 15.0% rare donors and 36.6% non-donors. The considerable percentages of occasional and rare donors in comparison with the low proportion of active donors in the Greek donor pool indicates that "need" is a more important motivation for blood donation than altruism in Greece. These results could be useful for establishing advertising campaigns on blood donation and for a more direct approach to the population, aiming for a change in mentality in favour of active blood donation.

Altruismus a kultura

OpenAIRE

Stehlíková, Jana

2011-01-01

The aim of the bachelor thesis is theoretical analysis of altruism. Altruism is studied on three structural levels of cultural elements in culturology - a level of genus, a level of socio-cultural factors and a level of an individual. The work is focused on altruism in philosophical conception, the view from the viewpoint of cultural anthropology, psychological approach and findings of evolutionary biology and evolutionary social sciences. Altruism is nowadays discussed from the view of natur...

利他主義・利己主義・独我論 : トマス・ネーゲルと「行為の理由」の問題

OpenAIRE

銭谷, 秋生; Akio, Zeniya

2006-01-01

Thomas Nagel argues in The Possibility of Altruism that just as there are rational requirements on thought, there are rational requirements on action, of which altruism is one. According to Nagel, the altruism, that is a willingness to act in consideration of the interests of other persons without needing ulterior motives, is not to be confused with general affection for humanity. Altruism is not a feeling, but a rational requirement on desire and action, which one can't refuse in so far as o...

Provision or Good Genes? Menstrual Cycle Shifts in Women's Preferences for Short-Term and Long-Term Mates' Altruistic Behavior

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Ryo Oda

2014-04-01

Full Text Available Men's altruism may have evolved, via female choice, as a signal of either their genetic quality or their willingness to allocate resources to offspring. The possibility that men display altruism to signal their genetic quality may be tested by examining women's preference for men's altruism across the stages of the menstrual cycle. Because women can maximize reproductive benefits by mating with men who have “good genes” on high-fertility versus low-fertility days, women should show a heightened preference for male altruism on high-fertility days compared to low-fertility days, and this heightened preference should be more apparent when women evaluate men for short-term sexual relationships than for long-term committed relationships. The possibility that men display altruism to signal their willingness to provision, as opposed to their genetic quality, may be tested by examining women's preference for men's altruism toward different recipients. More specifically, altruistic behavior toward family members may reflect a willingness to provide resources for kin and, hence, willingness to provision, whereas altruistic behavior toward strangers may function as an honest signal of genetic quality. In two samples of young women (TVs = 131 and 481, we found no differences between high- and low-fertility participants in preference for men's altruism, and women preferred men's altruism more in long-term than short-term relationships. The findings suggest that men's altruistic behavior functions as a signal of willingness to provide resources rather than genetic quality.

Motivation and Social Capital among prospective blood donors in three large blood centers in Brazil

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Gonçalez, Thelma T.; Di Lorenzo Oliveira, Claudia; Carneiro-Proietti, Anna Barbara F.; Moreno, Elizabeth C.; Miranda, Carolina; Larsen, Nina; Wright, David; Leão, Silvana; Loureiro, Paula; de Almeida-Neto, Cesar; Lopes, Maria-Inês; Proietti, Fernando A.; Custer, Brian; Sabino, Ester

2012-01-01

Background Studies analyzing motivation factors that lead to blood donation have found altruism to be the primary motivation factor; however social capital has not been analyzed in this context. Our study examines the association between motivation factors (altruism, self-interest and response to direct appeal) and social capital (cognitive and structural) across three large blood centers in Brazil. Study Design and Methods We conducted a cross-sectional survey of 7,635 donor candidates from October 15 through November 20, 2009. Participants completed self-administered questionnaires on demographics, previous blood donation, HIV testing and knowledge, social capital and donor motivations. Enrollment was determined prior to the donor screening process. Results Among participants, 43.5% and 41.7% expressed high levels of altruism and response to direct appeal respectively, while only 26.9% expressed high levels of self-interest. More high self-interest was observed at Hemope-Recife (41.7%). Of participants, 37.4% expressed high levels of cognitive social capital while 19.2% expressed high levels of structural social capital. More high cognitive and structural social capital was observed at Hemope-Recife (47.3% and 21.3%, respectively). High cognitive social capital was associated with high levels of altruism, self-interest and response to direct appeal. Philanthropic and high social altruism was associated with high levels of altruism and response to direct appeal. Conclusion Cognitive and structural social capital and social altruism are associated with altruism and response to direct appeal, while only cognitive social capital is associated with self-interest. Designing marketing campaigns with these aspects in mind may help blood banks attract potential blood donors more efficiently. PMID:22998740

Motivation and social capital among prospective blood donors in three large blood centers in Brazil.

Science.gov (United States)

Gonçalez, Thelma T; Di Lorenzo Oliveira, Claudia; Carneiro-Proietti, Anna Barbara F; Moreno, Elizabeth C; Miranda, Carolina; Larsen, Nina; Wright, David; Leão, Silvana; Loureiro, Paula; de Almeida-Neto, Cesar; Lopes, Maria-Inês; Proietti, Fernando A; Custer, Brian; Sabino, Ester

2013-06-01

Studies analyzing motivation factors that lead to blood donation have found altruism to be the primary motivation factor; however, social capital has not been analyzed in this context. Our study examines the association between motivation factors (altruism, self-interest, and response to direct appeal) and social capital (cognitive and structural) across three large blood centers in Brazil. We conducted a cross-sectional survey of 7635 donor candidates from October 15 through November 20, 2009. Participants completed self-administered questionnaires on demographics, previous blood donation, human immunodeficiency virus testing and knowledge, social capital, and donor motivations. Enrollment was determined before the donor screening process. Among participants, 43.5 and 41.7% expressed high levels of altruism and response to direct appeal, respectively, while only 26.9% expressed high levels of self-interest. More high self-interest was observed at Hemope-Recife (41.7%). Of participants, 37.4% expressed high levels of cognitive social capital while 19.2% expressed high levels of structural social capital. More high cognitive and structural social capital was observed at Hemope-Recife (47.3 and 21.3%, respectively). High cognitive social capital was associated with high levels of altruism, self-interest, and response to direct appeal. Philanthropic and high social altruism were associated with high levels of altruism and response to direct appeal. Cognitive and structural social capital and social altruism are associated with altruism and response to direct appeal, while only cognitive social capital is associated with self-interest. Designing marketing campaigns with these aspects in mind may help blood banks attract potential blood donors more efficiently. © 2012 American Association of Blood Banks.

Altruistic reasoning in adolescent-parent dyads considering participation in a hypothetical sexual health clinical trial for adolescents.

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Chávez, Noé Rubén; Williams, Camille Y; Ipp, Lisa S; Catallozzi, Marina; Rosenthal, Susan L; Breitkopf, Carmen Radecki

2016-04-01

Altruism is a well-established reason underlying research participation. Less is known about altruism in adolescent-parent decision-making about clinical trials enrolling healthy adolescents. This qualitative investigation focused on identifying spontaneous statements of altruism within adolescent-parent (dyadic) discussions of participation in a hypothetical phase I clinical trial related to adolescent sexual health. Content analysis revealed several response patterns to each other's altruistic reasoning. Across 70 adolescent-parent dyads in which adolescents were 14-17 years of age and 91% of their parents were mothers, a majority (61%) of dyadic discussions included a statement reflecting altruism. Parents responded to adolescents' statements of altruism more frequently than adolescents responded to parents' statements. Responses included: expresses concern, reiterates altruistic reasoning, agrees with altruistic reasoning, and adds to/expands altruistic reasoning. Since an altruistic perspective was often balanced with concerns about risk or study procedures, researchers cannot assume that altruism will directly lead to study participation. Optimizing the informed consent process for early phase clinical trials involving healthy adolescents may include supporting parents to have conversations with their adolescents which will enhance their capacity to consider all aspects of trial participation.

Who pays for job training?

OpenAIRE

Anurag N Banerjee; Parantap Basu

2011-01-01

An optimal education subsidy formula is derived using an overlapping generations model with parental altruism. The model predicts that public education subsidy is greater in economies with lesser parental altruism because a benevolent government has to compensate for the shortfall in private education spending of less altruistic parents with a finite life. On the other hand, growth is higher in economies with greater parental altruism. Cross-country regressions using the World Values Survey f...

The impact of online brand community type on consumer's community engagement behaviors: consumer-created vs. marketer-created online brand community in online social-networking web sites.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Doohwang; Kim, Hyuk Soo; Kim, Jung Kyu

2011-01-01

The current study proposed and tested a theoretical model of consumers' online brand community engagement behaviors, with particular attention given to online brand community type (consumer vs. marketer-created). By integrating attribution and social identity theories, this study investigated the causal linkages between intrinsic motives of altruism, social identification motivations, and online brand community engagement behaviors. The results showed that consumers' online brand community engagement intentions were indirectly influenced by the different types of communities through different levels of consumers' attributions to intrinsic motives of altruism. This study also found that, in the attribution processes, consumers' intrinsic motives of altruism motivated them to identify themselves socially with the online communities they join. Finally, this study demonstrated that the intrinsic motives of altruism and social identification motivations provided strong social incentives to motivate consumers to engage in subsequent online brand community behaviors.

Intrinsic Motivations of Public Sector Employees: Evidence for Germany

NARCIS (Netherlands)

A.J. Dur (Robert); R. Zoutenbier (Robin)

2012-01-01

textabstractWe examine differences in altruism and laziness between public sector employees and private sector employees. Our theoretical model predicts that the likelihood of public sector employment increases with a worker's altruism, and increases or decreases with a worker's laziness depending

Social cognitive role of schizophrenia candidate gene GABRB2.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shui Ying Tsang

Full Text Available The occurrence of positive selection in schizophrenia-associated GABRB2 suggests a broader impact of the gene product on population fitness. The present study considered the possibility of cognition-related GABRB2 involvement by examining the association of GABRB2 with psychosis and altruism, respectively representing psychiatric and psychological facets of social cognition. Four single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs were genotyped for quantitative trait analyses and population-based association studies. Psychosis was measured by either the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS or antipsychotics dosage, and altruism was based on a self-report altruism scale. The minor alleles of SNPs rs6556547, rs1816071 and rs187269 in GABRB2 were correlated with high PANSS score for positive symptoms in a Han Chinese schizophrenic cohort, whereas those of rs1816071 and rs1816072 were associated with high antipsychotics dosage in a US Caucasian schizophrenic cohort. Moreover, strongly significant GABRB2-disease associations were found among schizophrenics with severe psychosis based on high PANSS positive score, but no significant association was observed for schizophrenics with only mild psychosis. Interestingly, in addition to association with psychosis in schizophrenics, rs187269 was also associated with altruism in healthy Han Chinese. Furthermore, parallel to correlation with severe psychosis, its minor allele was correlated with high altruism scores. These findings revealed that GABRB2 is associated with psychosis, the core symptom and an endophenotype of schizophrenia. Importantly, the association was found across the breadth of the psychiatric (psychosis to psychological (altruism spectrum of social cognition suggesting GABRB2 involvement in human cognition.

Perilaku Alturisme Karyawan (Studi Kasus pada Mandor Perkebunan Sawit Perseroan Terbatas (PT.Tribuana Mas Kabupaten Tapin

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Asty Wulandari

2017-11-01

Full Text Available One of the tasks of developing into adulthood is to work to meet the needs of his life. Technological advances, materialism, hedonism and the demands of the post-industrial society's needs make some people work brutally for what they want to be fulfilled. Even people are apathetic to the surrounding environment. Nevertheless, there are still a handful of employees who care about their environmental conditions by behaving altruism as happened in PT.Tribuana Mas (TBM. The purpose of this study is to describe employee altruism behavior and explore the factors that encourage employees to behave altruism. The results of the research on 3 employees of PT.Tribuana Mas plantation, Afdeling Juliet conducted qualitatively (nonparticipant observation and in-depth interview, altruism behavioral components are mostly the same, that is behaving helpfully, considering the rights and welfare of others, sharing and honesty. While the different components are seen from the behavior of donating & generosity and Cooperation. Components of altruism behavior reflected on the employees are also in accordance with the teachings of Islam, the namely charity with the foundation of god (ikhlas and there are still nuanced humanity. It is influenced by various factors, both situational (external and within (internal

Going that extra mile: individuals travel further to maintain face-to-face contact with highly related kin than with less related kin.

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Thomas V Pollet

Full Text Available The theory of inclusive fitness has transformed our understanding of cooperation and altruism. However, the proximate psychological underpinnings of altruism are less well understood, and it has been argued that emotional closeness mediates the relationship between genetic relatedness and altruism. In this study, we use a real-life costly behaviour (travel time to dissociate the effects of genetic relatedness from emotional closeness. Participants travelled further to see more closely related kin, as compared to more distantly related kin. For distantly related kin, the level of emotional closeness mediated this relationship--when emotional closeness was controlled for, there was no effect of genetic relatedness on travel time. However, participants were willing to travel further to visit parents, children and siblings as compared to more distantly related kin, even when emotional closeness was controlled for. This suggests that the mediating effect of emotional closeness on altruism varies with levels of genetic relatedness.

Personality Traits Associated with Altruistic Behavior of Children

Science.gov (United States)

Bond, Norman D.; Phillips, Beeman N.

1971-01-01

Among the results were that boys only showed negative" types of traits occurring with low and high levels of altruism, and that positive" types of traits occurred with in-between levels of altruism. Also, both rational-altruistic and conscientious-altruistic types of behavior were presented in the data obtained. (Author)

The impact of a natural disaster on altruistic behaviour and crime.

Science.gov (United States)

Lemieux, Frederic

2014-07-01

Institutional altruism in the form of a public-sector intervention and support for victims and social altruism generated by mutual aid and solidarity among citizens constitute a coming together in a crisis. This coming together and mutual support precipitate a decrease in crime rates during such an event. This paper presents an analysis of daily fluctuations in crime during the prolonged ice storms in Quebec, Canada, in January 1998 that provoked an electrical blackout. Of particular interest are the principal crisis-related influences on daily crime patterns. A first series of analyses examines the impact of altruistic public-sector mobilisation on crime. A significant decline in property crime rates was noticed when cheques were distributed to crisis victims in financial need in Montérégie, and hence they were attributable to public intervention (institutional altruism). Moreover, the rate of social altruism (financial donations), which was more substantial in adjoining rather than distant regions, was inversely proportional to crime rates. © 2014 The Author(s). Disasters © Overseas Development Institute, 2014.

'Corpore sano in mens sana'. The Morality of Blood Donation

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Casado Neira, David

2006-11-01

Full Text Available Modern conceptions of health separate body from soul in the familiar Cartesian dualism. In blood donation this separation is easy to identify: embodiment is a civilizing process, and altruism is the moral basis that supports it. The donor is treated as essentially a vessel of blood, a mere container which can be directed to discharge its contents into blood banks. The biomedical use of blood is not morally neutral; indeed, the donor's moral conscience is mobilised in order to get them to donate blood as a gift, or offering. By associating donors' altruism with their bodies' physical nature as a container from which blood can be extracted, altruism is treated as a physiological phenomenon.

The Effectiveness of an Altruistic Appeal in the Presence and Absence of Favors.

Science.gov (United States)

Boster, Franklin J.; Fediuk, Thomas A.; Kotowski, Michael Ryan

2001-01-01

Examines whether altruism messages are more likely to be effective in gaining compliance with an anti-social request. Finds no evidence of an effect of the norm of reciprocity; altruism message was more effective than a direct request message; and a large sex difference in a direction opposite to that reported in reviews of sex differences--males…

The moral development of the child: an integrated model.

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Hing Keung

2013-01-01

Previous theories of moral development such as those by Piaget and Kohlberg usually focused on the cognitive or rational aspect, and seldom included the affective aspect in their construction. The characteristics of the stages of moral development in the present paper are elaborated with special reference to psychological needs, altruism and human relationships, and justice reasoning. The three stages are: (1) Physical Survival, Selfishness, and Obedience, (2) Love Needs, Reciprocal Altruism, and Instrumental Purpose; and (3) Belongingness Needs, Primary Group Altruism, and Mutual Interpersonal Expectations. At Stage 1, a deep and profound attachment to parents, empathy toward the significant others, and obedience to authorities all contribute to the physical survival of a person at this stage. People at Stage 2 are self-protective, dominant, exploitative, and opportunistic. The need to love and to be loved is gratified on the basis of reciprocal altruism. People at Stage 3 have a strong desire to gratify their belongingness needs to a primary group. They are willing to sacrifice for the benefits of the group at great cost. While the psychological needs and altruism are related to the affective aspect of moral development, the justice reasoning is related to the cognitive aspect. The proposed theoretical model attempts to integrate the affective and cognitive aspects of moral development, and prototypic responses to questions related to hypothetical moral dilemmas are presented to substantiate the proposed stage structures. It is hypothesized that the sequence of these three stages is invariant of person and culture.

Attitude towards littering as a mediator of the relationship between personality attributes and responsible environmental behavior

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ojedokun, Oluyinka

2011-01-01

Highlights: → Independently, altruism and locus of control contributed significantly toward attitude towards littering. → Altruism and locus of control jointly contributed significantly to attitude towards littering. → The results further show a significant joint influence of altruism and locus of control on REB. → The independent contributions reveal that altruism and locus of control contribute significantly to REB. → Attitude towards littering mediates the relationship between locus of control and REB. - Abstract: The study tested whether attitude towards littering mediates the relationship between personality attributes (altruism and locus of control) and responsible environmental behavior (REB) among some residents of Ibadan metropolis, Nigeria. Using multistage sampling technique, measures of each construct were administered to 1360 participants. Results reveal significant independent and joint influence of personality attributes on attitude towards littering and responsible environmental behavior, respectively. Attitude towards littering also mediates the relationship between personality characteristics and REB. These findings imply that individuals who possess certain desirable personality characteristics and who have unfavorable attitude towards littering have more tendencies to engage in pro-environmental behavior. Therefore, stakeholders who have waste management as their priority should incorporate this information when guidelines for public education and litter prevention programs are being developed. It is suggested that psychologists should be involved in designing of litter prevention strategies. This will ensure the inclusion of behavioral issues in such strategies. An integrated approach to litter prevention that combines empowerment, cognitive, social, and technical solutions is recommended as the most effective tool of tackling the litter problem among residents of Ibadan metropolis.

The Associations between Perceived Parenting Styles, Empathy, and Altruistic Choices in Economic Games: A Study of Chinese Children.

Science.gov (United States)

Guo, Qingke; Feng, Linlin

2017-01-01

Parenting styles are critical for fostering children's empathy and prosociality. Yet these relations haven't been well established for Chinese children, and the underlying mechanisms were seldom explored. Drawing upon parental acceptance-rejection theory and empathy-altruism hypothesis, the objective of this study was to investigate the relationships between perceived parenting styles and altruistic behavior of children, and the intervening role of children's empathy and the moderating role of in-group and out-group conditions. What is novel about this study is that it contains both survey data and experimental data. Four hundred and ninety-four children ( M age = 8.92 years) completed four simple binary-choice dictator games which are widely used in the study of other-regarding preferences (concerns for the interests of others). These children also reported their perceived parenting styles. And children's empathy was reported by their mothers. Each child's altruism score, which was used in the subsequent analyses, was derived from the altruistic choices in these games. Mediation analyses indicated that, when age and gender were controlled for, maternal and paternal emotional warmth were positively associated with children's altruism via children's empathy, while maternal and paternal rejection were negatively associated with children's altruism via children's empathy. Multi-group analyses showed that the influences of perceived parenting styles on children's altruistic behavior via children's empathy were consistent for in-group and out-group conditions. These findings suggest that enhancing parental emotional warmth and reducing parental rejection may foster children's empathy, which in turn promote children's altruism. Limitations and future directions of this study were also discussed.

The Moral Development of The Child: An Integrated Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hing Keung eMa

2013-11-01

Full Text Available Previous theories of moral development such as those by Piaget and Kohlberg usually focused on the cognitive or rational aspect, and seldom included the affective aspect in their construction. The characteristics of the stages of moral development in the present paper are elaborated with special reference to psychological needs, altruism and human relationships, and justice reasoning. The three stages are: (1 Physical Survival, Selfishness and Obedience, (2 Love Needs, Reciprocal Altruism and Instrumental Purpose; and (3 Belongingness Needs, Primary Group Altruism and Mutual Interpersonal Expectations. At Stage 1, a deep and profound attachment to parents, empathy toward the significant others, and obedience to authorities all contribute to the physical survival of a person at this stage. People at Stage 2 are self-protective, dominant, exploitative and opportunistic. The need to love and to be loved is gratified on the basis of reciprocal altruism. People at Stage 3 have a strong desire to gratify their belongingness needs to a primary group. They are willing to sacrifice for the benefits of the group at great cost. While the psychological needs and altruism are related to the affective aspect of moral development, the justice reasoning is related to the cognitive aspect. The proposed theoretical model attempts to integrate the affective and cognitive aspects of moral development, and prototypic responses to questions related to hypothetical moral dilemmas are presented to substantiate the proposed stage structures. It is hypothesized that the sequence of these three stages is invariant of person and culture.

Teorie her a evoluční etika

OpenAIRE

BARTÁK, Jakub

2008-01-01

One of the main evolutionary ethics tasks lies in conventional biological explication of reciprocal altruism and its related adaptive functions of human moral phenomenon. The evolutionary ethics assume a simultaneous development of altruism evolution along with moral senses and intuition by which this strategy was conditioned. For evolutionary ethics argumentation is used a discipline called game theory that by means of mathematic simulations confirms its hypothesis. The relation of these two...

The Associations between Perceived Parenting Styles, Empathy, and Altruistic Choices in Economic Games: A Study of Chinese Children

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Qingke Guo

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Parenting styles are critical for fostering children’s empathy and prosociality. Yet these relations haven’t been well established for Chinese children, and the underlying mechanisms were seldom explored. Drawing upon parental acceptance-rejection theory and empathy-altruism hypothesis, the objective of this study was to investigate the relationships between perceived parenting styles and altruistic behavior of children, and the intervening role of children’s empathy and the moderating role of in-group and out-group conditions. What is novel about this study is that it contains both survey data and experimental data. Four hundred and ninety-four children (Mage = 8.92 years completed four simple binary-choice dictator games which are widely used in the study of other-regarding preferences (concerns for the interests of others. These children also reported their perceived parenting styles. And children’s empathy was reported by their mothers. Each child’s altruism score, which was used in the subsequent analyses, was derived from the altruistic choices in these games. Mediation analyses indicated that, when age and gender were controlled for, maternal and paternal emotional warmth were positively associated with children’s altruism via children’s empathy, while maternal and paternal rejection were negatively associated with children’s altruism via children’s empathy. Multi-group analyses showed that the influences of perceived parenting styles on children’s altruistic behavior via children’s empathy were consistent for in-group and out-group conditions. These findings suggest that enhancing parental emotional warmth and reducing parental rejection may foster children’s empathy, which in turn promote children’s altruism. Limitations and future directions of this study were also discussed.

Male Mating Signaling in Social Dilemma Games

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Niels Holm

2013-01-01

According to sexual selection theory and costly signaling theory, men benefit from signaling costly mate qualities to attractive women. To date, several studies have investigated whether men use conspicuous altruism to attract women, but the findings are mixed. This study investigated whether men...... being observed by an attractive woman engage in competitive economic altruism in three social dilemma games — the Dictator Game, Trust Game (2nd mover), and Public Goods Game — in comparison to men being observed by a non-attractive woman. Results showed that altruistic contributions in the games were...... not significantly larger in the attractive observer group than in the non-attractive observer group. Exploratory analyses did reveal, however, that amongst participants with an attractive observer only, dispositional generosity had a strongly positive effect on altruism while dispositional dominance had a negative...

Philosophy of organ donation: Review of ethical facets

OpenAIRE

Dalal, Aparna R

2015-01-01

Transplantation ethics is a philosophy that incorporates systematizing, defending and advocating concepts of right and wrong conduct related to organ donation. As the demand for organs increases, it is essential to ensure that new and innovative laws, policies and strategies of increasing organ supply are bioethical and are founded on the principles of altruism and utilitarianism. In the field of organ transplantation, role of altruism and medical ethics values are significant to the welfare ...

Prosocial Behavior and Subjective Insecurity in Violent Contexts: Field Experiments

OpenAIRE

V?lez, Mar?a Alejandra; Trujillo, Carlos Andres; Moros, Lina; Forero, Clemente

2016-01-01

Subjective insecurity is a key determinant of different forms of prosocial behavior. In Study 1, we used field experiments with farmers in Colombian villages exposed to different levels of violence to investigate how individual perceptions of insecurity affect cooperation, trust, reciprocity and altruism. To do so, we developed a cognitive-affective measure of subjective insecurity. We found that subjective insecurity has a negative effect on cooperation but influences trust and altruism posi...

Parochial altruism in humans.

Science.gov (United States)

Bernhard, Helen; Fischbacher, Urs; Fehr, Ernst

2006-08-24

Social norms and the associated altruistic behaviours are decisive for the evolution of human cooperation and the maintenance of social order, and they affect family life, politics and economic interactions. However, as altruistic norm compliance and norm enforcement often emerge in the context of inter-group conflicts, they are likely to be shaped by parochialism--a preference for favouring the members of one's ethnic, racial or language group. We have conducted punishment experiments, which allow 'impartial' observers to punish norm violators, with indigenous groups in Papua New Guinea. Here we show that these experiments confirm the prediction of parochialism. We found that punishers protect ingroup victims--who suffer from a norm violation--much more than they do outgroup victims, regardless of the norm violator's group affiliation. Norm violators also expect that punishers will be lenient if the latter belong to their social group. As a consequence, norm violations occur more often if the punisher and the norm violator belong to the same group. Our results are puzzling for evolutionary multi-level selection theories based on selective group extinction as well as for theories of individual selection; they also indicate the need to explicitly examine the interactions between individuals stemming from different groups in evolutionary models.

Empathy, Sympathy, and Altruism.

Science.gov (United States)

Bleda, Paul R.

In contrast to previous reviews that have dealt extensively with either situational determinants of intervention in emergencies or norms governing prosocial actions, the present paper focuses primarily on the role of empathy and sympathy in mediating helpful acts. To provide a meaningful context in which to integrate research in this area, two…

Representing culture in interstellar messages

Science.gov (United States)

Vakoch, Douglas A.

2008-09-01

As scholars involved with the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) have contemplated how we might portray humankind in any messages sent to civilizations beyond Earth, one of the challenges they face is adequately representing the diversity of human cultures. For example, in a 2003 workshop in Paris sponsored by the SETI Institute, the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) SETI Permanent Study Group, the International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology (ISAST), and the John Templeton Foundation, a varied group of artists, scientists, and scholars from the humanities considered how to encode notions of altruism in interstellar messages . Though the group represented 10 countries, most were from Europe and North America, leading to the group's recommendation that subsequent discussions on the topic should include more globally representative perspectives. As a result, the IAA Study Group on Interstellar Message Construction and the SETI Institute sponsored a follow-up workshop in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA in February 2005. The Santa Fe workshop brought together scholars from a range of disciplines including anthropology, archaeology, chemistry, communication science, philosophy, and psychology. Participants included scholars familiar with interstellar message design as well as specialists in cross-cultural research who had participated in the Symposium on Altruism in Cross-cultural Perspective, held just prior to the workshop during the annual conference of the Society for Cross-cultural Research . The workshop included discussion of how cultural understandings of altruism can complement and critique the more biologically based models of altruism proposed for interstellar messages at the 2003 Paris workshop. This paper, written by the chair of both the Paris and Santa Fe workshops, will explore the challenges of communicating concepts of altruism that draw on both biological and cultural models.

Are women expected to be more generous?

OpenAIRE

Aguiar, Fernando

2009-01-01

This paper analyzes if men and women are expected to behave differently regarding altruism. Since the dictator game provides the most suitable design for studying altruism and generosity in the lab setting, we use a modified version to study the beliefs involved in the game. Our results are substantial: men and women are expected to behave differently. Moreover, while women believe that women are more generous, men consider that women are as generous as men. © 2008 Economic Science Association.

Is costly punishment altruistic? Exploring rejection of unfair offers in the Ultimatum Game in real-world altruists.

Science.gov (United States)

Brethel-Haurwitz, Kristin M; Stoycos, Sarah A; Cardinale, Elise M; Huebner, Bryce; Marsh, Abigail A

2016-01-07

In the Ultimatum Game (UG), incurring a cost to punish inequity is commonly termed altruistic punishment. This behaviour is thought to benefit others if the defector becomes more equitable in future interactions. However, clear connections between punishment in the UG and altruistic behaviours outside the laboratory are lacking. We tested the altruistic punishment hypothesis in a sample of extraordinarily altruistic adults, predicting that if punishing inequity is predictive of altruism more broadly, extraordinary altruists should punish more frequently. Results showed that punishment was not more prevalent in extraordinary altruists than controls. However, a self-reported altruism measure previously linked to peer evaluations but not behaviour, and on which extraordinary altruists and controls did not differ, did predict punishment. These findings support suggestions that altruistic punishment in the UG is better termed costly punishment and may be motivated by social, but not necessarily prosocial, concerns. Results also support prior suggestions that self-reported altruism may not reliably predict altruistic behaviour.

Belief in reciprocity in a Chinese sample.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Zhen; Zhang, Jianxin

2012-08-01

Belief in reciprocity refers to a personally internalized faith in the reciprocity norm: that people will return positive and negative interactions or favors in kind. The current study aims to examine the relationship between belief in reciprocity and altruism among a Chinese sample. The Personal Norm of Reciprocity Scale, Trait Forgiveness Scale, Prosocial Tendency Measure, and Altruism Scale were used to assess extent of belief in reciprocity, forgiveness, and prosocial motivation, respectively, among 204 Chinese undergraduates. The results indicated that belief in reciprocity was a partially negative, but not neutral, reciprocity norm for Chinese people. Specifically, belief in reciprocity was positively related to negative reciprocity, but not significantly related to positive reciprocity. Moreover, belief in reciprocity was negatively related to both prosocial tendency and altruistic motivation. The results also indicated that forgiveness largely mediated the effect of belief in reciprocity on altruism. Finally, the implications and limitations of the current study were discussed.

Psychopathy and Heroism in First Responders: Traits Cut From the Same Cloth?

Science.gov (United States)

Patton, Christina L; Smith, Sarah Francis; Lilienfeld, Scott O

2017-11-09

Some scholars have posited that certain traits associated with psychopathy-namely, fearlessness, boldness, and willingness to take risks-are associated with greater engagement in heroic and altruistic acts; nevertheless, this conjecture has received little empirical attention. We examined the relations among psychopathic traits, heroism, altruism, workplace deviance, and leadership in first-responder (n = 138) and civilian (n = 104) samples recruited by means of an online platform. Across samples, fearless dominance, boldness, sensation seeking, and several other psychopathy-related variables were positively and significantly associated with everyday heroism and altruism. First responders scored significantly higher than did civilians on measures of psychopathy, fearlessness, boldness, heroism, and altruism, and reported significantly greater workplace deviance and participation in leadership activities. Our results support previous suggestions of ties between psychopathic traits, especially fearlessness and heroism, although they leave unresolved the question of why certain antisocial and prosocial behaviors appear to covary. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Knowledge sharing in virtual communities: A social exchange theory perspective

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Li Jinyang

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Purpose: The author tried to identify the knowledge sharing behaviors on the internet, using structural equation modeling methods, proposing a model based on social exchange theory in which share willingness, trust, reciprocity, altruism tended to have impact on people’s knowledge sharing behaviors in virtual communities. Design/methodology/approach: We presented an empirical research which integrated social exchange theory and structural equation modeling methods to analyze several important factors influencing members’ knowledge sharing behaviors in virtual communities. Findings: We analyzed the knowledge sharing behaviors in virtual communities. We found that members’ altruism can not predict knowledge sharing behaviors. We also found that members’ sharing willingness is the most important factor on virtual community knowledge sharing behaviors compared with trust, reciprocity and altruism. Originality/value: From the perspective of social exchange theory, we did empirical test and verified the proposed research model by using structural equation modeling methods. Our finding can help recognize people’s incentive about knowledge sharing.

Spending Natural Resource Revenues in an Altruistic Growth Model

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Frederiksen, Elisabeth Hermann

This paper examines how revenues from a natural resource interact with growth and welfare in an overlapping generations model with altruism. The revenues are allocated between public productive services and direct transfers to members of society by spending policies. We analyze how these policies...... influence the dynamics, and how the dynamics are influenced by the abundance of the revenue. Abundant revenues may harm growth, but growth and welfare can be oppositely affected. We also provide the socially optimal policy. Overall, the analysis suggests that variation in the strength of altruism...

The Group Selection Debate and ALife: Weak Altruism, Strong Altruism, and Inclusive Fitness (abstract)

OpenAIRE

Powers, Simon T.; Watson, Richard A.

2008-01-01

Models of the evolution of social behaviour are often framed in terms of either multi-level selection or inclusive individual fitness theory. Although both of these descriptions correctly predict changes in gene frequency (where group fitness is defined as the average individual fitness of the group members), it is still a hotly contested issue as to which provides a faithful description of the underlying causal processes at work. Furthermore, the type of model analysis used reflects the phil...

Inter-group conflict and cooperation: field experiments before, during and after sectarian riots in Northern Ireland

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Antonio S Silva

2015-11-01

Full Text Available The idea that cooperative groups out-compete less cooperative groups has been proposed as a theoretical possibility for the evolution of cooperation through cultural group selection. Previous studies have found an association between increased cooperation and exposure to inter-group violence, but most have not been able to identify the specific target of cooperation and are based on correlational data making it difficult to establish causality. In this study we test the hypothesis that inter-group conflict promotes parochial altruism (i.e. in-group altruism and out-group hostility by using longitudinal data of a real-world measure of cooperation – charity and school donations – sampled before, during and after violent sectarian riots between Catholics and Protestants in Belfast, Northern Ireland. We find that conflict is associated with reductions in all types of cooperation, with reduced donations to a neutral charity, and both in-group and out-group primary schools. After the conflict, both in-group and out-group donations increased again. In this context we find no evidence that inter-group conflict promotes parochial altruism.

Parochial Altruists or Ideologues? An Agent Based Model of Commitment to Self Sacrifice

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Giti Zahedzadeh

2015-09-01

Full Text Available 'What motivates suicide attackers remains an open question. From an evolutionary perspective, commitment to suicide missions is puzzling since such behavior is fitness reducing. We model suicide terrorism by drawing on two fundamental human motivations: altruism and selfishness. Martyrdom can be viewed as altruistic- benefiting group members at a cost to oneself, as well as selfish- ideological belief in a profitable afterlife. Our simulations identify that some degree of both behaviors are essential in order to facilitate a commitment to sacrifice. Thus, manipulations of ideology and altruism can tip the threshold and set the agents on the path of martyrdom. '

An integrated view of empathy: psychology, philosophy, and neuroscience.

Science.gov (United States)

Nakao, Hisashi; Itakura, Shoji

2009-03-01

In this paper, we will examine and untangle a conflict mainly between a developmental psychologist, Martin Hoffman and a social psychologist, Daniel Batson. According to Hoffman, empathic distress, a vicarious feeling through empathy, is transformed into an altruistic motivation. Batson and others on the other hand, criticize Hoffman, claiming that empathic altruism has no relation with empathic distress. We will point out some problems with Batson's position by referring to the results of fMRI experiments that suggest empathic distress and empathic altruism share a common basis, and defend Hoffman's argument. This will also offer new insights into the evolution of empathy.

Are there Nonverbal Cues to Commitment? An Exploratory Study Using the Zero-Acquaintance Video Presentation Paradigm

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

William Michael Brown

2003-01-01

Full Text Available Altruism is difficult to explain evolutionarily if subtle cheaters exist in a population (Trivers, 1971. A pathway to the evolutionary maintenance of cooperation is nonverbal altruist-detection. One adaptive advantage of nonverbal altruist-detection is the formation of trustworthy division of labour partnerships (Frank, 1988. Three studies were designed to test a fundamental assumption behind altruistic partner preference models. In the first experiment perceivers (blind with respect to target altruism level made assessments of video-clips depicting self-reported altruists and self-reported non-altruists. Video-clips were designed with attempts to control for attractiveness, expressiveness, role-playing ability, and verbal content. Overall perceivers rated altruists as more “helpful” than non-altruists. In a second experiment manipulating the payoffs for cooperation, perceivers (blind with respect to payoff condition and altruism level assessed altruists who were helping others as more “concerned” and “attentive” than non-altruists. However perceivers assessed the same altruists as less “concerned” and “attentive” than non-altruists when the payoffs were for self. This finding suggests that perceivers are sensitive to nonverbal indicators of selfishness. Indeed the self-reported non-altruists were more likely than self-reported altruists to retain resources for themselves in an objective measure of cooperative tendencies (i.e. a dictator game. In a third study altruists and non-altruists' facial expressions were analyzed. The smile emerged as a consistent cue to altruism. In addition, altruists exhibited more expressions that are under involuntary control (e.g., orbicularis oculi compared to non-altruists. Findings suggest that likelihood to cooperate is signaled nonverbally and the putative cues may be under involuntary control as predicted by Frank (1988.

Selfish or selfless? On the signal value of emotion in altruistic behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Barasch, Alixandra; Levine, Emma E; Berman, Jonathan Z; Small, Deborah A

2014-09-01

Theories that reject the existence of altruism presume that emotional benefits serve as ulterior motives for doing good deeds. These theories argue that even in the absence of material and reputational benefits, individuals reap utility from the feelings associated with doing good. In response to this normative view of altruism, this article examines the descriptive question of whether laypeople penalize emotional prosocial actors. Six studies find that emotion serves as a positive signal of moral character, despite the intrapsychic benefits associated with it. This is true when emotion motivates prosocial behavior (Studies 1, 2, 3, and 5) and when emotion is a positive outcome of prosocial behavior (i.e., "warm glow"; Studies 4, 5, and 6). Emotional actors are considered to be moral because people believe emotion provides an honest and direct signal that the actor feels a genuine concern for others. Consequently, prosocial actors who are motivated by the expectation of emotional rewards are judged differently than prosocial actors who are motivated by other benefits, such as reputational or material rewards (Study 6). These results suggest that laypeople do not view altruism as incompatible with all benefits to the self. 2014 APA, all rights reserved

Determinants of organizational citizenship behavior: A case study of higher education institutes in Pakistan

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nazia Bashir

2012-01-01

Full Text Available This study empirically examines the relationship between altruism, conscientiousness, and civic virtue, three of the antecedents of organizational citizenship behavior, in higher education institutes in the Khyber Pakhtonkhuwa Province (KPK of Pakistan. The study is based on primary data collected from ninety-five employees of various institutes in Pakistan. The data is analyzed using the techniques of rank correlation coefficient and multiple regression analysis. All the findings are tested at 0.01 and 0.05 levels of significance. The result concludes that altruism, conscientiousness, and civic virtue have strong positive impacts on the organizational citizenship behavior in the context of higher education institutes in Pakistan.

The cultural contagion of conflict

Science.gov (United States)

Gelfand, Michele; Shteynberg, Garriy; Lee, Tiane; Lun, Janetta; Lyons, Sarah; Bell, Chris; Chiao, Joan Y.; Bruss, C. Bayan; Al Dabbagh, May; Aycan, Zeynep; Abdel-Latif, Abdel-Hamid; Dagher, Munqith; Khashan, Hilal; Soomro, Nazar

2012-01-01

Anecdotal evidence abounds that conflicts between two individuals can spread across networks to involve a multitude of others. We advance a cultural transmission model of intergroup conflict where conflict contagion is seen as a consequence of universal human traits (ingroup preference, outgroup hostility; i.e. parochial altruism) which give their strongest expression in particular cultural contexts. Qualitative interviews conducted in the Middle East, USA and Canada suggest that parochial altruism processes vary across cultural groups and are most likely to occur in collectivistic cultural contexts that have high ingroup loyalty. Implications for future neuroscience and computational research needed to understand the emergence of intergroup conflict are discussed. PMID:22271785

Differences in social representation of blood donation between donors and non-donors: an empirical study.

Science.gov (United States)

Guarnaccia, Cinzia; Giannone, Francesca; Falgares, Giorgio; Caligaris, Aldo Ozino; Sales-Wuillemin, Edith

2015-11-04

Both donors and non-donors have a positive image of blood donation, so donors and non-donors do not differ regarding their views on donation but do differ in converting their opinion into an active deed of donation. Several studies have identified altruism and empathy as the main factors underlying blood donation. However, a mixture of various motivational factors mould the complex behaviour of donation. This paper presents an exploratory study on differences of social representations of blood donation between blood donors and non-donors, in order to understand the reasons that bring someone to take the decision to become a blood donor. Participants filled in the Adapted Self-Report Altruism Scale, Toronto Empathy Questionnaire and answered a test of verbal association. Descriptive and correlation analyses were carried out on quantitative data, while a prototypic analysis was used for qualitative data. The study was carried out on a convenience sample of 786 individuals, 583 donors (mean age: 35.40 years, SD: 13.01 years; 39.3% female) and 203 non-donors (mean age: 35.10 years, SD: 13.30 years; 67.5% female). Social representations of donors seem to be more complex and articulated than those of non-donors. The terms that appear to be central were more specific in donors (life, needle, blood, help, altruism were the words most associated by non-donors; life, aid, altruism, solidarity, health, love, gift, generosity, voluntary, control, needed, useful, needle were the words most associated by donors). Furthermore, non-donors associated a larger number of terms referring to negative aspects of blood donation. Aspects related to training and the accuracy of any information on blood donation seem to be important in the decision to become a donor and stabilise the behaviour of donation over time, thus ensuring the highest levels of quality and safety in blood establishments.

Chimpanzees help each other upon request.

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Shinya Yamamoto

2009-10-01

Full Text Available The evolution of altruism has been explained mainly from ultimate perspectives. However, it remains to be investigated from a proximate point of view how and in which situations such social propensity is achieved. We investigated chimpanzees' targeted helping in a tool transfer paradigm, and discuss the similarities and differences in altruism between humans and chimpanzees. Previously it has been suggested that chimpanzees help human experimenters by retrieving an object which the experimenter is trying to reach. In the present study, we investigated the importance of communicative interactions between chimpanzees themselves and the influence of conspecific partner's request on chimpanzees' targeted helping.We presented two tool-use situations (a stick-use situation and a straw-use situation in two adjacent booths, and supplied non-corresponding tools to paired chimpanzees in the two booths. For example, a chimpanzee in the stick-use situation was supplied with a straw, and the partner in the straw-use situation possessed a stick. Spontaneous tool transfer was observed between paired chimpanzees. The tool transfer events occurred predominantly following recipients' request. Even without any hope of reciprocation from the partner, the chimpanzees continued to help the partner as long as the partner required help.These results provide further evidence for altruistic helping in chimpanzees in the absence of direct personal gain or even immediate reciprocation. Our findings additionally highlight the importance of request as a proximate mechanism motivating prosocial behavior in chimpanzees whether between kin or non-kin individuals and the possible confounding effect of dominance on the symmetry of such interactions. Finally, in contrast to humans, our study suggests that chimpanzees rarely perform acts of voluntary altruism. Voluntary altruism in chimpanzees is not necessarily prompted by simple observation of another's struggle to attain a goal

Human altruism by lethal group competition

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Egas, M.; Kats, R.; Reuben, E.; van der Sar, X.; Sabelis, M.W.

2013-01-01

Why humans are prone to cooperate puzzles biologists, psychologists and economists alike. Between-group conflict has been hypothesized to drive within-group cooperation. However, such conflicts did not have lasting effects in laboratory experiments, because they were about luxury goods, not needed

Are Future Bureaucrats More Prosocial?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tepe, Markus; Vanhuysse, Pieter

2017-01-01

robust subject pool effects. Even after controlling for PSM, public administration students both behave more altruistically and display less merely strategic fairness than business students. And they behave more cooperatively than students of both business and law. These behavioral findings about future......This article explores the associations between self-reported Public Service Motivation (PSM), study choice, and observable prosocial behavior across three subject pools covering over 250 university students in Germany. We use laboratory experiments with monetary rewards to measure altruism......, fairness, strategic fairness, and cooperation towards public goods, and a post-experimental survey on subjects’ PSM. Higher levels of PSM are not associated with studying public administration but are positively associated with altruism, and negatively with strategic fairness. The experimental data reveals...

Dying the right-way? Interest in and perceived persuasiveness of parochial extremist propaganda increases after mortality salience.

Science.gov (United States)

Frischlich, Lena; Rieger, Diana; Hein, Maia; Bente, Gary

2015-01-01

Research on parochial altruism demonstrated that hostility toward out-groups (parochialism) represents the dark side of the willingness to benefit one's in-group even at own costs (altruism). Parochial aggression thereby emerged mainly under conditions of threat. Extremist propaganda videos, for instance by right-wing extremists, try to capitalize on parochial altruistic mechanism by telling recipients sharing their national identity that this nation is under threat wherefore they for have to join the extremist's cause to prevent the extinction of their nation. Most of the time, propaganda videos are rated as uninteresting and non-persuasive by the target audience. Yet, evolutionary media psychology posits that the interest in and effectiveness of media increases when evolutionarily relevant problems are addressed. Consequently, interest in parochial altruistic right-wing extremist messages should increase under conditions of threat. The current study tested this assumption by randomly assigning German non-Muslims (N = 109) to either an existential threat (here: mortality salience) or a control condition and asking them to evaluate extremist propaganda that addressed them as either in-group members (right-wing extremists) or as out-group members (Islamic extremists). In support of the hypotheses, subjects under conditions of threat reported a higher interest in the right-wing extremist propaganda and perceived it as more persuasive. We discuss the results concerning the implications for evolutionary media psychology and the transmission of parochial altruism in propaganda videos.

Fairness expectations and altruistic sharing in 15-month-old human infants.

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Marco F H Schmidt

Full Text Available Human cooperation is a key driving force behind the evolutionary success of our hominin lineage. At the proximate level, biologists and social scientists have identified other-regarding preferences--such as fairness based on egalitarian motives, and altruism--as likely candidates for fostering large-scale cooperation. A critical question concerns the ontogenetic origins of these constituents of cooperative behavior, as well as whether they emerge independently or in an interrelated fashion. The answer to this question will shed light on the interdisciplinary debate regarding the significance of such preferences for explaining how humans become such cooperative beings. We investigated 15-month-old infants' sensitivity to fairness, and their altruistic behavior, assessed via infants' reactions to a third-party resource distribution task, and via a sharing task. Our results challenge current models of the development of fairness and altruism in two ways. First, in contrast to past work suggesting that fairness and altruism may not emerge until early to mid-childhood, 15-month-old infants are sensitive to fairness and can engage in altruistic sharing. Second, infants' degree of sensitivity to fairness as a third-party observer was related to whether they shared toys altruistically or selfishly, indicating that moral evaluations and prosocial behavior are heavily interconnected from early in development. Our results present the first evidence that the roots of a basic sense of fairness and altruism can be found in infancy, and that these other-regarding preferences develop in a parallel and interwoven fashion. These findings support arguments for an evolutionary basis--most likely in dialectical manner including both biological and cultural mechanisms--of human egalitarianism given the rapidly developing nature of other-regarding preferences and their role in the evolution of human-specific forms of cooperation. Future work of this kind will help

Fairness expectations and altruistic sharing in 15-month-old human infants.

Science.gov (United States)

Schmidt, Marco F H; Sommerville, Jessica A

2011-01-01

Human cooperation is a key driving force behind the evolutionary success of our hominin lineage. At the proximate level, biologists and social scientists have identified other-regarding preferences--such as fairness based on egalitarian motives, and altruism--as likely candidates for fostering large-scale cooperation. A critical question concerns the ontogenetic origins of these constituents of cooperative behavior, as well as whether they emerge independently or in an interrelated fashion. The answer to this question will shed light on the interdisciplinary debate regarding the significance of such preferences for explaining how humans become such cooperative beings. We investigated 15-month-old infants' sensitivity to fairness, and their altruistic behavior, assessed via infants' reactions to a third-party resource distribution task, and via a sharing task. Our results challenge current models of the development of fairness and altruism in two ways. First, in contrast to past work suggesting that fairness and altruism may not emerge until early to mid-childhood, 15-month-old infants are sensitive to fairness and can engage in altruistic sharing. Second, infants' degree of sensitivity to fairness as a third-party observer was related to whether they shared toys altruistically or selfishly, indicating that moral evaluations and prosocial behavior are heavily interconnected from early in development. Our results present the first evidence that the roots of a basic sense of fairness and altruism can be found in infancy, and that these other-regarding preferences develop in a parallel and interwoven fashion. These findings support arguments for an evolutionary basis--most likely in dialectical manner including both biological and cultural mechanisms--of human egalitarianism given the rapidly developing nature of other-regarding preferences and their role in the evolution of human-specific forms of cooperation. Future work of this kind will help determine to what

Darwin’s Writers

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Hříbek, Tomáš

2009-01-01

Roč. 5, 11-12 (2009), s. 19-52 ISSN 1214-7915 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z90090514 Keywords : Darwinism * British fiction * genetic determinism * sexual selection * altruism Subject RIV: AA - Philosophy ; Religion

An investigation on the effect of organizational citizenship behavior on perceptions of service quality

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

R. Ghorbani

2014-05-01

Full Text Available This paper studies the effect of organizational citizenship behavior on perceptions of service quality in city of Tehran, Iran in 2013. The study considers the behavior of citizens in terms of five perspectives including altruism, generosity, loyalty, social customs and courtesy. The study selects 229 regular employees of this municipality organization and applies a questionnaire designed in Likert scale. The results of Pearson correlation test as well as stepwise regression technique indicate that there were positive and meaningful relationships between organizational citizenship behavior including Altruism, (β = 0.445, Sig. =0.043, Social Customs, (β = 0.395, Sig. = 0.000, Generosity (β = 0.299, Sig. = 0.000, Loyalty (β = 0.193, Sig. =0.000 and Courtesy (β = 1.221, Sig. =0.000 and perceptions of service quality.

Conserving rangeland resources. | Mentis | African Journal of Range ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

... goal-attainment, (5) try to correct departures, and (6) align individual and societal interests by manipulating market-forces. Keywords: altruism; conservation; Conservation implementation; Conservation properties; human activity; Human values; philosophy; Range resources; rangeland; Rangelands; Science philosophy

Fulltext PDF

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Unknown

... were better known as the “alternative Nobel prizes” for biology and received media ..... The wrestling with such different approaches to communication must have ... of altruism and ethics in human beings, for example, is an excellent ...

Filantropía democrática y sentimientos morales

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Béjar, Helena

2001-12-01

Full Text Available The following article analizes the moral sentiments attached to volunteer work as a civic practice which links individualism and altruism. I consider individualism as the moral center of contemporary culture, whereas altruism is an extraordinary behaviour, both in the moral and the social sense. I have studied the motivations of formal volunteerism, leaving aside informal help. I have found three discourses that have been considered as ideal types, even though in all of them individualism and altruism are intertwined. The so-called individualistic language, the Christian one and the civic one express the contemporary moral languages, which contain a specific conception of the social ties and the moral sentiments that are adscribed to it.

El siguiente trabajo analiza los sentimientos morales dentro del voluntariado como una práctica cívica que enlaza el individualismo, eje axial de la cultura contemporánea, y el altruismo, entendido como un comportamiento extraordinario, tanto social como moralmente. En concreto, se estudian las motivaciones del voluntariado formal, dejando de lado la ayuda informal y espontánea. Aparecen tres discursos que se presentan como tipos ideales, aunque en todos ellos se combinen la dicotomía altruismo/egoísmo. Tales discursos son el individualista, el cristiano y el cívico, y expresan los lenguajes morales contemporáneos que hablan sobre los valores en torno a la vinculación social y los sentimientos morales a ella asociados.

The Importance of Organizational Citizenship Behavior Skills.

Science.gov (United States)

Dwyer, Sean; Allison, Barbara J.

2002-01-01

Presents components of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB): altruism, civic virtue, conscientiousness, courtesy, and sportsmanship. Discusses its impact on students' success, recommends ways to integrate OCB into the curriculum, and provides an OCB rating scale for student teams. (JOW)

SPIRITUALITAS DAN MOTIVASI MENOLONG PADA MAHASISWA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hendy Ginting

2018-02-01

Full Text Available This study investigates the correlations between spirituality, the essential part of religion, and prosocial motive, the basis of prosocial and altruistic behavior. Participants of this study are 300 seminary students coming from various theological schools in Bandung. This study uses Hall & Edwards theoretical perspective on Self-God Relationship Awareness (ARG, Quality of one’s relationship with God (QRG, and four prosocial motives – egoism, collectivism, principleism, and altruism – of Daniel C. Batson. There is strong correlation between spiritual maturity and prosocial motives, C = 0,6364. ARG has significantly correlation with prosocial motives collectivism (rs = 0,417 and principleism (rs = 0,420. Therefore, Unstable (rs = 0,511 and Grandiose (rs = 0,511 sub dimensions related more with prosocial motives which driven by egoism. Realistic acceptance sub dimension is significantly related with prosocial motives altruism (rs = 0,422.

Developing a Measure of Virtual Community Citizenship Behavior

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luman Yong

2011-12-01

Full Text Available This study examines the kinds of behaviors that constitute virtual community citizenship behaviors (VCCB and tests three factors that may influence community members’ willingness to engage in VCCB. More specifically, the authors propose a multi-dimensional VCCB construct (altruism, civic virtue, consciousness, courtesy, and sportsmanship and three antecedents of VCCB (affective commitment, structural embeddedness and membership tenure. Four dimensions including altruism, civic virtue, courtesy and loyalty emerged as a result of behavioral examples collection from SMEs using critical incident technique and a VCCB survey with 19 Likert type items reflecting the behavioral examples within each dimension was created. Data was collected from an online discussion forum (The Grad Cafe to address the research questions of this study. Results indicate that affective commitment was a significant predictor of the virtual community citizenship behaviors. A research agenda for studying VCCB is presented.

A Philosophical Perspective

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Nneka Umera-Okeke

fabricated by the weak for the weak, and master's self- poisoning resentment about ... Altruism is derived from moral theory that we are morally obliged to seek the .... expansion as moral insights deepen, because, we can seek the good of.

Social justice and research using human biological material: A ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

generated from research to which they contributed; therefore, in effect ... Mahomed et al. employ the terms 'human tissue' and 'tissue donors'. ... in favour of shifting away from altruism; secondly, I caution against framing the debate in terms of ...

Student Classroom and Career Success: The Role of Organizational Citizenship Behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Allison, Barbara J.; Voss, Richard Steven; Dryer, Sean

2001-01-01

Business students (n=211) rated their organizational citizenship behavior (altruism, courtesy, civic virtue, sportsmanship, conscientiousness). A majority had moderately high levels, but a significant percentage had relatively low levels. Organizational citizenship behavior was significantly and positively related to academic performance. (SK)

Altruism” And “Strategic Game” In Post-Genocide Interpersonal ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

... Services, this article analyses the different behaviours adopted by these key actors in interpersonal reconciliation processes and discusses the implication of different scenarios observed on the sustainability of the recovered social relationships. Keywords: empathy-altruism, strategic game, post-genocide reconciliation.

Managing the Cooperative Network.

Science.gov (United States)

Segal, JoAn S.

1983-01-01

Discussion of the management of not-for-profit corporations which provide computerized library networks highlights marketing, nonprofit constraints, multiple goals, consumer demands, professional commitment, external influences, motivation and control, dependence on charisma, management and altruism, hybrid organizations, and rational management.…

Molecular Mechanism of the Two-Component Suicidal Weapon of Neocapritermes taracua Old Workers

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Bourguignon, T.; Šobotník, J.; Brabcová, Jana; Sillam-Dusses, D.; Buček, Aleš; Krasulová, Jana; Vytisková, B.; Demianova, Z.; Mareš, Michael; Roisin, Y.; Vogel, H.

2016-01-01

Roč. 33, č. 3 (2016), s. 809-819 ISSN 0737-4038 R&D Projects: GA MŠk LO1302 Institutional support: RVO:61388963 Keywords : altruism * colony defense * termite * Isoptera * laccase Subject RIV: CE - Biochemistry Impact factor: 6.202, year: 2016

Promoting research participation: why not advertise altruism?

Science.gov (United States)

Williams, Brian; Entwistle, Vikki; Haddow, Gill; Wells, Mary

2008-04-01

Participation rates have a major impact on the quality, cost and timeliness of health research. There is growing evidence that participation rates may be falling and that new research governance structures and procedures may be increasing the likelihood of recruitment bias. It may be possible to encourage public reflection about research participation and enhance recruitment by providing information about the potential benefits of research to others as well as to research participants and by stimulating debate and influencing social expectations about involvement. Publicly funded and charitable bodies use various forms of advertising to encourage altruistic behaviour and generate social expectations about donating money, blood and organs for the benefit of others. Consideration should be given to the use of similar persuasive communications to promote wider participation in health research generally.

Media and Children's Aggression, Fear, and Altruism

Science.gov (United States)

Wilson, Barbara J.

2008-01-01

Noting that the social and emotional experiences of American children today often heavily involve electronic media, Barbara Wilson takes a close look at how exposure to screen media affects children's well-being and development. She concludes that media influence on children depends more on the type of content that children find attractive than on…

Detrimental effects of sanctions on human altruism

OpenAIRE

Ernst Fehr; Bettina Rockenbach

2003-01-01

The existence of cooperation and social order among genetically unrelated individuals is a fundamental problem in the behavioural sciences. The prevailing approaches in biology and economics view cooperation exclusively as self-interested behaviour— unrelated individuals cooperate only if they face economic rewards or sanctions rendering cooperation a self-interested choice. Whether economic incentives are perceived as just or legitimate does not matter in these theories. Fairness-based altru...

The egoism and altruism of intergenerational behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Wade-Benzoni, Kimberly A; Tost, Leigh Plunkett

2009-08-01

Some of the most important issues in society today affect more than one generation of people. In this article, the authors offer a conceptual overview and integration of the research on intergenerational dilemmas-decisions that entail a tradeoff between one's own self-interest in the present and the interests of other people in the future. Intergenerational decisions are characterized by a combination of intertemporal (i.e., behaviors that affect the future) and interpersonal (i.e., behaviors that affect other people) components. Research on intergenerational dilemmas identifies factors that emerge from these dimensions and how they interact with each other to influence intergenerational beneficence. Critically, phenomena that result from the intersection of these two dimensions-such as immortality striving through legacy creation-are especially important in distinguishing intergenerational decisions from other related decision contexts.

Social interaction, co-worker altruism, and incentives

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dur, R.; Sol, J.

2010-01-01

Social interaction with colleagues is an important job attribute for many workers. To attract and retain workers, managers therefore need to think about how to create and preserve high-quality co-worker relationships. This paper develops a principal-multi-agent model where agents do not only engage

The physics of evolution and biodiversity: Old answers to new questions, and more...

Science.gov (United States)

Bar-Yam, Yaneer

2013-03-01

In recent years there has been a contentious battle among prominent biologists about the validity of Kin versus Group Selection as models of evolutionary biology. I will show that the controversy is widely misunderstood and is rooted in the mean field basis of RA Fisher's statistical treatment of population biology, which is the origin of the ``gene centered view''-kin selection and inclusive fitness-but is also often used in analysis of group selection. As in statistical physics, symmetry breaking and pattern formation, and their spatial realizations, result in breakdown of the mean field approximation and the widely believed mathematical 'proofs' of the universality of the gene centered view. Our simulation and analysis (http://necsi.edu/research/evoeco/) of the role of this breakdown in spatial ecology, biodiversity, speciation and altruism, suggest there is an entire field of new opportunities to explore in the implications for evolutionary theory. The difference between biodiversity of wildtype populations and narrowly homogeneous laboratory types manifest the self-consistency of theoretical assumptions and laboratory experiments performed under conditions in which the mean field approximation applies. In contrast, the highly diverse natural populations manifest the role of boundaries between types (hybrid zones), speciation by spontaneous clustering, and spatio-temporal dynamics in predator prey systems. Altruism arises in evolving populations due to the spontaneous dynamic group formation and the heritability of environmental conditions created by parents and experienced by offspring (niche construction with symmetry breaking), so that altruists are better able to survive over the long term than selfish variants. Many versions of the mean field approximation that are traditionally used eliminate these spatio-temporal processes, leading to false analytic conclusions about their impossibility. The traditional view of altruism influenced views also of

Building interpersonal trust within organizations: A relational signaling approach

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Six, F.E.

2007-01-01

This article develops the foundations for a theory of interpersonal trust-building based on relational signalling theory (RST). RST is based on the assumptions that rationality is bounded through framing, that preferences are partially determined by altruism (through a distinction between foreground

Hamiltonian inclusive fitness: a fitter fitness concept.

Science.gov (United States)

Costa, James T

2013-01-01

In 1963-1964 W. D. Hamilton introduced the concept of inclusive fitness, the only significant elaboration of Darwinian fitness since the nineteenth century. I discuss the origin of the modern fitness concept, providing context for Hamilton's discovery of inclusive fitness in relation to the puzzle of altruism. While fitness conceptually originates with Darwin, the term itself stems from Spencer and crystallized quantitatively in the early twentieth century. Hamiltonian inclusive fitness, with Price's reformulation, provided the solution to Darwin's 'special difficulty'-the evolution of caste polymorphism and sterility in social insects. Hamilton further explored the roles of inclusive fitness and reciprocation to tackle Darwin's other difficulty, the evolution of human altruism. The heuristically powerful inclusive fitness concept ramified over the past 50 years: the number and diversity of 'offspring ideas' that it has engendered render it a fitter fitness concept, one that Darwin would have appreciated.

A Teenager’s reϐlection on formation of the value orientations in the family and at school

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

VILIJA GRINCEVIČIENĖ

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Family and school – the most important social institutions in which the young generation is prepared to live in tomorrow’s society. Analysis of the research revealed that in the period of age from 14 to 19 the most important values is considered as: empathy, perfection, justice, self-improvement, self-esteem, security, acceptance, courage, knowledge, creativity, competitiveness, friendship, cooperation, responsibility and altruism. Family, which successfully trains and educates such values as security, justice, altruism, empathy, self-esteem, enable the young generation to develop social competence. Th e main values conveyed in the school- competitiveness, education, cooperation, friendship, recognition. Looking at the situation from a range of competencies, a school distinguished by communication, learning to learn skills and personal development. A closer interaction between school and family accelerate the positive socialization process of young generation and guarantee the further development of the formation process of value orientations (personality development.

Social evaluation-induced amylase elevation and economic decision-making in the dictator game in humans.

Science.gov (United States)

Takahashi, Taiki; Ikeda, Koki; Hasegawa, Toshikazu

2007-10-01

Little is known regarding the relationship between social evaluation-induced neuroendocrine responses and generosity in game-theoretic situations. Previous studies demonstrated that reputation formation plays a pivotal role in prosocial behavior. This study aimed to examine the relationships between a social evaluation-induced salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) response and generosity in the dictator game. The relationship is potentially important in neuroeconomics of altruism and game theory. We assessed sAA and allocated money in the dictator game in male students with and without social evaluation. RESULTS Social evaluation-responders allocated significantly more money than controls; while there was no significant correlation between social evaluation-induced sAA elevation and the allocated money. Social evaluation significantly increases generosity in the dictator game, and individual differences in trait characteristics such as altruism and reward sensitivity may be important determinants of generosity in the dictator game task.

Beyond the Call of Duty? Essays on motivation and self-selection of bureaucrats

NARCIS (Netherlands)

M.W.J.M. Buurman (Margaretha)

2011-01-01

textabstractThe existence and effects of public service motivation (PSM), or altruism, among bureaucrats, is a well-debated topic among economists and administrative scientists (see e.g. Perry and Hondeghem 2008a, Besley and Ghatak 2005, Francois 2000 and 2007). However, the debate about motivation

Consumer choices: Going green to be seen

NARCIS (Netherlands)

B. van den Bergh (Bram); V. Griskevicius (Vladas); J.M. Tybur (Joshua)

2010-01-01

textabstractWhat motivates consumers to buy eco-friendly products? Are people’s choices linked to their concern for the environment and thus to be viewed as expressions of altruism, or are motives fragile and self-serving reflections of concern about social status within the community?

Evaluating The Role Of Empathy In Crowdsourcing User Interfaces

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Khan, J.V.; Dey, D.; Buchina, N.

2016-01-01

Empathy induced altruism is believed to motivate people in a crowdsourcing environment to produce better quality work. However, there hasn’t been any considerable investigation regarding how empathy can be effectively conveyed through user interfaces (UI). We conducted a study to find the effects of

"My Home and My School": Examining Immigrant Adolescent Narratives from the Critical Sociocultural Perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Jun

2010-01-01

Privileging the voices of 12 recent Chinese immigrant adolescents, this multiple-case narrative study examined their home and school experiences from the critical sociocultural perspective. The adolescent stories about home testified to the significant influence of immigrant poverty, parental sacrificial altruism, and disciplinary Chinese…

Sex and the Leuthold Free Rider Experiment; Some Results from an Israeli Sample.

Science.gov (United States)

Kleiman, Ephraim; Rubenstein, Yona

1996-01-01

Reports on the replication of Jane Leuthold's experiment concerning consumer choice, investments, and free riding indexes. This experiment, conducted in an Israeli undergraduate economics class, broadened the subjects' characteristics questionnaire to include issues of social consciousness and altruism. Includes four tables of statistical data.…

Beyond the merchant and the clergyman: Assessing moral claims about development cooperation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Dam, P.; van Dis, W.

2014-01-01

This article proposes to move beyond the categories of altruism and self-interest in the analyses of the motives for development cooperation. This opposition ignores the inherently moral nature of development policy. The article illustrates the shortcomings of such a perspective by tracing the

Parental background and other-regarding preferences in children

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Bauer, Michal; Chytilová, J.; Pertold-Gebicka, B.

2014-01-01

Roč. 17, č. 1 (2014), s. 24-46 ISSN 1386-4157 R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GBP402/12/G130 Institutional support: RVO:67985998 Keywords : other-regarding preferences * altruism * selfishness Subject RIV: AH - Economics Impact factor: 1.397, year: 2014

Theorizing slum tourism: performing, negotiating and transforming inequality

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dürr, E.; Jaffe, R.

2012-01-01

This Exploration focuses on the emerging field of slum tourism research, which has the poten- tial to connect Latin American and Caribbean studies on tourism and urban inequality. Slum tourism involves transforming poverty, squalor and violence into a tourism product. Drawing on both altruism and

The Nature of Empathy: Discriminant Analyses.

Science.gov (United States)

Jegerski, Jane A.; Upshaw, Harry S.

Hoffman's (1975) theory holds that altruism is based on cognitive development and mechanisms for empathic distress present from birth, with the individual going through stages of personal distress, empathic concern, and perspective taking. The Davis Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), a measure of empathy, contains four subscales: personal…

Humans are parochial altruists: neurocognitive foundations with implications for intergroup negotiation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Dreu, C.K.W.; Martinovski, B.

2013-01-01

Humans have a stunning capacity for cooperation yet, at the same time, create and escalate conflict with often devastating consequences. Here I argue that both tendencies -- to cooperate and to aggress -- can be understood as manifestations of parochial altruism--the tendency to benefit, at a cost

Compassion and Caring: Missing Concepts in Social Studies Programs.

Science.gov (United States)

Oliner, Pearl

1979-01-01

Current social studies programs do not include the study of prosocial behaviors such as altruism, generosity, and compassion. This omission legitimizes the view that human behaviors are self-serving. Curriculum developers should fashion programs which provide prosocial models and opportunities for students to conceptualize such behaviors and…

Caught in a Narrow Kantian Perception of Prosocial Development: Reactions to Campbell and Christopher's Critique of Moral Development Theory.

Science.gov (United States)

Eisenberg, Nancy

1996-01-01

Discusses the limitations of Campbell and Christopher's literature on moral development and altruism, claiming that the authors based some of their conclusions on questionable definitions, incorrect assumptions about others' assertions and beliefs, and reference to a limited portion of prosocial behavior. Suggests that Kantian presuppositions play…

The evolution of religious belief in humans: a brief review with a ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

DHAIRYYA SINGH

2017-07-07

Jul 7, 2017 ... Keywords. religion; evolution; costly signalling; belief. Introduction. Religion is ... form) in evolutionary time scales, evolutionary scholars have tended to .... suggested that while altruism might hurt the genetic fitness of the actor at the .... According to their account, as we developed self-awareness and the.

An empirical survey of acquisition of attitude and skills in peace ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The findings showed that the development of skill of critical thinking promote the ability to analysis issues and weigh arguments before making decisions/choice. The development of empathy foster cooperation between management and labour. Education for tolerance creates the feeling of altruism, respect for others and ...

All-or-Nothing Dictator Games : A Field Experiment

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bekkers, R.

2006-01-01

The dictator game has become well known for its results violating predictions based on ‘rational choice’ models of human behavior with orthodox assumptions on self-interest (Colin F. Camerer, 2003). Prosocial allocations in dictator games seem to suggest that there is some altruism in ‘human

Social evolution: reciprocity there is.

Science.gov (United States)

Taborsky, Michael

2013-06-03

The theory of cooperation predicts that altruism can be established by reciprocity, yet empirical evidence from nature is contentious. Increasingly though, experimental results from social vertebrates challenge the nearly exclusive explanatory power of relatedness for the evolution of cooperation. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Reciprocity and Dependency Considerations in Adult Donating and Verbal Judgments.

Science.gov (United States)

Peterson, Lizette; McCommis, Bruce

The norms of social responsibility and reciprocity govern altruistic behavior. Children and adults show a consistent developmental trend in comparisons of their responses to positive reciprocal situations and their subsequent altruism. Research indicates, however, that children, given the choice to behaviorally aid a needy individual, choose more…

Prosocial Behavior and Subjective Insecurity in Violent Contexts: Field Experiments

Science.gov (United States)

Vélez, María Alejandra; Trujillo, Carlos Andres; Moros, Lina; Forero, Clemente

2016-01-01

Subjective insecurity is a key determinant of different forms of prosocial behavior. In Study 1, we used field experiments with farmers in Colombian villages exposed to different levels of violence to investigate how individual perceptions of insecurity affect cooperation, trust, reciprocity and altruism. To do so, we developed a cognitive-affective measure of subjective insecurity. We found that subjective insecurity has a negative effect on cooperation but influences trust and altruism positively. In Study 2, carried out three years after Study 1, we repeated the initial design with additional measures of victimization. Our goal was to relate subjective insecurity with actual victimization. The findings of Study 2 support the initial results, and are robust and consistent for cooperative behavior and trust when including victimization as a mediator. Different indicators of victimization are positively correlated with subjective insecurity and an aggregate index of victimization has a negative effect on cooperation but exerts a positive influence on trust. PMID:27472437

Philanthropic Commitment Traits for Waqf in Higher Education

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Siti Khadijah, A. M.

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Philanthropic commitment in the form of waqf is important particularly among younger working adults in ensuring sustainable flow of funds for charitable purposes. One of the vital usages of such funds is funding for higher education. A question is raised on the commitment of younger adults in such giving. This study examines waqf commitment traits among waqif (waqf contributors for higher education funding. The specific objective of this study is to measure the factors that influence the waqif to contribute their property or income into waqf for higher education fund. For the purpose of this study, 400 questionnaires have been distributed to working young adult respondents in the Klang Valley area. Waqf commitment attributes comprising of Religiosity, Trust, Altruism, Personal Characteristics, SelfImage, Psychological Benefits, Social Norms and Personal Satisfaction are examined. The findings reveal that Religiosity, Altruism, Personal Satisfaction and Commitment are significant attributes in explaining waqf commitment. However, Trust and Social Norm are not significant.

Prosocial Behavior and Subjective Insecurity in Violent Contexts: Field Experiments.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

María Alejandra Vélez

Full Text Available Subjective insecurity is a key determinant of different forms of prosocial behavior. In Study 1, we used field experiments with farmers in Colombian villages exposed to different levels of violence to investigate how individual perceptions of insecurity affect cooperation, trust, reciprocity and altruism. To do so, we developed a cognitive-affective measure of subjective insecurity. We found that subjective insecurity has a negative effect on cooperation but influences trust and altruism positively. In Study 2, carried out three years after Study 1, we repeated the initial design with additional measures of victimization. Our goal was to relate subjective insecurity with actual victimization. The findings of Study 2 support the initial results, and are robust and consistent for cooperative behavior and trust when including victimization as a mediator. Different indicators of victimization are positively correlated with subjective insecurity and an aggregate index of victimization has a negative effect on cooperation but exerts a positive influence on trust.

Prosocial Behavior and Subjective Insecurity in Violent Contexts: Field Experiments.

Science.gov (United States)

Vélez, María Alejandra; Trujillo, Carlos Andres; Moros, Lina; Forero, Clemente

2016-01-01

Subjective insecurity is a key determinant of different forms of prosocial behavior. In Study 1, we used field experiments with farmers in Colombian villages exposed to different levels of violence to investigate how individual perceptions of insecurity affect cooperation, trust, reciprocity and altruism. To do so, we developed a cognitive-affective measure of subjective insecurity. We found that subjective insecurity has a negative effect on cooperation but influences trust and altruism positively. In Study 2, carried out three years after Study 1, we repeated the initial design with additional measures of victimization. Our goal was to relate subjective insecurity with actual victimization. The findings of Study 2 support the initial results, and are robust and consistent for cooperative behavior and trust when including victimization as a mediator. Different indicators of victimization are positively correlated with subjective insecurity and an aggregate index of victimization has a negative effect on cooperation but exerts a positive influence on trust.

Strategy intervention for the evolution of fairness.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yanling Zhang

Full Text Available The 'irrational' preference for fairness has attracted increasing attention. Although previous studies have focused on the effects of spitefulness on the evolution of fairness, they did not consider non-monotonic rejections shown in behavioral experiments. In this paper, we introduce a non-monotonic rejection in an evolutionary model of the Ultimatum Game. We propose strategy intervention to study the evolution of fairness in general structured populations. By sequentially adding five strategies into the competition between a fair strategy and a selfish strategy, we arrive at the following conclusions. First, the evolution of fairness is inhibited by altruism, but it is promoted by spitefulness. Second, the non-monotonic rejection helps fairness overcome selfishness. Particularly for group-structured populations, we analytically investigate how fairness, selfishness, altruism, and spitefulness are affected by population size, mutation, and migration in the competition among seven strategies. Our results may provide important insights into understanding the evolutionary origin of fairness.

Against dichotomies: on mature care and self-sacrifice in care ethics

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nistelrooij, A.A.M. van; Leget, C.J.W.

2016-01-01

Introduction: In previous issues of this journal Carol Gilligan’s original concept of mature care has been conceptualized by several (especially Norwegian) contributors. This has resulted in a dichotomous view of self and other, and of self-care and altruism, in which any form of self-sacrifice is

Unto Others: Illustrating the Human Capacity for Cooperation

Science.gov (United States)

Morris, J. Andrew; Urbanski, John; Hunt, Jason

2011-01-01

Research in both evolutionary economics and evolutionary psychology provides strong evidence that human behavior can be, and is, a complex mix of hedonism and altruism with a strong inclination toward cooperation under certain conditions. In this article, behavioral assumptions made in mainstream business theory are compared and contrasted with…

Psycho-sociocultural Analysis of Attitude towards Littering in a ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This study examined the influence of altruism, environmental self-efficacy, locus of control, self-concept, age, gender, and level of education as predictors of attitude towards littering among residents of some selected communities in Ibadan metropolis. An ex-post cross-sectional research design was adopted for this study.

Cross-Age Tutoring: Effects on Tutors' Attributes.

Science.gov (United States)

Yogev, Abraham; Ronen, Rachel

1982-01-01

The psychological benefits of a high school tutoring program were investigated. Results gathered from questionnaires answered by high school students tutoring junior high school students, both before and after the tutoring experience, indicated that tutors' empathy, altruism, and self-esteem increased as a result of program participation.…

Genetics and developmental biology of cooperation

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Kasper, C.; Vierbuchen, M.; Ernst, Ulrich R.; Fischer, S.; Radersma, R.; Raulo, A.; Cunha-Saraiva, F.; Wu, M.; Mobley, K. B.; Taborsky, B.

2017-01-01

Roč. 26, č. 17 (2017), s. 4364-4377 ISSN 0962-1083 Institutional support: RVO:61388963 Keywords : altruism * behaviour * indirect genetic effects * social behaviour * social effects Subject RIV: EB - Genetics ; Molecular Biology OBOR OECD: Genetics and heredity (medical genetics to be 3) Impact factor: 6.086, year: 2016

Journal of Biosciences | Indian Academy of Sciences

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Home; Journals; Journal of Biosciences. AMOTZ ZAHAVI. Articles written in Journal of Biosciences. Volume 43 Issue 1 March 2018 pp 49-58 Article. An individual-level selection model for the apparent altruism exhibited by cellular slime moulds · AMOTZ ZAHAVI KEITH D HARRIS VIDYANAND NANJUNDIAH · More Details ...

Altruistic Behavior among College Students: An Investigation of the Social and Psychological Characteristics of Blood Donors.

Science.gov (United States)

Leonard, Wilbert Marcellus, II

The document describes a field study to investigate the relationship between altruism and blood donating behavior among members of a large midwestern college community. Altruistic behavior is interpreted as combining three motivations: (1) reward-cost, also referred to in terms of behavior as social exchange; (2) social responsibility and…

Situations That Make Students Happy and Unhappy in Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Göksoy, Süleyman

2017-01-01

Many research carried out so far have demonstrated that there is a direct relationship between individuals' happiness and aspects of their behaviours. That is to say, happiness has a positive relationship with life quality, job satisfaction, aggression, self-efficacy levels of individuals, vitality, optimism, altruism (self-sacrifice for the…

The pattern of blood donation and transfusion transmissible ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Background: Blood for transfusion in Nigeria is largely collected from family members or commercial blood donors who would rather conceal information that could disqualify them from blood donation. The blood service is expected to transform blood sources to voluntary, guided by altruism and self-risk assessment and ...

The Ethical Behaviors of Educational Leaders in Ethiopian Public Universities: The Case of the Western Cluster Universities

Science.gov (United States)

Amsale, Frew; Bekele, Mitiku; Tafesse, Mebratu

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study was to assess the extent to which educational leaders in the western cluster public universities of Ethiopia are ethical. Ethical leadership variables such as fairness, equity, multicultural competence, modeling ethical behaviors and altruism are considered in describing the ethical behaviors of the leaders. Descriptive…

An Evolutionary Perspective on War Heroism

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rusch, Hannes; Störmer, C.

2015-01-01

Humans are one of the most cooperative and altruistic species on the planet. At the same time, humans have a long history of violent and deadly intergroup conflicts or wars. Recently, contemporary evolutionary theorists have revived Charles Darwin’s idea that human in-group altruism and out-group

What motivates men to donate blood? A systematic review of the evidence.

Science.gov (United States)

Carver, A; Chell, K; Davison, T E; Masser, B M

2018-04-01

Effective recruitment and retention of male donors are vital for the ongoing provision of blood products. Compared with females, male donors are less likely to be medically deferred or experience vasovagal reactions and are typically preferred for plasmapheresis donation in voluntary non-remunerated settings. However, females outnumber males among donors aged under 40 years. This systematic review aimed to synthesize evidence and identify key motivators for blood donation among males to inform targeted recruitment/retention campaigns. Databases (e.g. EBSCOhost, Web of Science) were searched using terms (dona* OR dono*) AND (blood OR aphaeresis OR apheresis OR plasma* OR platelet* OR platlet*) in title AND (male OR gender OR sex OR female) AND (motivat* OR intention OR attitude OR behavi* OR predictor OR barrier OR deter*) NOT (organ OR sperm OR tissue OR autologous OR oocyte) in text. Two researchers independently systematically scanned quantitative, full-text, English language, peer-reviewed publications from 1990 to 2015 that examined males/females separately with outcomes of blood donation or self-reported intention. Two additional researchers resolved discrepancies. Among 28 identified articles, the most frequently cited motivators for male blood product donation were as follows: altruism; positive attitude towards incentives; health check(s); subjective norms. Altruism was less pronounced among males compared with females and was combined with 'warm glow' in novice males (impure altruism). Perceived health benefits and incentives (e.g. coffee mugs) were stronger motivators of males than females. Marketing campaigns for recruitment/retention of male donors should focus on identified motivators rather than take a 'one-size-fits-all' approach. © 2017 International Society of Blood Transfusion.

Effects of personality on risky driving behavior and accident involvement for Chinese drivers.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Jiaoyan; Du, Feng; Qu, Weina; Gong, Zhun; Sun, Xianghong

2013-01-01

Motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of injury-related fatalities in China and pose the most serious threat to driving safety. Driver personality is considered as an effective predictor for risky driving behavior and accident liability. Previous studies have focused on the relationship between personality and risky driving behavior, but only a few of them have explored the effects of personality variables on accident involvement. In addition, few studies have examined the effects of personality on Chinese drivers' risky driving and accident involvement. The present study aimed to examine the effects of personality variables on Chinese drivers' unsafe driving behaviors and accident involvement. Two hundred and twenty-four Chinese drivers aged 20 to 50 were required to complete questionnaires assessing their personality traits (anger, sensation-seeking, altruism, and normlessness), risky driving behaviors (aggressive violations, ordinary violations), and accident involvement (all accidents, serious accidents, at-fault accidents). Multivariate regression analyses, adjusting for gender, age, and overall mileage, were conducted to identify the personality traits related to risky driving behaviors and accident involvement. Participants' personality traits were found to be significantly correlated with both risky driving behavior and accident involvement. Specifically, the traits of anger and normlessness were effective predictors for aggressive violations. The traits of anger, sensation-seeking, normlessness, and altruism were effective predictors for ordinary violations. Moreover, altruism and normlessness were significant predictors for the total number of accidents participants had during the past 3 years. Consistent with previous studies, the present study revealed that personality traits play an important role in predicting Chinese drivers' risky driving behaviors. In addition, Chinese drivers' personality characteristics were also associated with accident

Motivators of enrolment in HIV vaccine trials: a review of HIV vaccine preparedness studies.

Science.gov (United States)

Dhalla, Shayesta; Poole, Gary

2011-11-01

HIV vaccine preparedness studies (VPS) are important precursors to HIV vaccine trials. As well, they contribute to an understanding of motivators and barriers for participation in hypothetical HIV vaccine trials. Motivators can take the form of altruism and a desire for social benefits. Perceived personal benefits, including psychological, personal, and financial well-being, may also motivate participation. The authors performed a systematic review of HIV VPS using the Cochrane Database for Systematic Reviews, Medline, PubMed, Embase, and Google Scholar. The authors independently searched the literature for individual HIV VPS that examined motivators of participation in a hypothetical HIV vaccine trial, using the same search strategy. As the denominators employed in the literature varied across studies, the denominators were standardized to the number of respondents per survey item, regardless of their willingness to participate (WTP) in an HIV vaccine trial. The authors retrieved eight studies on social benefits (i.e., altruism) and 11 studies on personal benefits conducted in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, as well as 19 studies on social benefits and 20 studies on personal benefits in the non-OECD countries. Various different forms of altruism were found to be the major motivators for participation in an HIV vaccine trial in both the OECD and the non-OECD countries. In a large number of studies, protection from HIV was cited as a personal motivator for participation in a hypothetical HIV vaccine trial in the OECD and the non-OECD countries. Knowledge of motivators can inform and target recruitment for HIV vaccine trials, although it must be remembered that hypothetical motivators may not always translate into motivators in an actual vaccine trial.

The blood donation experience: self-reported motives and obstacles for donating blood.

Science.gov (United States)

Sojka, B Nilsson; Sojka, P

2008-01-01

The aim of the study was to investigate motives for donating blood as well as difficulties and obstacles associated with blood donation as perceived by the donors themselves. Six hundred consecutive blood donors (i.e. all blood donors with a history of at least one previous whole blood donation attending, during nine working days, the Blood Centre of Umeå University Hospital) received a self-administered questionnaire that contained questions aimed at elucidating motives for donating blood (general motives for donating blood, specific motives for the first donation and motives for continuing to be an active blood donor). Questions concerning difficulties and obstacles that had to be overcome in order to continue being a blood donor were also included in the questionnaire. Altogether 531 whole blood donors filled in the questionnaire (88.5%; 322 men and 209 women). No statistically significant differences were found between male and female blood donors concerning general reasons and motives related to donating blood. The most frequently reported reasons for giving blood the first time were 'influence from a friend' (47.2% of donors) and 'request via media' (23.5% of donors). Among general reasons/motives with highest ranking of importance, the most commonly reported motive for donating blood were 'general altruism' (40.3%), 'social responsibility/obligation' (19.7%) and 'influence from friends' (17.9%). General altruism' and 'social responsibility/obligation' were also the most frequent reasons for continuing to donate blood (68.4 and 16.0%, respectively). The most commonly reported obstacle to becoming a regular blood donor was 'laziness' (19.1%) followed by 'fear of needles' (10.5%). Altruism was the most common general motive for donating blood and also for continuing to be an active blood donor. Yet, for the first blood donation, direct 'influence from friends/relatives', 'media appeal' and other types of recruitment were more commonly reported as reasons or

Quality Self Assessment: A Process of Course Team Development or Contrived Collegiality and Impression Management?

Science.gov (United States)

Boocock, Andrew

2011-01-01

Ethnographic research in an FE College (College X) between 2000 and 2005 was designed to uncover the extent to which quality self-assessment processes had effectively utilised productive motivational inputs (i.e. lecturer self-interest, intrinsic motivation, altruism and tacit knowledge) in line with New Labour's agenda of improved skills in…

are humans by birth as wicked as the heidelberg catechism

African Journals Online (AJOL)

the Catechism's view that (after alienation from God in the Fall) all human individuals ... capacities of empathy and altruism already in young children of different cultures as ... characterized by the natural right to self-preservation, which in itself ... and stabilizing the institutions of family, church and state in the Heidelberg.

Static and evolutionary quantum public goods games

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Liao Zeyang; Qin Gan; Hu Lingzhi; Li Songjian; Xu Nanyang [Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Science at Microscale and Department of Modern Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026 (China); Du Jiangfeng [Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Science at Microscale and Department of Modern Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026 (China); Fachbereich Physik, Universitaet Dortmund, 44221 Dortmund (Germany)], E-mail: djf@ustc.edu.cn

2008-05-12

We apply the continuous-variable quantization scheme to quantize public goods game and find that new pure strategy Nash equilibria emerge in the static case. Furthermore, in the evolutionary public goods game, entanglement can also contribute to the persistence of cooperation under various population structures without altruism, voluntary participation, and punishment.

On the Flexibility of Social Source Memory: A Test of the Emotional Incongruity Hypothesis

Science.gov (United States)

Bell, Raoul; Buchner, Axel; Kroneisen, Meike; Giang, Trang

2012-01-01

A popular hypothesis in evolutionary psychology posits that reciprocal altruism is supported by a cognitive module that helps cooperative individuals to detect and remember cheaters. Consistent with this hypothesis, a source memory advantage for faces of cheaters (better memory for the cheating context in which these faces were encountered) was…

Gratitude in Youth: A Review of Gratitude Interventions and Some Ideas for Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Froh, Jeffrey J.; Bono, Giacomo

2011-01-01

Offering and receiving help are fundamental to human survival. The fact that children engage in beneficial social exchanges before they can even fully appreciate them underscores the importance of cooperation and altruism for human society. Gratitude is a higher-level moral emotion that enables people to notice, understand, and capitalize on…

Religious Diversity, Empathy, and God Images: Perspectives from the Psychology of Religion Shaping a Study among Adolescents in the UK

Science.gov (United States)

Francis, Leslie J.; Croft, Jennifer S.; Pyke, Alice

2012-01-01

Major religious traditions agree in advocating and promoting love of neighbour as well as love of God. Love of neighbour is reflected in altruistic behaviour and empathy stands as a key motivational factor underpinning altruism. This study employs the empathy scale from the Junior Eysenck Impulsiveness Questionnaire to assess the association…

Helping others in online games: prosocial behavior in cyberspace.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Chih-Chien; Wang, Chia-Hsin

2008-06-01

This study examined the reasons players help others in the virtual space of online games. Results of an online empirical survey indicated that both altruism and reciprocity influence prosocial behavior simultaneously. Additionally, the study found that male players are more likely than female players to seek friendship of opposite sex.

Concern with the rural environment: urban views on the use of agricultural pesticides and chemicals

Science.gov (United States)

Steve Jacob; A. E. Luloff

1995-01-01

This paper explores the dimensions of agricultural chemical and pesticide concern, and its correlates. Concern was found to be broad, and not limited to food safety, environmentalism, or altruism. Social bases were found to be the best predictors of concern, followed by rural beliefs and attitudes, and rural visitation behavior.

Altruism, Prudence, and Theory of Mind in Preschoolers

Science.gov (United States)

Moore, Chris; Macgillivray, Shannon

2004-01-01

Prosocial behavior requires both conceptual and motivational components. A full account of the development of prosocial behavior requires attention to the acquisition of both theory of mind and the tendency to organize action toward the interests of others and the future self. (Contains 2 tables.)

A Model of Social Selection and Successful Altruism

Science.gov (United States)

1989-10-07

D., The evolution of social behavior. Annual Reviews of Ecological Systems, 5:325-383 (1974). 2. Dawkins , R., The selfish gene . Oxford: Oxford...alive and well. it will be important to re- examine this striking historical experience,-not in terms o, oversimplified models of the " selfish gene ," but...Darwinian Analysis The acceptance by many modern geneticists of the axiom that the basic unit of selection Is the " selfish gene " quickly led to the

Sex Differences in Reasoning and Emotion about Altruism.

Science.gov (United States)

Mills, Rosemary S. L.; And Others

1989-01-01

Examines sex differences among 70 adults in the resolution of prosocial dilemmas involving self-sacrifice. Findings suggest that even when women and men make the same choices, they seem to think about and experience their choices in different ways. (MW)

Motives for Social Comparison.

Science.gov (United States)

Helgeson, Vicki S.; Mickelson, Kristin D.

1995-01-01

A set of motive statements for social comparison was elicited from one group of subjects and then rated in terms of usefulness by a second group of subjects. Analysis of these statements revealed six motives in response to two different hypothetical scenarios: self-evaluation, common bond, self-improvement, self-enhancement, altruism, and…

Investigation and Procedure According To Some Variables and Attitudes Toward Teaching

Science.gov (United States)

Gülaçti, Fikret

2015-01-01

The aim of this study is to reveal the attitudes of students to the teaching profession in terms of self-esteem, altruism, social comparison, life satisfaction, humor style, a five-factor personality types of the students of the Pedagogical Formation Education Certificate Program (PFECP), and to determine the relationships if there is between…

Virtue Ethics, Care Ethics, and "The Good Life of Teaching"

Science.gov (United States)

Silverman, Marissa

2012-01-01

In "The Good Life of Teaching: An Ethics of Professional Practice," Chris Higgins (2011) reminds people that "self-interest and altruism, personal freedom and social roles, and practical wisdom and personhood" have been ancient philosophical topics that remain vitally important in the practice of contemporary teaching and learning. One of the most…

How to Love the Bomb: Trying to solve the prisoner's dilemma with evolutionary game theory

Science.gov (United States)

Castela, Vasco

Economists traditionally see altruistic acts as irrational. However, in the Prisoner's Dilemma, a rational player can do worse than a moral player. The rules of the game imply that one cannot defend one's best interest if one tries to. Game theory has struggled to explain how an agent could have access to the strategically best outcome without behaving irrationally, but with little success. Can a complex systems approach do better?. Peter Danielson, using Evolutionary Game Theory, has avoided some of the assumptions of Game Theory by using a complexity approach to reframe the problem, and offers a solution of sorts. According to Danielson, the foundations of altruism are mechanisms of deterrence that rely on credible threat - we are nice for fear of retaliation. He is both right and wrong. It will be argued that utilitarian, consequentialist principles must have been at work to create the conditions for altruistic acts to be performed. It is wrong to expect, however, that the same reasons are the reasons for action. In order for a model of genuine altruism to be possible, an extra cog must be inserted in the mechanism of causality in order to distance moral action from its strategic advantages. If emotions fulfill this role, we can tell a story in which it is rational to act on altruistic motivations and materially advantageous to hold such motivations. Moral sentiments can be seen as a tool designed by evolution to help optimize cooperation in a social environment. The proposed account integrates the Humean theory of motivation with Robert Frank's commitment model and Aristotle's views on moral education, keeping an adequate story of how it can be in our material interest to be moral without having to renounce to the existence of genuine acts of altruism.

Etika Kepedulian : Welas Asih Dalam Tindakan Moral

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yeremias Jena

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract : Compassion in ethical discourse is used to describe the attitudes and actions of moral agent in helping the vulnerables and the suffering. Discourse around compassion generally focused on whether compassion is an attitude of sympathy or empathy, or it is the attitude of compassion derived from an altruistic attitude which is inherent in intelligent being. This paper argues that compassion is realized only in the context of ethics of care. For that reason, the paper will first distinguish simpaty from empathy and contextualize them within the realm of altruism. At the same time this approach plays the role of criticizing emotive ethics of David Hume and Kantian ethics which is attacked by Kantian ethics as heteronomous.Keywords : sympathy, empathy, altruism, epiphanic experience, caring encounters, care ethicsAbstrak : Sikap welas asih (compassion dalam diskursus etika digunakan untuk mendeskripsikan sikap dan tindakan moral menolong sesama yang rentan dan menderita. Diskursus seputar sikap welas asih umumnya difokuskan pada apakah sikap tersebut adalah bagian dari sikap simpati atau empati? Atau, apakah sikap welas asih adalah wujud dari sikap altruistik yang umumnya dimiliki makhluk hidup berperasaan dan berinteligensi? Tulisan ini pertama-tama akan menunjukkan bahwa sikap welas asih lebih dekat dengan konsep dan sikap simpati. Untuk memahami hal ini, pembedaannya dengan empati akan dikemukakan. Di atas semuanya itu, sikap welas asih (simpati dan empati dibedakan juga dari sikap altruistik manusia. Melalui tulisan ini akan ditunjukkan pula bahwa hanya melalui etika kepedulian (ethics of care kita dapat memahami welas asih sebagai sikap dan tindakan moral. Ini sekaligus menjadi kritik tajam terhadap etika Humean yang terlalu memuja perasaan moral dan etika Kantian yang menghojat emosi atau perasaan moral sebagai etika manusia heteronom.Kata kunci : Simpati, Empati, Altruisme, Pengalaman epifani, Perjumpaan penuh belas kasih, Etika

VIRTUES, SINS AND THE “GOOD LIFE” – 10 ETHICAL APPROACHES TO URBAN DESIGN

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pedro Brandão

2008-10-01

Ethical approaches to Urban Design are being brought to light, in a range including good wishes, statements and proposed rules, before a true ethical reflection illuminates professional practices. In this lecture I’ll try to enlarge the scope of the matter; and to demonstrate how Urban Design has a relevance of altruism and joy.

Planting and care of fine hardwood seedlings: Financial and tax aspects of tree planting

Science.gov (United States)

William L. Hoover

2004-01-01

Trees are planted for many reasons, including soil and water conservation, wildlife habitat, nut and timber production. Altruism motivates many landowners to plant trees. There are, however, those who plant with the expectation of increasing their family's wealth. In this publication I discuss the financial and tax aspects of tree planting projects. The focus is...

Browse Title Index

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Items 101 - 150 of 172 ... Vol 32, No 3 (2003): Narrative Understanding, One's remembered past: narrative thinking, emotion, and the external perspective, Abstract. Peter Goldie. Vol 32, No 2 (2003):, Ontological Order in ... Vol 34, No 2 (2005):, Revisiting Nagel on Altruism, Abstract. Brian K Powell. Vol 35, No 1 (2006):, Rowe's ...

Rewards and incentives for the provision of human tissue for research.

Science.gov (United States)

Devaney, Sarah

2014-01-01

The Nuffield Council on Bioethics' 2011 report, Human Bodies: Donation for Medicine and Research, proposes a system for examining the ethical implications of different types of incentives for the provision of human tissue for use in medicine and research. The cornerstone of this system is the principle of altruism which, the Council recommends, should, where possible, remain the starting point for any such tissue provision. Using the Council's example of ova provision for research as an area in which altruism-based rewards might be departed from, this article argues that such a system has the potential to become inconsistent and unnecessarily complex. It suggests that the outcomes-focussed and motivations-focussed justifications the Council provides do not sit easily within the fast-paced and unpredictable area of biotechnology research. Further, it may undermine the focus on autonomy that is enshrined in the relevant legislation. This article suggests that a fair system for incentivising and rewarding the provision of human tissue in research should be developed, which focuses on elements of this role that are common to all tissue providers.

Productive and counterproductive job crafting: A daily diary study.

Science.gov (United States)

Demerouti, Evangelia; Bakker, Arnold B; Halbesleben, Jonathon R B

2015-10-01

The present study aims to uncover the way daily job crafting influences daily job performance (i.e., task performance, altruism, and counterproductive work behavior). Job crafting was conceptualized as "seeking resources," "seeking challenges," and "reducing demands" and viewed as strategies individuals use to optimize their job characteristics. We hypothesized that daily job crafting relates to daily job demands and resources (work pressure and autonomy), which consequently relate to daily work engagement and exhaustion and ultimately to job performance. A sample of 95 employees filled in a quantitative diary for 5 consecutive working days (n occasions = 475). We predicted and found that daily seeking resources was positively associated with daily task performance because daily autonomy and work engagement increased. In contrast, daily reducing demands was detrimental for daily task performance and altruism, because employees lower their daily workload and consequently their engagement and exhaustion, respectively. Only daily seeking challenges was positively (rather than negatively) associated with daily counterproductive behavior. We conclude that employee job crafting can have both beneficial and detrimental effects on job performance. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Volunteering and mutual aid in health and social care in the Czech Republic as an example of active citizenship.

Science.gov (United States)

Krízová, Eva

2012-06-01

This article informs about recent research findings on voluntary and mutual aid in the Czech Republic with a special attention paid to formal volunteering in health and social care. The data suggest that public involvement is comparable to middle-frequency experienced in European countries. In this respect, volunteering is higher in the Czech Republic than in other former Eastern European countries and is an evidence of a successful and rapid restoration of the civic sector. New patterns of volunteering featured by planning, coordination, and contracting have spread out being strongly supported by national and EU policy measures. Managerial patterns of volunteering are dominating in health and social care institutions. Volunteering in health and social care is firmly motivated by emotional altruism; however, reciprocal (instrumental) and normative motivations are also present, though to a lesser extent compared to other sectors of volunteer activities. In the managerial pattern of volunteering altruism is balanced with personal gains and benefits for those who volunteer. Volunteering is deeply embedded in a civic, humanitarian paradigm instead of a religious faith and duty.

Factors influencing physicians' knowledge sharing on web medical forums.

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Tung Cheng; Lai, Ming Cheng; Yang, Shu Wen

2016-09-01

Web medical forums are relatively unique as knowledge-sharing platforms because physicians participate exclusively as knowledge contributors and not as knowledge recipients. Using the perspective of social exchange theory and considering both extrinsic and intrinsic motivations, this study aims to elicit the factors that significantly influence the willingness of physicians to share professional knowledge on web medical forums and develops a research model to explore the motivations that underlie physicians' knowledge-sharing attitudes. This model hypothesizes that constructs, including shared vision, reputation, altruism, and self-efficacy, positively influence these attitudes and, by extension, positively impact knowledge-sharing intention. A conventional sampling method and the direct recruitment of physicians at their outpatient clinic gathered valid data from a total of 164 physicians for analysis in the model. The empirical results support the validity of the proposed model and identified shared vision as the most significant factor of influence on knowledge-sharing attitudes, followed in descending order by knowledge-sharing self-efficacy, reputation, and altruism. © The Author(s) 2015.

Prospective thinking and decision making in primary school age children

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elisabetta Lombardi

2017-06-01

Full Text Available In this study, we seek to widen our understanding of the developmental processes underlying bargaining behaviour in children addressing the concept of prospective thinking. We argue that the emergence of the capacity to think prospectively about future outcomes or behaviours in response to current actions is a required precedent to strategic decision making. To test this idea, we compared 6, 8 and 10 years old children’s performance on three tasks: the ultimatum game assessing fairness/inequality aversion, the marshmallow task, an intertemporal choice task evaluating the ability to delay gratification, and the dictator game assessing altruism. The children’s socio-demographic and cognitive variables were also evaluated. We hypothesized that development of strategic thinking in the ultimatum game is related to an increased ability to delay gratification − given that both tasks require looking at prospective benefits − and, crucially, not to altruism, which benefits from immediate selfless reward. Our results confirmed our hypothesis suggesting that increased strategic planning with age would also stem from the development of competencies like prospective thinking. Keywords: Psychology, Education

Prospective thinking and decision making in primary school age children.

Science.gov (United States)

Lombardi, Elisabetta; Di Dio, Cinzia; Castelli, Ilaria; Massaro, Davide; Marchetti, Antonella

2017-06-01

In this study, we seek to widen our understanding of the developmental processes underlying bargaining behaviour in children addressing the concept of prospective thinking. We argue that the emergence of the capacity to think prospectively about future outcomes or behaviours in response to current actions is a required precedent to strategic decision making. To test this idea, we compared 6, 8 and 10 years old children's performance on three tasks: the ultimatum game assessing fairness/inequality aversion, the marshmallow task, an intertemporal choice task evaluating the ability to delay gratification, and the dictator game assessing altruism. The children's socio-demographic and cognitive variables were also evaluated. We hypothesized that development of strategic thinking in the ultimatum game is related to an increased ability to delay gratification - given that both tasks require looking at prospective benefits - and, crucially, not to altruism, which benefits from immediate selfless reward. Our results confirmed our hypothesis suggesting that increased strategic planning with age would also stem from the development of competencies like prospective thinking.

Female College Students' Perceptions of Organ Donation

Science.gov (United States)

Boland, Kathleen; Baker, Kerrie

2010-01-01

The current process of organ donation in the U.S. relies on the premise of altruism or voluntary consent. Yet, human organs available for donation and transplant do not meet current demands. The literature has suggested that college students, who represent a large group of potential healthy organ donors, often are not part of donor pools. Before…

Browse Title Index

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Items 1 - 50 of 108 ... Vol 7, No 1 (2015), Applying Social Capital Theory and the ... Vol 4, No 1 (2012), Emerging role of media as the language art in children's ... Vol 9, No 1 (2017), Facing the future: between altruism and self- ... Vol 8, No 2 (2016), Ideational representation of prostitution and social meaning in Chika Unigwe's ...

Social Perspective Taking

Science.gov (United States)

2009-09-01

groups” and engage in less stereotype-driven fear and hostility resulting in reduced impulsive and aggressive behavior (Richardson, Green , & Lago...and the physical world. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Batson, C. D. (1991). The altruism question: Towards a social-psychological answer...others. New York: The Guilford Press. Richardson, D. R., Green , L. R., & Lago, T. (1998). The relationship between perspective- taking and

The Research Focus of Nations: Economic vs. Altruistic Motivations.

Science.gov (United States)

Klavans, Richard; Boyack, Kevin W

2017-01-01

What motivates the research strategies of nations and institutions? We suggest that research primarily serves two masters-altruism and economic growth. Some nations focus more research in altruistic (or non-economic) fields while others focus more research in fields associated with economic growth. What causes this difference? Are there characteristics that would suggest why a nation is more aligned with altruism or economic growth? To answer this question, we have identified nine major fields of research by analyzing the publication activity of 4429 institutions using Scopus data. Two fields of research are clearly altruistic (there is relatively little involvement by industry) and two fields are clearly aligned with economic growth. The altruistic vs. economic nature of nations based on their publication profiles across these fields is correlated with national indicators on wealth, education, capitalism, individualism, power, religion, and language. While previous research has suggested that national research strategy is aligned with national wealth, our analysis shows that national wealth is not highly correlated with the tradeoff between altruistic and economic motives. Instead, the tradeoff is largely captured by a culture of individualism. Accordingly, implications for national research strategies are discussed.

Modelling antecedents of blood donation motivation among non-donors of varying age and education.

Science.gov (United States)

Lemmens, K P H; Abraham, C; Ruiter, R A C; Veldhuizen, I J T; Dehing, C J G; Bos, A E R; Schaalma, H P

2009-02-01

Understanding blood donation motivation among non-donors is prerequisite to effective recruitment. Two studies explored the psychological antecedents of blood donation motivation and the generalisability of a model of donation motivation across groups differing in age and educational level. An older well-educated population and a younger less well-educated population were sampled. The studies assessed the role of altruism, fear of blood/needles and donation-specific cognitions including attitudes and normative beliefs derived from an extended theory of planned behaviour (TPB). Across both samples, results showed that affective attitude, subjective norm, descriptive norm, and moral norm were the most important correlates of blood donation intentions. Self-efficacy was more important among the younger less well-educated group. Altruism was related to donation motivation but only indirectly through moral norm. Similarly, fear of blood/needles only had an indirect effect on motivation through affective attitude and self-efficacy. Additional analyses with the combined data set found no age or education moderation effects, suggesting that this core model of donation-specific cognitions can be used to inform future practical interventions recruiting new blood donors in the general population.

Genes underlying reproductive division of labor in termites, with comparisons to social Hymenoptera

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Judith eKorb

2016-04-01

Full Text Available All social insects are characterized by a reproductive division of labor. Within a colony only a few individuals reproduce (queens and in termites, also a king while the large majority (workers and soldiers forgo reproduction, at least temporarily. The evolution of such reproductive altruism can ultimately be explained by inclusive fitness theory. Here, I will review the proximate genetic mechanisms underlying this altruism in termites. As social cockroaches they evolved eusociality independently from the social Hymenoptera, which makes them interesting test cases to look for common underlying mechanisms of eusociality and lineage specific idiosyncrasies. First, I will provide a summary of the genes and their function that have been identified to underlie reproductive division of labor - so called 'queen genes,' - in the drywood termite Cryptotermes secundus, an emerging model to study termite social evolution. Second, I outline how widespread these queen genes are across the termite phylogeny, using also evidence from recent genome analyses. I will provide hypotheses about the evolutionary origin of these queen genes, aiming to link proximate mechanisms with ultimate functions. Finally, I will draw comparisons to social Hymenoptera to indicate potential common underpinnings that warrant further testing.

Donating blood and organs: using an extended theory of planned behavior perspective to identify similarities and differences in individual motivations to donate.

Science.gov (United States)

Hyde, Melissa K; Knowles, Simon R; White, Katherine M

2013-12-01

Due to the critical shortage and continued need of blood and organ donations (ODs), research exploring similarities and differences in the motivational determinants of these behaviors is needed. In a sample of 258 university students, we used a cross-sectional design to test the utility of an extended theory of planned behavior (TPB) including moral norm, self-identity and in-group altruism (family/close friends and ethnic group), to predict people's blood and OD intentions. Overall, the extended TPB explained 77.0% and 74.6% of variance in blood and OD intentions, respectively. In regression analyses, common contributors to intentions across donation contexts were attitude, self-efficacy and self-identity. Normative influences varied with subjective norm as a significant predictor related to OD intentions but not blood donation intentions at the final step of regression analyses. Moral norm did not contribute significantly to blood or OD intentions. In-group altruism (family/close friends) was significantly related to OD intentions only in regressions. Future donation strategies should increase confidence to donate, foster a perception of self as the type of person who donates blood and/or organs, and address preferences to donate organs to in-group members only.

RECRUITMENT OF PATIENTS WITH HEREDITARY HAEMOCHROMATOSIS AS BLOOD DONORS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marko Cukjati

2004-12-01

Full Text Available Background. Hereditary haemochromatosis is the most common inherited disorder in white persons with prevalence of about 1 in 200. Therapeutic phlebotomy is an effective treatment for the disease and prevents its sequele. In addition to their altruism, patients with hereditary haemochromatosis have also medical and monetary incentives for blood donation. Current guidelines do not allow haemochromatosis patients to donate blood. About two thirds of patients are eligible as blood donors and about two thirds of therapeutically drawn blood is suitable for transfusion. Therapeutically drawn blood could increase the blood supply by 1.5 to 30%.Conclusions. The number of states that already accept patients with hereditary haemochromatosis as blood donors is increasing. To avoid monetary incentives they offer free phlebotomies for all patients with hereditary haemochromatosis. There have been no reports about higher incidence of transfusion reactions. In Slovenia the number of therapeutic phlebotomy is increasing. We should evaluate the possibilities for recruitment of haemochromatosis patients as blood donors also in our country. It is necessary to modify regulatory restrictions and to ensure that there is no other incentives than altruism for blood donation.

Kinship, Family, and Gender Effects in the Ultimatum Game.

Science.gov (United States)

Macfarlan, Shane J; Quinlan, Robert J

2008-09-01

Kinship and reciprocity are two main predictors of altruism. The ultimatum game has been used to study altruism in many small-scale societies. We used the ultimatum game to examine effects of individuals' family and kin relations on altruistic behavior in a kin-based horticultural community in rural Dominica. Results show sex-specific effects of kin on ultimatum game play. Average coefficient of relatedness to the village was negatively associated with women's ultimatum game proposals and had little effect on men's proposals. Number of brothers in the village was positively associated with men's ultimatum game proposals and negatively associated with women's proposals. Similarly, presence of father in the village was associated with higher proposals by men and lower proposals by women. We interpret the effect of brothers on men's proposals as a consequence of local competition among brothers. We speculate that daughter-biased parental care in this community creates a sense of entitlement among women with brothers, which may explain the inverse relation between number of brothers and women's ultimatum game proposals. The pattern of results may be consistent with how matrifocality affects cultural models of fairness differently along gender and family lines.

Organ donation as an 'altruistic gift': incentives and reciprocity in deceased organ donation from a UK Polish migrant perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Sharp, Chloe; Randhawa, Gurch

2014-01-17

Incentives and reciprocity have been widely debated within the literature as an alternative to altruism to motivate the public to register and consent to organ donation. This pilot study was the first to examine the views of the UK Polish migrant community toward these issues. One-to-one and small group interviews were conducted in English and Polish to collect data. The interviews were recorded and transcribed and interviews in Polish were translated into English. All transcripts were coded, codes were grouped by theme and emergent themes were constantly compared to the new data until saturation. Participants were motivated to donate altruistically but would accept reciprocity for organs once consent was given. Payment for organs was viewed as unfavourable but participants would accept contribution toward funeral expenses. Deceased organ donation was viewed as an 'altruistic gift'. 'Altruism' and 'gift' are problematic in deceased organ donation and could explain the challenges that arise in the incentives and reciprocity debate. Mauss's gift exchange theory could frame incentives as forming the 'obligation to give' and could encourage registration but could lead to coercion. Reciprocity could benefit families and be viewed as 'fair' and a token of gratitude.

[What is professionalism?].

Science.gov (United States)

Ohbu, Sadayoshi

2012-01-01

What is a profession? According to Cruess, it is an occupation whose core element is work that is based on the mastery of a complex body of knowledge and skills. It is a vocation in which knowledge of some department of science or learning, or the practice of an art founded on it, is used in the service of others. Its members profess a commitment to competence, integrity, morality, altruism, and the promotion of the public good within their domain. These commitments form the basis of a social contract between a profession and society, which in return grants the profession autonomy in practice and the privilege of self-regulation. Although medical professionals share the role of healer, there are wide variations between individuals. Professionalism is the basis of medicine's contract with society. Public trust is essential to that contract, and public trust depends on the integrity of both individual professionals and the whole profession. The introduction to this important symposium includes definitions of professions and of medical professionalism. It also includes discussions of reciprocal altruism, conflicts of interest in medical societies, the theory of cognitive dissonance, and the moral foundations of professionalism.

Altruism in multiplayer snowdrift games with threshold and punishment

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Chunyan; Liu, Zhongxin; Sun, Qinglin; Chen, Zengqiang

2015-09-01

The puzzle of cooperation attracts broader concerns of the scientific community nowadays. Here we adopt an extra mechanism of punishment in the framework of a threshold multiple-player snowdrift game employed as the scenario for the cooperation problem. Two scenarios are considered: defectors will suffer punishment regardless of the game results, and defectors will incur punishment only when the game fails. We show by analysis that given this assumption, punishing free riders can significantly influence the evolution outcomes, and the results are driven by the specific components of the punishing rule. Particularly, punishing defectors always, not only when the game fails, can be more effective for maintaining public cooperation in multi-player systems. Intriguingly larger thresholds of the game provide a more favorable scenario for the coexistence of the cooperators and defectors under a broad value range of parameters. Further, cooperators are best supported by the large punishment on defectors, and then dominate and stabilize in the population, under the premise that defectors always incur punishment regardless of whether the game ends successfully or not.

Short communication Facing the future: between altruism and self ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

user

happiness with you have great expectations for your futures. .... This occasion and event will remain marked in your minds and memories for the rest of your lives. ... deserve your attention because of their long term societal relevance and their ...

An individual-level selection model for the apparent altruism ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Amotz Zahavi

2018-02-16

Feb 16, 2018 ... inated via self-organisation among pre-adapted cellular units. In such a ..... relevant set is defined by the sex, species or other classifying features of ..... Nanjundiah V and Saran S 1992 The determination of spatial pattern in ...

Sef-interest vs altruism in East Asia's development aid

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Müller, Anders Riel

2013-01-01

Criticism of East Asia’s alleged self-interest-led development aid can also be applied to Western donors. This may teach us lessons about our own history.......Criticism of East Asia’s alleged self-interest-led development aid can also be applied to Western donors. This may teach us lessons about our own history....

Teaching Empathic Concern and Altruism in the Smartphone Age

Science.gov (United States)

Fry, Brian N.; Runyan, Jason D.

2018-01-01

Numerous studies show empathic concern promotes altruistic motivation and prosocial behavior. Here, we discuss empathic concern, its relation to altruistic motivation, and how empathic concern is invoked in experimental studies. We do this with an eye toward applying laboratory techniques in the classroom, and everyday life, to foster empathic…

Psychopathy to Altruism: Neurobiology of the Selfish–Selfless Spectrum

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

James W. H. Sonne

2018-04-01

Full Text Available The age-old philosophical, biological, and social debate over the basic nature of humans as being “universally selfish” or “universally good” continues today highlighting sharply divergent views of natural social order. Here we analyze advances in biology, genetics and neuroscience increasing our understanding of the evolution, features and neurocircuitry of the human brain underlying behavior in the selfish–selfless spectrum. First, we examine evolutionary pressures for selection of altruistic traits in species with protracted periods of dependence on parents and communities for subsistence and acquisition of learned behaviors. Evidence supporting the concept that altruistic potential is a common feature in human populations is developed. To go into greater depth in assessing critical features of the social brain, the two extremes of selfish–selfless behavior, callous unemotional psychopaths and zealous altruists who take extreme measures to help others, are compared on behavioral traits, structural/functional neural features, and the relative contributions of genetic inheritance versus acquired cognitive learning to their mindsets. Evidence from population groups ranging from newborns, adopted children, incarcerated juveniles, twins and mindfulness meditators point to the important role of neuroplasticity and the dopaminergic reward systems in forming and reforming neural circuitry in response to personal experience and cultural influences in determining behavior in the selfish–selfless spectrum. The underlying neural circuitry differs between psychopaths and altruists with emotional processing being profoundly muted in psychopaths and significantly enhanced in altruists. But both groups are characterized by the reward system of the brain shaping behavior. Instead of rigid assignment of human nature as being “universally selfish” or “universally good,” both characterizations are partial truths based on the segments of the selfish–selfless spectrum being examined. In addition, individuals and populations can shift in the behavioral spectrum in response to cognitive therapy and social and cultural experience, and approaches such as mindfulness training for introspection and reward-activating compassion are entering the mainstream of clinical care for managing pain, depression, and stress.

Completed egoism and intended altruism boost healthy food choices.

Science.gov (United States)

Weibel, Christian; Messner, Claude; Brügger, Adrian

2014-06-01

Based on the self-licensing literature and goal theory, we expected and found that completed (im)moral actions lead to markedly different food choices (Studies 1 & 2) than intended (im)moral actions (Study 2). In Study 1, people more often chose healthy over unhealthy food options when they recalled a completed egoistic action than when they recalled a completed altruistic action. Study 2 confirmed this finding and furthermore showed that the self-licensing effect in food choices is moderated by the action stage (completed versus intended) of the moral or immoral action. This article extends the existing self-licensing literature and opens up new perspectives for changing consumers' food consumption behavior. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Is Self-Sacrificial Competitive Altruism Primarily a Male Activity?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francis T. McAndrew

2012-01-01

Full Text Available This study explored the basis of self-sacrificial prosocial behavior in small groups. Seventy-eight undergraduates (39M, 39F filled out a thirty-item personality scale and then participated in a “group problem-solving study” in which the monetary success of a three-person group depended upon one of its members volunteering to endure pain (a cold stressor test and inconvenience (being soaked in a dunk tank. There were 13 groups consisting of two females and one male, and 13 groups consisting of two males and one female. Across groups, the behavior of the altruist was judged to be more costly, challenging, and important and he/she was liked better, rewarded with more money, and preferred as a future experimental partner. Groups containing two males showed more evidence of competition to become altruists than groups containing two females, and personality traits were more effective predictors of altruistic behavior in males than in females. We conclude that competition between males and “showing off” are key factors in triggering self-sacrificial altruistic behavior.

Bounding the Inefficiency of Altruism Through Social Contribution Games

NARCIS (Netherlands)

M.M. Rahn (Mona); G. Schäfer (Guido); Y. Chen; N.S. Immorlica (Nicole Simone)

2013-01-01

htmlabstractWe introduce a new class of games, called social contribution games (SCGs), where each player's individual cost is equal to the cost he induces on society because of his presence. Our results reveal that SCGs constitute useful abstractions of altruistic games when it comes to the

Authentic Leadership and Altruism: The Mediating Role of Meaningfulness

Science.gov (United States)

Sagnak, Mesut; Kuruöz, Mehmet

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the mediating effects of meaningfulness on the relationship between authentic leadership and altruistic behavior. The participants consisted of 356 teachers randomly selected from 14 primary and secondary schools in Nigde. Three different instruments were used in this study. The scales were translated…

Motivace ke studiu psychologie

OpenAIRE

TENKL, Tomáš

2013-01-01

This undergraduate thesis is focused on motivation for studying psychology. The theoretical part contains topics of psychology of motivation, formal classification of motives, explanation of self-determination theory and theory of implicit and explicit motivation. Another topic in theoretical part considers helping professions and includes ? chapters about altruism, motivation for helping professions, the helper syndrome and the burnout syndrome. Further there are described projective methods...

Longitudinal Validation of Non-Cognitive Officer Selection Measures for the U.S. Army Officer Candidate School (OCS)

Science.gov (United States)

2012-09-01

analysis SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF 19. LIMITATION OF ABSTRACT Unlimited 20. NUMBER OF PAGES 110 21. RESPONSIBLE PERSON Dorothy...Recognition, Altruism/Benevolence, Skill Development, and Job Security . The coefficient alphas for these scales ranged from .70 to .90. 3...BOLC B 158 3 1.9% Summary Variables Graduated from IOT 1,233 44 3.6% Recycled at Least Once During IOTa 1,171 66 5.6% Note. N

Accessing health services through the back door: a qualitative interview study investigating reasons why people participate in health research in Canada

OpenAIRE

Townsend, Anne; Cox, Susan M

2013-01-01

Background Although there is extensive information about why people participate in clinical trials, studies are largely based on quantitative evidence and typically focus on single conditions. Over the last decade investigations into why people volunteer for health research have become increasingly prominent across diverse research settings, offering variable based explanations of participation patterns driven primarily by recruitment concerns. Therapeutic misconception and altruism have emer...

juin 2017 Pendent le dernier trimestre, nous nous sommes préparés ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Angela Wadeyua

réaction rapide et l'altruisme ont permis de sauver le pays d'une épidémie catastrophique d'Ebola. Découvrez comment un programme de leadership stimulant mis sur pied par l'Université du Cap aide de jeunes chefs de file des secteurs public et privé en Afrique à utiliser le dialogue et le réseautage pour favoriser le ...

Emergency Medicine Resident Perceptions of Medical Professionalism.

Science.gov (United States)

Jauregui, Joshua; Gatewood, Medley O; Ilgen, Jonathan S; Schaninger, Caitlin; Strote, Jared

2016-05-01

Medical professionalism is a core competency for emergency medicine (EM) trainees; but defining professionalism remains challenging, leading to difficulties creating objectives and performing assessment. Because professionalism is dynamic, culture-specific, and often taught by modeling, an exploration of trainees' perceptions can highlight their educational baseline and elucidate the importance they place on general conventional professionalism domains. To this end, our objective was to assess the relative value EM residents place on traditional components of professionalism. We performed a cross-sectional, multi-institutional survey of incoming and graduating EM residents at four programs. The survey was developed using the American Board of Internal Medicine's "Project Professionalism" and the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education definition of professionalism competency. We identified 27 attributes within seven domains: clinical excellence, humanism, accountability, altruism, duty and service, honor and integrity, and respect for others. Residents were asked to rate each attribute on a 10-point scale. We analyzed data to assess variance across attributes as well as differences between residents at different training levels or different institutions. Of the 114 residents eligible, 100 (88%) completed the survey. The relative value assigned to different professional attributes varied considerably, with those in the altruism domain valued significantly lower and those in the "respect for others" and "honor and integrity" valued significantly higher (p<0.001). Significant differences were found between interns and seniors for five attributes primarily in the "duty and service" domain (p<0.05). Among different residencies, significant differences were found with attributes within the "altruism" and "duty and service" domains (p<0.05). Residents perceive differences in the relative importance of traditionally defined professional attributes and this may

Spiritual Intelligence Relationship with Organizational Citizenship Behavior of High School Teachers in Germi City

OpenAIRE

Moosapour, Sodeif; Feizi, Dr. Mohammad; Alipour, Dr. Hosein

2013-01-01

The present study is a survey method and terms of the target is practical and has done to explain the spiritual intelligence (Existential Intelligence, Personal intelligences, Transcendental Awareness and Conscious State Expansion) relationships with Organizational Citizenship Behavior (Sportsmanship, Courtesy, Conscientiousness, Civic Virtue and Altruism). The population was high school teachers in Germi City that were 400 peoples. We determined the amount of the sample size with the used of...

Pocket money and child effort at school

OpenAIRE

François-Charles Wolff; Christine Barnet-Verzat

2008-01-01

In this paper, we study the relationship between the provision of parental pocket and the level of effort undertaken by the child at school. Under altruism, an increased amount of parental transfer should reduce the child's effort. Our empirical analysis is based on a French data set including about 1,400 parent-child pairs. We find that children do not undertake less effort when their parents are more generous.

The Explanatory Value of Inclusive Fitness for Evolutionary Theory

OpenAIRE

Rubin, Hannah

2017-01-01

At the heart of evolutionary theory is the concept of 'fitness', which is, standardly, an organism's reproductive success. Many evolutionary theorists argue, however, that to explain the evolution of social traits, such as altruism, we must use a different notion of fitness. This 'inclusive fitness', which includes the reproductive success of relatives, is seen as indispensable for studying social evolution. Recently, however, both biologists and philosophers have critically scrutinized its s...

A RETROSPECTIVE STUDY OF ADVERSE EVENTS IN BLOOD DO NORS FROM NAVI MUMBAI

OpenAIRE

Seema; Aruna; Reeta; Borkar

2013-01-01

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: The safety and sufficiency of blood supply is depend ent on the altruism of healthy donors, to provide blood. These donors get exposed to potential risk of discomfort, complications, and rarely injury from th e collection procedure. All medical procedures including blood donation carry some risk of adverse events (AE). Although blood donation is generally safe, approximately of 2-6 % of donors experience complications, mostly mild, that r...

Individual Decisions and Household Demand for Consumption And Leisure

OpenAIRE

Maria Concetta Chiuri

1999-01-01

The standard microeconomic assumption of a household utility function raises two theoretical problems: it contradicts methodological individualism and it ignores economic phenomena like income and consumption sharing, division of labour, externalities and altruism within a household. This paper reviews two approaches, aggregation theory and more recent non-unitary models, to compare the different properties that household consumption and leisure demands have to satisfy in the two basic contex...

Evolution of the concept of altruistic suicide in pre-Durkheim suicidology.

Science.gov (United States)

Goldney, Robert D; Schioldann, Johan A

2004-01-01

Suicide as self-sacrifice was described by early nineteenth century authors before the delineation of altruism by the French Philosopher and Mathematician Auguste Comte. The concept evolved, leading to the categorization of altruistic suicide by Savage in England in 1892 and the elaboration of the term by Durkheim in France in 1897. Pre-Durkheim suicidologists were aware of the subtleties of sacrifice as opposed to revenge in this type of suicide.

Social-economical decision making in current and remitted major depression.

Science.gov (United States)

Pulcu, E; Thomas, E J; Trotter, P D; McFarquhar, M; Juhasz, G; Sahakian, B J; Deakin, J F W; Anderson, I M; Zahn, R; Elliott, R

2015-04-01

Prosocial emotions related to self-blame are important in guiding human altruistic decisions. These emotions are elevated in major depressive disorder (MDD), such that MDD has been associated with guilt-driven pathological hyper-altruism. However, the impact of such emotional impairments in MDD on different types of social decision-making is unknown. In order to address this issue, we investigated different kinds of altruistic behaviour (interpersonal cooperation and fund allocation, altruistic punishment and charitable donation) in 33 healthy subjects, 35 patients in full remission (unmedicated) and 24 currently depressed patients (11 on medication) using behavioural-economical paradigms. We show a significant main effect of clinical status on altruistic decisions (p = 0.04) and a significant interaction between clinical status and type of altruistic decisions (p = 0.03). More specifically, symptomatic patients defected significantly more in the Prisoner's Dilemma game (p guilt elicited by receiving unfair financial offers in the Ultimatum Game (p guilt-driven pathological hyper-altruism hypothesis in depression. There were also differences in both current and remitted patients in the relationship between altruistic behaviour and pathological self-blaming, suggesting an important role for these emotions in moral and social decision-making abnormalities in depression.

Dying the right-way? Interest in and perceived persuasiveness of parochial extremist propaganda increases after mortality salience

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Lena eFrischlich

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Research on parochial altruism demonstrated that hostility toward out-groups (parochialism represents the dark side of the willingness to benefit one’s in-group even at own costs (altruism. Parochial aggression thereby emerges mainly under conditions of threat. Extremist propaganda videos, for instance by right-wing extremists, try to capitalize on parochial altruistic mechanism by telling recipients sharing their national identity that this nation is under threat wherefore these recipients have to join the extremist’s cause to defend their nation. Most of the time, propaganda videos are rated as uninteresting and non-persuasive by the target audience. Evolutionary media psychology posits that the interest in and effectiveness of media increases when evolutionarily relevant problems are addressed. Consequently, interest in parochial altruistic propaganda should increase under conditions of threat. The current study tested this assumption by randomly assigning German/non-Muslims (N=109 to either an existential threat (here: mortality salience or a control condition and asking them to evaluate extremist propaganda that addressed them as either in-group members (right-wing extremists or not. In support of the hypotheses, subjects under conditions of threat reported a higher interest in the right-wing extremist propaganda and perceived it as more persuasive. We discuss the results concerning their implications.

Contre l’abject : le détective chez Pan Bouyoucas

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Kathleen Kellett

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Cet article examine dans deux romans de Pan Bouyoucas la figure du détective en tant que défenseur de l’ordre social, avatar à la fois de la raison, de l’intégrité et du sacrifice personnel. La Vengeance d’un père (1997, 2016 traite de la période postréférendaire à Montréal où les tensions entre les diverses communautés ethniques mènent à l’irruption de la violence nécessitant l’intervention de la police, tout en entravant l’enquête policière dans un foisonnement de rumeurs et d’accusations mutuelles. Dans Cocorico (2011, le détective est un personnage doué d’une logique implacable et d’une capacité pour l’altruisme qui offre un répit contre la progression inéluctable de la maladie d’Alzheimer de l’auteur fictionnel qui l’a créé. Bouyoucas utilise les motifs du polar pour souligner l’importance de l’altruisme, l’observation empirique et de la raison comme armes contre le désordre social, la violence et la démence en tant que formes de l’abject.

The correlation between justice and organizational citizenship behavior and organizational identity among nurses.

Science.gov (United States)

Arbabisarjou, Azizollah; Hajipour, Reza; Sadeghian, Mahdi

2014-08-15

"The correlation between justice and organizational citizenship behavior and organizational identity among the nurses", aimed to correlate different aspects of personal feelings and organizational identity in a population of nurses. The population included all nurses working at hospitals affiliated to administry of health, treatment and medical education in Shahre-Kord (Iran) 2009. A sample consisting of 168 nurses was randomly selected out of the population. The study adopted a descriptive-correlative method. The Organizational Justice Questionnaire (1998), the Organizational Citizenship Questionnaire, and Organizational Identity Questionnaire (1982) were used for gathering data. Data was analyzed through multiple regression analysis. The findings revealed that 4 dimensions of organizational citizenship behavior (altruism, civic virtue, conscientiousness, and self-development) are correlated with organizational identity (R² = 0.612); and loyalty and obedience are correlated with distributional justice (R² = 0.71). Also, loyalty, altruism, and obedience are correlated with procedural justice (R² = 0.69) and loyalty and self-development are correlated with distributional justice (R² = 0.89). A correlation was also detected between interactional justice and organizational identity (R² = 0.89). The findings of the study could serve to identify the factors contributing to the creation and recreation of organizational identity, citizenship behavior and justice among nurses, to promote the performance of the organization, and to achieve organizational goals.

Between-group competition elicits within-group cooperation in children

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Majolo, Bonaventura; Maréchal, Laëtitia

2017-02-01

Aggressive interactions between groups are frequent in human societies and can bear significant fitness costs and benefits (e.g. death or access to resources). During between-group competitive interactions, more cohesive groups (i.e. groups formed by individuals who cooperate in group defence) should out-perform less cohesive groups, other factors being equal (e.g. group size). The cost/benefit of between-group competition are thought to have driven correlated evolution of traits that favour between-group aggression and within-group cooperation (e.g. parochial altruism). Our aim was to analyse whether the proximate relationship between between-group competition and within-group cooperation is found in 3-10 years old children and the developmental trajectory of such a relationship. We used a large cohort of children (n = 120) and tested whether simulated between-group competition increased within-group cooperation (i.e. how much of a resource children were giving to their group companions) in two experiments. We found greater within-group cooperation when groups of four children were competing with other groups then in the control condition (no between-group competition). Within-group cooperation increased with age. Our study suggests that parochial altruism and in-group/out-group biases emerge early during the course of human development.

Philosophy of organ donation: Review of ethical facets.

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Dalal, Aparna R

2015-06-24

Transplantation ethics is a philosophy that incorporates systematizing, defending and advocating concepts of right and wrong conduct related to organ donation. As the demand for organs increases, it is essential to ensure that new and innovative laws, policies and strategies of increasing organ supply are bioethical and are founded on the principles of altruism and utilitarianism. In the field of organ transplantation, role of altruism and medical ethics values are significant to the welfare of the society. This article reviews several fundamental ethical principles, prevailing organ donation consent laws, incentives and policies related to the field of transplantation. The Ethical and Policy Considerations in Organ Donation after Circulatory Determination of Death outline criteria for death and organ retrieval. Presumed consent laws prevalent mostly in European countries maintain that the default choice of an individual would be to donate organs unless opted otherwise. Explicit consent laws require organ donation to be proactively affirmed with state registries. The Declaration of Istanbul outlines principles against organ trafficking and transplant tourism. World Health Organization's Guiding Principles on Human Cell, Tissue and Organ Transplantation aim at ensuring transparency in organ procurement and allocation. The ethics of financial incentives and non-financial incentives such as incorporation of non-medical criteria in organ priority allocation have also been reviewed in detail.

Factors Influencing the Identification of Sustainable Opportunities by SMEs: Empirical Evidence from Zambia

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Progress Choongo

2016-01-01

Full Text Available This study uses the model of Patzelt and Shepherd (2011 to examine the factors influencing the identification of sustainable opportunities among SMEs in a developing country, Zambia. The factors under investigation include knowledge of the natural/social environment, perception of threats to the natural/social environment, altruism towards others and entrepreneurial knowledge. We interviewed 220 owner-managers in the trading and service sector who supply goods and services to the mining industry in Zambia. We found that altruism towards others was partially supported by our empirical results while the positive effects of knowledge of the natural/social environment and perception of threats to the natural/social environment on the identification of sustainable opportunities were not supported. Contrary to our expectations, entrepreneurial knowledge does not positively moderate the relationship between explanatory variables and the identification of sustainable opportunities. In sum, we found only limited empirical support for the model of Patzelt and Shepherd (2011 concerning the identification of sustainable opportunities. Our findings contribute to literature on entrepreneurship and sustainable opportunity identification by showing what factors influence the identification of sustainable opportunities. This can help us to create awareness among entrepreneurs regarding the effects of entrepreneurial activities on the environment and society; consequently, stimulating entrepreneurs to identify sustainable opportunities.

Altruistic Behavior and Cooperation: The Role of Intrinsic Expectation When Reputational Information is Incomplete

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Jacintha Ellers

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Altruistic behavior is known to be conditional on the level of altruism of others. However, people often have no information, or incomplete information, about the altruistic reputation of others, for example when the reputation was obtained in a different social or economic context. As a consequence, they have to estimate the other's altruistic intentions. Using an economic game, we showed that without reputational information people have intrinsic expectations about the altruistic behavior of others, which largely explained their own altruistic behavior. This implies that when no information is available, intrinsic expectations can be as powerful a driver of altruistic behavior as actual knowledge about other people's reputation. Two strategies appeared to co-exist in our study population: participants who expected others to be altruistic and acted even more altruistically themselves, while other participants had low expected altruism scores and acted even less altruistically than they expected others to do. We also found evidence that generosity in economic games translates into benefits for other social contexts: a reputation of financial generosity increased the attractiveness of partners in a social cooperative game. This result implies that in situations with incomplete information, the fitness effects of indirect reciprocity are cumulative across different social contexts.

Coaction versus reciprocity in continuous-time models of cooperation.

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van Doorn, G Sander; Riebli, Thomas; Taborsky, Michael

2014-09-07

Cooperating animals frequently show closely coordinated behaviours organized by a continuous flow of information between interacting partners. Such real-time coaction is not captured by the iterated prisoner's dilemma and other discrete-time reciprocal cooperation games, which inherently feature a delay in information exchange. Here, we study the evolution of cooperation when individuals can dynamically respond to each other's actions. We develop continuous-time analogues of iterated-game models and describe their dynamics in terms of two variables, the propensity of individuals to initiate cooperation (altruism) and their tendency to mirror their partner's actions (coordination). These components of cooperation stabilize at an evolutionary equilibrium or show oscillations, depending on the chosen payoff parameters. Unlike reciprocal altruism, cooperation by coaction does not require that those willing to initiate cooperation pay in advance for uncertain future benefits. Correspondingly, we show that introducing a delay to information transfer between players is equivalent to increasing the cost of cooperation. Cooperative coaction can therefore evolve much more easily than reciprocal cooperation. When delays entirely prevent coordination, we recover results from the discrete-time alternating prisoner's dilemma, indicating that coaction and reciprocity are connected by a continuum of opportunities for real-time information exchange. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

'From Man to Bacteria': W.D. Hamilton, the theory of inclusive fitness, and the post-war social order.

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Swenson, Sarah A

2015-02-01

W.D. Hamilton's theory of inclusive fitness aimed to define the evolved limits of altruism with mathematical precision. Although it was meant to apply universally, it has been almost irretrievably entwined with the particular case of social insects that featured in his famous 1964 papers. The assumption that social insects were central to Hamilton's early work contradicts material in his rich personal archive. In fact, careful study of Hamilton's notes, letters, diaries, and early essays indicates the extent to which he had humans in mind when he decided altruism was a topic worthy of biological inquiry. For this reason, this article reconsiders the role of extra-scientific factors in Hamilton's early theorizing. In doing so, it offers an alternative perspective as to why Hamilton saw self-sacrifice to be an important subject. Although the traditional narrative prioritizes his distaste for benefit-of-the-species explanations as a motivating factor behind his foundational work, I argue that greater attention ought to be given to Hamilton's hope that science could be used to address social ills. By reconsidering the meaning Hamilton intended inclusive fitness to have, we see that while he was no political ideologue, the socio-political relevance of his theory was nevertheless integral to its development. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Vyresniųjų paauglių požiūris į dvasines vertybes

OpenAIRE

Martišauskienė, Elvyda

2001-01-01

Spirituality is a specific expression of man's spiritual origins. Its main manifestations are conveyed through cognition of truth, feel for the beautiful, and engagement with morality. More than two thirds of senior teenagers granted their priority to morality, with special emphasis on honesty, sensitivity and dignity. Responsibility and faith were rated somewhat lower in comparison with the former ones; and altruism and solidarity were placed last among the above listed values. About one thi...

Why Darwin would have loved evolutionary game theory

OpenAIRE

Brown, Joel S.

2016-01-01

Humans have marvelled at the fit of form and function, the way organisms' traits seem remarkably suited to their lifestyles and ecologies. While natural selection provides the scientific basis for the fit of form and function, Darwin found certain adaptations vexing or particularly intriguing: sex ratios, sexual selection and altruism. The logic behind these adaptations resides in frequency-dependent selection where the value of a given heritable phenotype (i.e. strategy) to an individual dep...

A Reformulation of Normative Economics for Models with Endogenous Preferences

OpenAIRE

Vipul Bhatt; Masao Ogaki; Yuichi Yaguchi

2014-01-01

This paper proposes a framework to balance considerations of welfarism and virtue ethics in the normative analysis of economic models with endogenous preferences. We introduce the moral evaluation function (MEF), which ranks alternatives based purely on virtue ethics, and define the social objective function (SOF), which combines the Social Welfare Function (SWF) and the MEF. In a model of intergenerational altruism with endogenous time preference, using numerical simulations we show that max...

A Reformulation of Normative Economics for Models with Endogenous

OpenAIRE

Bhatt, Vipul; Ogaki, Masao; Yaguchi, Yuichi

2015-01-01

This paper proposes a framework to balance considerations of welfarism and virtue ethics in the normative analysis of economic models with endogenous preferences. We introduce the moral evaluation function (MEF), which ranks alternatives based purely on virtue ethics, and define the social objective function (SOF), which combines the Social Welfare Function (SWF) and the MEF. In a model of intergenerational altruism with endogenous time preference, using numerical simulations we show that max...

Essays in behavioural development economics

OpenAIRE

Neelim, Ananta Zakaria

2017-01-01

My thesis comprises of three papers in behavioural development economics. In all three of my papers I use economic theories and artefactual field experiments to understand individuals’ preferences for trust, altruism and honesty when they interact with others in their societies. The first paper analyses the effect of multiple identities on interpersonal trust. We conduct a field experiment in West Bengal, India and Bangladesh, two regions significantly different in religious composition, b...

Social memory, social stress, and economic behaviors

OpenAIRE

Taiki Takahashi

2005-01-01

Social memory plays a pivotal role in social behaviors, from mating behaviors to cooperative behaviors based on reciprocal altruism. More specifically, social/person recognition memory is supposed, by behavioral-economic and game-theoretic analysis, to be required for tit- for-tat like cooperative behaviors to evolve under the N-person iterated prisoner fs dilemma game condition. Meanwhile, humans are known to show a social stress response during face-to-face social interactions, which might ...

The Supply of Charity Services by Nonprofit Hospitals: Motives and Market Structure

OpenAIRE

Richard G. Frank; David S. Salkever

1991-01-01

This article studies provision of charity care by private, nonprofit hospitals. We demonstrate that in the absence of large positive income effects on charity care supply, convex preferences for the nonprofit hospital imply crowding out by other private or government hospitals. Extending our model to include impure altruism (rivalry) provides a possible explanation for the previously reported empirical result that both crowding out and income effects on indigent care supply are often weak or ...

Considering others in Need: On altruism, empathy and perspective taking

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Niezink, Lidewij Welmoed

2008-01-01

In the social psychological literature, empathy is seen as an emotional response which evokes the altruistic motivation to help others. One cognitive tool to increase the experience of empathy is perspective taking. The current dissertation investigates how different perspectives on the suffering of

The evolution of extreme altruism and inequality in insect societies

OpenAIRE

Ratnieks, Francis L. W.; Helanterä, Heikki

2009-01-01

In eusocial organisms, some individuals specialize in reproduction and others in altruistic helping. The evolution of eusociality is, therefore, also the evolution of remarkable inequality. For example, a colony of honeybees (Apis mellifera) may contain 50 000 females all of whom can lay eggs. But 100 per cent of the females and 99.9 per cent of the males are offspring of the queen. How did such extremes evolve? Phylogenetic analyses show that high relatedness was almost certainly necessary f...

Social Capital and Educational Partnerships: Reciprocity, Altruism, and Self-Interest

Science.gov (United States)

Moquett, Kerry Davis

2012-01-01

Over the past few decades, partnerships between school districts and post-secondary institutions have increased. The primary purpose has been to create and deliver dual enrollment programs for high school students. This case study focused on one partnership between a large school district in California and a private four-year non-profit college.…

Overcoming healthcare workers vaccine refusal--competition between egoism and altruism.

Science.gov (United States)

Betsch, C

2014-12-04

Vaccination reduces the risk of becoming infected with and transmitting pathogens. The role of healthcare workers (HCWs) in controlling and limiting nosocomial infections has been stressed repeatedly. This has also been recognised at a political level, leading the European Council of Ministers in 2009 to encourage coverage of 75% seasonal influenza vaccine in HCWs. Although there are policies, recommendations and well-tolerated vaccines, still many HCWs refuse to get vaccinated. This article uses literature from psychology and behavioural economics to understand vaccination decisions and the specific situation of HCWs. HCWs are expected to be highly motivated to protect others. However, their individual vaccination decisions follow the same principles (of weighting individual risks) as everyone else’s vaccination decisions. This will lead to decisional conflict in a typical social dilemma situation, in which individual interests are at odds with collective interests. Failure to get vaccinated may be the result. If we understand the motivations and mechanisms of HCWs’ vaccine refusal, interventions and campaigns may be designed more effectively. Strategies to increase HCWs’ vaccine uptake should be directed towards correcting skewed risk perceptions and activating pro-social motivation in HCWs.

Chimpanzee social intelligence: selfishness, altruism, and the mother-infant bond.

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Hirata, Satoshi

2009-01-01

To better understand the human mind from an evolutionary perspective, a great deal of research has focused on the closest living relative of humans, the chimpanzee, using various approaches, including studies of social intelligence. Here, I review recent research related to several aspects of social intelligence, including deception, understanding of perception and intention, social learning, trading, cooperation, and regard for others. Many studies have demonstrated that chimpanzees are proficient in using their social intelligence for selfish motives to benefit from their interactions with others. In contrast, it is not yet clear whether chimpanzees engage in prosocial behaviors that benefit others; however, chimpanzee mother-infant interactions indicate the possibility of such behaviors. Therefore, I propose that chimpanzees possess rudimentary traits of human mental competence not only in terms of theory of mind in a broader sense but also in terms of prosociality involving regard for others. Mother-infant interactions appear to be particularly important to understanding the manifestation of social intelligence from an evolutionary perspective.

Role of organizational citizenship behavior in promoting knowledge sharing

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Mohammad Reza Dehghani

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Organizational citizenship behavior has been linked to overall organizational effectiveness, thus these types of employee behaviors have important consequences in the workplace. One of the important consequences of these types of behaviors is knowledge sharing. Thus, the current study examined the role of organizational citizenship behavior in promoting knowledge sharing. Method: A descriptive correlation design was employed in this study. We collected the data from Kharazmi University employees in city of Tehran in 2014. The statistical population consisted of 484 Kharazmi University employees from which 210 persons were selected randomly (using simple random sampling by the Krejcie and Morgan (1978 sample size determination table. Data werecollected through organizational citizenship behavior questionnaire and knowledge sharing questionnaire. To examine the reliability of the questionnaires, Cronbach alpha coefficient was used. These coefficients were 0.80 for attitude toward knowledge sharing and 0.77 for intention to share knowledge. Also, for organizational citizenship behavior it ranged from 0.71 (courtesy to 0.82 (altruism. To determine the validity, content validity method was applied. All descriptive statistics, t-test, Pearson correlation and multiple regression were performed using SPSS 19. Results: The results of t-test indicated that the means of organizational citizenship behavior (mean=2.50 and all its dimensions (altruism: 2.60, conscientiousness: 2.52, sportsmanship: 2.41, courtesy: 2.49, civic virtue: 2.45 among employees were at the moderate level. The results showed that the correlation between organizational citizenship behavior and knowledge sharing was significant (r=0.50, P<0.001. Other results showed that the correlations between knowledge sharing and organizational citizenship behavior dimensions - Altruism (r=0.35, Conscientiousness (r=0.19, Sportsmanship (r=0.46, Courtesy (r=0.39, Civic virtue (r=0

Individual and Household Willingness to Pay for Public Goods

OpenAIRE

John Quiggin

1998-01-01

The issue of whether willingness to pay (WTP) for the benefits generated by a public good should be elicited on an individual or on a household basis is addressed. Differences between individual and household WTP may arise when members of the household are mutually altruistic. It is shown that, for general specifications of altruism, household WTP is less than the sum of household members' individual WTP. Implications for the choice between household and individual measures of WTP are conside...

Nest wax triggers worker reproduction in the bumblebee Bombus terrestris

OpenAIRE

Rottler-Hoermann, Ann-Marie; Schulz, Stefan; Ayasse, Manfred

2016-01-01

Social insects are well known for their high level of cooperation. Workers of the primitively eusocial bumblebee Bombus terrestris are able to produce male offspring in the presence of a queen. Nonetheless, they only compete for reproduction, in the so-called competition phase, when the workforce is large enough to support the rearing of reproductives. So far, little is known about the proximate mechanisms underlying the shift between altruism and selfish behaviour in bumblebee workers. In th...

OPTION WEALTH AND BEQUEST VALUES: THE VALUE OF PROTECTING FUTURE GENERATIONS FROM THE HEALTH RISKS OF NUCLEAR WASTE STORAGE

OpenAIRE

Riddel, Mary C.; Shaw, W. Douglass

2002-01-01

We devise a simple model of intergenerational altruism under uncertainty. We present an estimable form of the model that relies on a few, plausible, assumptions. We apply the model to data collected in a survey of Southern Nevadans concerning the proposed Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository in Nye County, NV. We find strong evidence of a bequest motive. Approximately one third of the option wealth lost by households near the repository can be attributed to costs to future generations.

Can age make a difference? A moderated model of altruistic organizational citizenship behaviour antecedents

OpenAIRE

Silvia Profili; Alessia Sammarra; Laura Innocenti

2016-01-01

This paper utilizes lifespan approaches to examine how the effects of fun at work, work-life balance, and perceived supervisor support on altruistic Organizational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB) are moderated by age. Based on multilevel analysis of a large sample of 6,182 employees in 37 companies, fun at work significantly predicted altruism towards co-workers for young employees only, while work-life balance predicted altruistic behaviours for mid- and old-age group employees. Contrary to expe...

Incentives and Prosocial Behavior

OpenAIRE

Roland Bénabou; Jean Tirole

2005-01-01

We develop a theory of prosocial behavior that combines heterogeneity in individual altruism and greed with concerns for social reputation or self-respect. Rewards or punishments (whether material or image-related) create doubt about the true motive for which good deeds are performed, and this ?overjustification effect? can induce a partial or even net crowding out of prosocial behavior by extrinsic incentives. We also identify the settings that are conducive to multiple social norms and, mor...

Incentives and Prosocial Behaviour

OpenAIRE

Bénabou, Roland; Tirole, Jean

2004-01-01

We build a theory of prosocial behaviour that combines heterogeneity in individual altruism and greed with concerns for social reputation or self-respect. The presence of rewards or punishments creates doubt as to the true motive for which good deeds are performed, and this ‘overjustification effect’ can result in a net crowding out of prosocial behaviour by extrinsic incentives. The model also allows us to identify settings that are conducive to multiple social norms of behaviour, and those ...

Neural signatures of third-party punishment: evidence from penetrating traumatic brain injury.

Science.gov (United States)

Glass, Leila; Moody, Lara; Grafman, Jordan; Krueger, Frank

2016-02-01

The ability to survive within a cooperative society depends on impartial third-party punishment (TPP) of social norm violations. Two cognitive mechanisms have been postulated as necessary for the successful completion of TPP: evaluation of legal responsibility and selection of a suitable punishment given the magnitude of the crime. Converging neuroimaging research suggests two supporting domain-general networks; a mentalizing network for evaluation of legal responsibility and a central-executive network for determination of punishment. A whole-brain voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping approach was used in conjunction with a rank-order TPP task to identify brain regions necessary for TPP in a large sample of patients with penetrating traumatic brain injury. Patients who demonstrated atypical TPP had specific lesions in core regions of the mentalizing (dorsomedial prefrontal cortex [PFC], ventromedial PFC) and central-executive (bilateral dorsolateral PFC, right intraparietal sulcus) networks. Altruism and executive functioning (concept formation skills) were significant predictors of TPP: altruism was uniquely associated with TPP in patients with lesions in right dorsolateral PFC and executive functioning was uniquely associated with TPP in individuals with lesions in left PFC. Our findings contribute to the extant literature to support underlying neural networks associated with TPP, with specific brain-behavior causal relationships confirming recent functional neuroimaging research. © The Author (2015). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Coping and personality in older patients with bipolar disorder.

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Schouws, Sigfried N T M; Paans, Nadine P G; Comijs, Hannie C; Dols, Annemiek; Stek, Max L

2015-09-15

Little is known about coping styles and personality traits in older bipolar patients. Adult bipolar patients show a passive coping style and higher neuroticism scores compared to the general population. Our aim is to investigate personality traits and coping in older bipolar patients and the relationship between coping and personality. 75 Older patients (age > 60) with bipolar I or II disorder in a euthymic mood completed the Utrecht Coping List and the NEO Personality Inventory FFI and were compared to normative data. Older bipolar patients show more passive coping styles compared to healthy elderly. Their personality traits are predominated by openness, in contrast conscientiousness and altruism are relatively sparse. Neuroticism was related to passive coping styles, whereas conscientiousness was related to an active coping style. Older bipolar patients have more passive coping styles. Their personality is characterized by openness and relatively low conscientiousness and altruism. Our sample represents a survival cohort; this may explain the differences in personality traits between older patients in this study and in adult bipolar patients in other studies. The association between coping styles and personality traits is comparable to reports of younger adult patients with bipolar disorder. Longitudinal studies are warranted to explore if coping and personality change with ageing in bipolar patients and to determine which coping style is most effective in preventing mood episodes. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Moral reasoning in women with posttraumatic stress disorder related to childhood abuse.

Science.gov (United States)

Nazarov, Anthony; Walaszczyk, Victoria; Frewen, Paul; Oremus, Carolina; Lanius, Ruth; McKinnon, Margaret C

2016-01-01

Preliminary evidence suggests that relative to healthy controls, patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) show deficits on several inter-related social cognitive tasks, including theory of mind, and emotion comprehension. Systematic investigations examining other aspects of social cognition, including moral reasoning, have not been conducted in PTSD stemming from childhood trauma. To conduct a comprehensive assessment of moral reasoning performance in individuals with PTSD stemming from childhood abuse. Moral reasoning performance was assessed in 28 women with PTSD related to prolonged childhood trauma and 19 matched healthy controls. Performance was assessed using 12 modified moral dilemmas and was queried in three domains: utilitarian/deontological sacrificial dilemmas (personal and impersonal), social order vs. compassion, and altruism vs. self-interest. Participants were asked whether a proposed action was morally acceptable or unacceptable and whether or not they would perform this action under the circumstances described. Women with PTSD were less likely to carry out utilitarian actions in personal, sacrificial moral dilemmas, a choice driven primarily by consequential intrapersonal disapproval. Increased concern regarding intrapersonal disapproval was related to higher symptoms of guilt in the PTSD group. Patients with PTSD demonstrated less altruistic moral reasoning, primarily associated with decreased empathic role-taking for beneficiaries. Women with PTSD due to childhood trauma show alterations in moral reasoning marked by decreased utilitarian judgment and decreased altruism. Childhood trauma may continue to impact moral choices made into adulthood.

Gratitude for help among adult friends and siblings.

Science.gov (United States)

Rotkirch, Anna; Lyons, Minna; David-Barrett, Tamas; Jokela, Markus

2014-07-06

Although gratitude is a key prosocial emotion reinforcing reciprocal altruism, it has been largely ignored in the empirical literature. We examined feelings of gratitude and the importance of reciprocity in same-sex peer relations. Participants were 772 individuals (189 men; mean age = 28.80) who completed an online survey using a vignette design. We investigated (i) differences in reported gratitude and the importance of reciprocity among same-sex siblings and same-sex friends, and (ii) how relationship closeness moderates these associations. Based on the theory of kin altruism, we expect that people would feel more grateful towards friends than towards their siblings, and that lack of gratitude or failure to pay back a loan would bother more with friends than with siblings, irrespective of emotional closeness. Results showed that levels of gratitude and expectations of reciprocity were higher towards friends compared to siblings. This was the case also after controlling for emotional closeness. Being close generally made participants feel more grateful and expect lower displays of gratitude in the other. Closeness was also strongly associated with emotional gratitude among siblings compared to friends. We conclude that feelings and displays of gratitude have a special role in friendships. Although a close sibling may elicit as much gratitude as a friend does, even a very close friend is not exempt from the logic of reciprocity in the same way that a sibling is.

Anna Freud and the Holocaust: mourning and survival guilt.

Science.gov (United States)

Hartman, John J

2014-12-01

This article explores the period of Anna Freud's life after she was informed of the deaths of her aunts in Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Understanding of this period may be enhanced by consideration of the role of the Holocaust in her complicated mourning process. A series of her dreams is re-examined from the point of view of survivor guilt and the complicated mourning of her father in the context of the Holocaust. It is argued that unconscious reproaches against her father led to an identification with him that included his 'decision' to leave his sisters in Vienna. Survivor guilt in relation to her aunts' murders is seen as one of the complicating factors in the mourning process. In addition the article discusses the possible role of this period, particularly her work with child concentration camp survivors, in her post-war writing. The noted duality in her work between innovation and conservatism is explored in terms of an outcome of the mourning process of this period. It is argued that her views on mourning, trauma, attachment, and the widening scope of indications for psychoanalysis were influenced by the outcome of her mourning process. Finally, an irony is noted in the fact that her attitude about altruism never changed despite the role of the altruism of others in her rescue from the Nazis. Copyright © 2014 Institute of Psychoanalysis.

Antecedents of citizenship behaviour in online customer communities: An empirical investigation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mercy Mpinganjira

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Background: Use of online communities for knowledge generation has become a common phenomenon. In order for online communities to serve as affective spaces for knowledge generation and exchange, members need to behave in ways that are in line with good citizenship. However, because of the limited research, not much is known about citizenship behaviour in such communities and the factors that foster such conduct. Objectives: This article aims to examine the performance of citizenship behaviours by members of online customer communities, and the factors that influence this. Methodology: Data were collected from 303 contributing members of online customer communities using a structured questionnaire. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data collected. Results: The findings show moderate levels of engagement in citizenship behaviours among the respondents. Engagement in citizenship behaviours was in general found to be influenced more by the level of affective commitment towards the community than by the perceived levels of social support. Both affective commitment and perceived social support were found to have less influence on compliant citizenship behaviour when compared with altruism and personal initiative. Affective commitment was found to influence personal initiative most strongly, while social support had its strongest influence on altruism. Conclusion: The results provide insights for managers of online customer communities into factors to which they should give attention in order to enhance the performance of citizenship behaviours.

Antecedents to Intention to Engage in the Online Negative Word-of-Mouth Communication

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Dien Mardhiyah

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Complaints delivered directly to a firm will not be a problem if they can be handled properly, while the ones that are not disclosed directly to the firm but to a third party or even warnings to others not to use particular products or services, will be negative word-of-mouth communication. It can damage the image of the firm and be very detrimental. The purpose of this study was to analyze the antecedents of intention to engage in negative online word-of-mouth communication that includes dissatisfaction, service importance, success of complaint, complaint benefit, self confidence, altruism, retaliatory intention, and complaint cost. Medical services were selected considering the impact caused by the negligence of the service provider possibly giving rise to negative word-of-mouth communication. The online environment has been considered because of the developments in technology which provide opportunities for consumers to communicate with ach other. In addition, the dissemination of information through online media can spread incredibly widely and rapidly. The samples in this study comprised consumers of medical services who had disappointing experiences in using those services either directly or indirectly. A total of 123 questionnaires were analyzed with multiple regression analysis to test the research hypothesis. The results showed that the factors influencing the intentions behind negative online word-of-mouth communication were success of complaint, altruism, retaliatory intention, and complaint cost.

The Power of Shame and the Rationality of Trust

OpenAIRE

Tadelis, Steven

2008-01-01

Experimental evidence and a host of recent theoretical ideas take aim at the common economic assumption that individuals are selfish. The arguments made suggest that intrinsic “social preferences” of one kind or another are at the heart of unselfish, pro-social behavior that is often observed. I suggest an alternative motive based on “shame” that is imposed by the extrinsic beliefs of others, which is distinct from the more common approaches to social preferences such as altruism, a taste for...

The Laughter as Hope Principle

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Mateus Domingues da Silva

2015-04-01

Full Text Available The work aims to establish a parallel between the concept of laughter and the Hope Principle of Ernst Bloch, differentiating their relationship between the pursuit of individual happiness, said to be ideological, deceptive and precarious, and the pursuit of collective happiness, altruistic, that despite utopian it is also true and real, just for being selfless and real because, as a collective expression, indicating concretely and politically, is a real possibility.Keywords: Laughter, Hope Principle, Ernest Bloch, altruism.

The experiment of affective web risk communication on HLW geological disposal

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kugo, Akihide; Yoshikawa, Eiwa; Wakabayashi, Yasunaga; Shimoda, Hiroshi; Uda, Akinobu; Ito, Kyoko

2006-01-01

Dialog mode web contents regarding the HLW risk is effective to altruism. To make it more effectively, we introduced affective elements such as facial expression of character agents and sympathetic response on the BBS by experts, which brought us smooth risk communication. This paper describes the result of preliminary experiments surrounding the affective ways to communicate on the risk of HLW geological disposal, leading to enhance the social cooperation, and the public open experiment for one month on the Web. (author)

Téma sebeobětování žen na příkladu divadelního scénáře Prolomit vlny

OpenAIRE

Jelínková, Jarmila

2011-01-01

Jarmila Jelínková - Self-devotion women motive showed on the "Breaking the waves" scenerply Abstract The article analyzes the character of Bess in the script of Lars von Trier and Vivian Nielsen's drama Breaking the Waves. The portrayal of Bess' behavior, life, and relationships to her husband, the church and God are interpreted from the perspective of feminist theology as introduced by Isabel Carter Heyward. The main message of the play is the parallel to Jesus' sacrifice of pure altruism le...

Surgical body modification and altruistic individualism: a case for cyborg ethics and methods.

Science.gov (United States)

Frank, Arthur W

2003-12-01

Three cases of pediatric surgical body modification--limb lengthening, normalization of genitalia, and craniofacial surgery--are considered through the moral language used by those who experience these surgeries. This language has been described as altruistic individualism. Decision making remains individualist, but it also shows considerable concern for others; egoism is complementary with altruism. The altruistic individualist is one of many incompatible identities that are predicted and described by the figure of the cyborg. Cyborgs suggest both ethics and qualitative methods appropriate to surgically shaped children.

Mise au point: du concept de "partage" a la mutualite en "consumer research"

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Arnould, Eric; Rose, Alexander

2014-01-01

modernist dichotomies (e.g., agency/structure; nurturing family/instrumental public; gift/market; altruism/self-interest) that significantly constrain the analytical enterprise. The present work redresses some of the conceptual problems in the current formulation. The critique highlights a focus on resource...... distribution based on a more holistic, socially grounded perspective on circulation. We offer the alternative concept of mutuality or generalized exchange and the metaphor of inclusion rather than exchange as central to this perspective. We argue this may provide a more sound basis for understanding...

Mutuality

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Arnould, E. J.; Rose, A. S.

2016-01-01

and epistemological grounds and reproduces an array of problematic modernist dichotomies (e.g., agency/structure, nurturing family/instrumental public, gift/market, and altruism/self-interest) that significantly constrain the analytical enterprise. This work redresses some of the conceptual problems in the current...... formulation. The critique highlights a focus on resource distribution based on a more holistic, socially grounded perspective on circulation. We offer the alternative concept of mutuality or generalized exchange and the metaphor of inclusion rather than exchange as central to this perspective. We argue...

Medellin, a model that includes poverty as a business

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Janeth Restrepo Marín

2016-05-01

Full Text Available This paper presents inputs discussions Kavilando research group, around Medellin today, in terms of poverty; of how that category proves to be an excellent place which places the bulk of the population as worthy of technical-social intervention, to restore their dignity and change the system inequitable distribution of wealth, but rather as a mechanism that circulates the budget private to public, altruism faced with the discourse of inclusion, seeking demagogically making new poor consumers, entrepreneurs, etc., thus further delaying the essential discussion.

On the Tradeoff Between Altruism and Selfishness in MANET Trust Management

Science.gov (United States)

2016-04-07

network deployment, we assume that there is no predefined trust . Without prior interactions, the initial bootstrapping will establish a shallow level of...a challenge/response process (e.g., public key authentication). Over time, partic- ipating nodes will establish a stronger trust level with more...periodically. This will enable each node to compute trust values of other nodes considering the original recommen- dations from the 1-hop neighbors of

Moral Education and Education in Altruism: Two Replies to Michael Hand

Science.gov (United States)

White, John

2016-01-01

This article is a critical discussion of two recent papers by Michael Hand on moral education. The first is his "Towards a Theory of Moral Education", published in the "Journal of Philosophy of Education" in 2014 (Volume 48, Issue 4). The second is a chapter called "Beyond Moral Education?" in an edited book of new…

Self-Serving Altruism? The Lure of Unethical Actions that Benefit Others

Science.gov (United States)

Gino, Francesca; Ayal, Shahar; Ariely, Dan

2013-01-01

In three experiments, we propose and find that individuals cheat more when others can benefit from their cheating and when the number of beneficiaries of wrongdoing increases. Our results indicate that people use moral flexibility to justify their self-interested actions when such actions benefit others in addition to the self. Namely, our findings suggest that when people’s dishonesty would benefit others, they are more likely to view dishonesty as morally acceptable and thus feel less guilty about benefiting from cheating. We discuss the implications of these results for collaborations in the social realm. PMID:24273360

Materialism, Reciprocity and Altruism in the Prisoner's Dilemma - An Evolutionary Analysis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Poulsen, Anders; Poulsen, Odile

2002-01-01

In this paper we study the evolution of preferences when players are engaged in simultaneous and sequential move Prisoner's Dilemma games. Our results provide some simple insights into the experimentally observed behavior.......In this paper we study the evolution of preferences when players are engaged in simultaneous and sequential move Prisoner's Dilemma games. Our results provide some simple insights into the experimentally observed behavior....

Altruism and mature care: some rival moral considerations in care ethics.

Science.gov (United States)

Hem, Marit Helene; Halvorsen, Kristin; Nortvedt, Per

2014-11-01

We discuss Carol Gilligan's original concept of mature care in the light of the altruistic approach to caring and good clinical judgment. In particular, we highlight how the concept of mature care can capture important challenges in today's nursing. Further, we illuminate how mature care might differ normatively from an altruistic approach to caring and the traditional prudential virtues in nursing. We also discuss similarities between mature care and virtue ethics. For nursing and nurses' identity, in today's health care system that is increasingly pressured to 'produce' health, we believe it is important to both developing further theories on mature care and having normative discussions about care. © The Author(s) 2014.

Life Course, Altruism, Rational Choice, and Aspirations in Social Work Education

Science.gov (United States)

Paat, Yok-Fong

2016-01-01

Utilising semi-structured interviews, this study investigated various educational determinants contributing to college major selection and career choice of 40 undergraduates who had been admitted to a social work programme in southwestern United States. Major key principles of the life course approach were incorporated in this study to elucidate…

[Changes in the transplantation world--from altruism to a utilitarian approach].

Science.gov (United States)

Mor, Eytan

2006-10-01

The lack of organs for transplantation is a worldwide problem that has created a moral conflict between the traditional altruistic basis of organ donation and alternative solutions based on utilitarian grounds. Survival of grafts achieved in recent decades after unrelated living-donor kidney transplantation between spouses is longer than with deceased donor transplantation. This experience justified the extension of kidney donation beyond the traditional close family relationships including: anonymous donors and paired exchange programs. However, unrelated donation of kidneys within altruistic norms could not provide an ultimate solution for the lack of organs for transplantation. On the other hand, globalization and development of advanced medical technology in developing countries that do not provide transplantation for all their citizens, created an opportunity for a worldwide flourish of transplant tourism as an alternative solution for transplant candidates. Transplant tourism functions according to market laws and is profit-driven, as opposed to the legal organ exchange programs in Europe and the U.S.A., which are non-profit and patient-oriented. The transition from trade in kidneys from unrelated living-donors to the use of other organs (heart, lung and liver) from death penalty prisoners in China was only a matter of deciding where to lay the moral border when justifying the act for the sake of life-saving. Considering the inability of current legal altruistic transplantation practice to supply the growing need for organs, healthcare authorities and professional transplantation organizations have to tackle the donor crisis by designing legally acceptable utilitarian solutions. For instance, through the formation of international organ exchange programs under formal agreements or, in the case of kidney transplantation, through the establishment of a regulated compensated donation system.

Free to help? An experiment on free will belief and altruism.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Job Harms

Full Text Available How does belief in free will affect altruistic behavior? In an online experiment we undermine subjects' belief in free will through a priming task. Subjects subsequently conduct a series of binary dictator games in which they can distribute money between themselves and a charity that supports low-income people in developing countries. In each decision task, subjects choose between two different distributions, one of which is more generous towards the charity. In contrast to previous experiments that report a negative effect of undermining free will on honest behavior and self-reported willingness to help, we find an insignificant average treatment effect. However, we do find that our treatment reduces charitable giving among non-religious subjects, but not among religious subjects. This could be explained by our finding that religious subjects associate more strongly with social norms that prescribe helping the poor, and might therefore be less sensitive to the effect of reduced belief in free will. Taken together, these findings indicate that the effects of free will belief on prosocial behavior are more nuanced than previously suggested.

Free to help? An experiment on free will belief and altruism

NARCIS (Netherlands)

J. Harms (Job); K. Liket (Kellie); J. Protzko (John); V.L.N. Schölmerich (Vera)

2017-01-01

textabstractHow does belief in free will affect altruistic behavior? In an online experiment we undermine subjects' belief in free will through a priming task. Subjects subsequently conduct a series of binary dictator games in which they can distribute money between themselves and a charity that

Free to help? An experiment on free will belief and altruism.

Science.gov (United States)

Harms, Job; Liket, Kellie; Protzko, John; Schölmerich, Vera

2017-01-01

How does belief in free will affect altruistic behavior? In an online experiment we undermine subjects' belief in free will through a priming task. Subjects subsequently conduct a series of binary dictator games in which they can distribute money between themselves and a charity that supports low-income people in developing countries. In each decision task, subjects choose between two different distributions, one of which is more generous towards the charity. In contrast to previous experiments that report a negative effect of undermining free will on honest behavior and self-reported willingness to help, we find an insignificant average treatment effect. However, we do find that our treatment reduces charitable giving among non-religious subjects, but not among religious subjects. This could be explained by our finding that religious subjects associate more strongly with social norms that prescribe helping the poor, and might therefore be less sensitive to the effect of reduced belief in free will. Taken together, these findings indicate that the effects of free will belief on prosocial behavior are more nuanced than previously suggested.

Motivations to participate in a Phase I/II HIV vaccine trial: A descriptive study from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E. A. M. Tarimo

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The search for an efficacious HIV vaccine is a global priority. To date only one HIV vaccine trial (RV144 has shown modest efficacy in a phase III trial. With existing different HIV-1 subtypes and frequent mutations, multiple trials are needed from different geographical sites particularly in sub-Saharan Africa where most HIV infections occur. Thus, motivations to participate in HIV vaccine trials among Tanzanians need to be assessed. This paper describes the motives of Police Officers who showed great interest to volunteer in HIVIS-03 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Methods A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among Police Officers who showed interest to participate in the HIVIS-03, a phase I/II HIV vaccine trial in Dar es Salaam. Prior to detailed training sessions about HIV vaccine trials, the potential participants narrated their individual motives to participate in the trial on a piece of paper. Descriptive analysis using content approach and frequency distributions were performed. Results Of the 265 respondents, 242 (91.3 % provided their socio-demographic characteristics as well as reasons that would make them take part in the proposed trial. Majority, (39.7 %, cited altruism as the main motive. Women were more likely to volunteer due to altruism compared to men (P < 0.01. Researchers’ explanations about HIV/AIDS vaccine studies motivated 15.3 %. More men (19.6 % than women (1.7 % were motivated to volunteer due to researchers’ explanations (P < 0.001. Also, compared to other groups, those unmarried and educated up to secondary level of education were motivated to volunteer due to researchers’ explanation (P < 0.05. Other reasons were: desire to become a role model (18.6 %; to get knowledge for educating others (14.0 %; to cooperate with researchers in developing an HIV vaccine (9.5 %; to get protection against HIV infection (7.0 %, and severity of the disease within families (6.2�

role of altruistic behavior, empathetic concern, and social responsibility motivation in blood donation behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Steele, Whitney Randolph; Schreiber, George B; Guiltinan, Anne; Nass, Catharie; Glynn, Simone A; Wright, David J; Kessler, Debra; Schlumpf, Karen S; Tu, Yongling; Smith, James W; Garratty, George

2008-01-01

Blood donation can be described as a prosocial behavior, and donors often cite prosocial reasons such as altruism, empathy, or social responsibility for their willingness to donate. Previous studies have not quantitatively evaluated these characteristics in donors or examined how they relate to donation frequency. As part of a donor motivation study, 12,064 current and lapsed donors answered questions used to create an altruistic behavior, empathetic concern, and social responsibility motivation score for each donor. Analysis of variance was used to compare mean scores by demographics and donor status and to determine the influence of each variable on the mean number of donations in the past 5 years. The mean score for each prosocial characteristic appeared high, with lower scores in male and younger donors. Higher altruistic behavior and social responsibility motivation scores were associated with increased past donation frequency, but the effects were minor. Empathetic concern was not associated with prior donation. The largest differences in prior donations were by age and donor status, with older and current donors having given more frequently. Most blood donors appear to have high levels of the primary prosocial characteristics (altruism, empathy, and social responsibility) commonly thought to be the main motivators for donation, but these factors do not appear to be the ones most strongly related to donation frequency. Traditional donor appeals based on these characteristics may need to be supplemented by approaches that address practical concerns like convenience, community safety, or personal benefit.

Cooperation during cultural group formation promotes trust towards members of out-groups.

Science.gov (United States)

Pan, Xiaofei Sophia; Houser, Daniel

2013-07-07

People often cooperate with members of their own group, and discriminate against members of other groups. Previous research establishes that cultural groups can form endogenously, and that these groups demonstrate in-group favouritism. Given the presence of cultural groups, the previous literature argues that cultural evolution selects for groups that exhibit parochial altruism. The source of initial variation in these traits, however, remains uninformed. We show here that a group's economic production environment may substantially influence parochial tendencies, with groups formed around more cooperative production (CP) displaying less parochialism than groups formed around more independent production (IP) processes. Participants randomized into CP and IP production tasks formed cultural groups, and subsequently played hidden-action trust games with in-group and out-group trustees. We found CP to be associated with significantly greater sharing and exchanging behaviours than IP. In trust games, significant parochial altruism (in-group favouritism combined with out-group discrimination) was displayed by members of IP groups. By contrast, members of CP groups did not engage in either in-group favouritism or out-group discrimination. Further, we found the absence of out-group discrimination in CP to persist even following 'betrayal'. Finally, belief data suggest that members of CP are not more intrinsically generous than IP members, but rather more likely to believe that out-group trustees will positively reciprocate. Our results have important implications for anyone interested in building cooperative teams, and shed new light on connections between culture and cooperation.

Evolution of restraint in a structured rock–paper–scissors community

Science.gov (United States)

Nahum, Joshua R.; Harding, Brittany N.; Kerr, Benjamin

2011-01-01

It is not immediately clear how costly behavior that benefits others evolves by natural selection. By saving on inherent costs, individuals that do not contribute socially have a selective advantage over altruists if both types receive equal benefits. Restrained consumption of a common resource is a form of altruism. The cost of this kind of prudent behavior is that restrained individuals give up resources to less-restrained individuals. The benefit of restraint is that better resource management may prolong the persistence of the group. One way to dodge the problem of defection is for altruists to interact disproportionately with other altruists. With limited dispersal, restrained individuals persist because of interaction with like types, whereas it is the unrestrained individuals that must face the negative long-term consequences of their rapacity. Here, we study the evolution of restraint in a community of three competitors exhibiting a nontransitive (rock–paper–scissors) relationship. The nontransitivity ensures a form of negative feedback, whereby improvement in growth of one competitor has the counterintuitive consequence of lowering the density of that improved player. This negative feedback generates detrimental long-term consequences for unrestrained growth. Using both computer simulations and evolution experiments with a nontransitive community of Escherichia coli, we find that restrained growth can evolve under conditions of limited dispersal in which negative feedback is present. This research, thus, highlights a set of ecological conditions sufficient for the evolution of one form of altruism. PMID:21690371

Evolution of restraint in a structured rock-paper-scissors community.

Science.gov (United States)

Nahum, Joshua R; Harding, Brittany N; Kerr, Benjamin

2011-06-28

It is not immediately clear how costly behavior that benefits others evolves by natural selection. By saving on inherent costs, individuals that do not contribute socially have a selective advantage over altruists if both types receive equal benefits. Restrained consumption of a common resource is a form of altruism. The cost of this kind of prudent behavior is that restrained individuals give up resources to less-restrained individuals. The benefit of restraint is that better resource management may prolong the persistence of the group. One way to dodge the problem of defection is for altruists to interact disproportionately with other altruists. With limited dispersal, restrained individuals persist because of interaction with like types, whereas it is the unrestrained individuals that must face the negative long-term consequences of their rapacity. Here, we study the evolution of restraint in a community of three competitors exhibiting a nontransitive (rock-paper-scissors) relationship. The nontransitivity ensures a form of negative feedback, whereby improvement in growth of one competitor has the counterintuitive consequence of lowering the density of that improved player. This negative feedback generates detrimental long-term consequences for unrestrained growth. Using both computer simulations and evolution experiments with a nontransitive community of Escherichia coli, we find that restrained growth can evolve under conditions of limited dispersal in which negative feedback is present. This research, thus, highlights a set of ecological conditions sufficient for the evolution of one form of altruism.

Gratitude for Help among Adult Friends and Siblings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anna Rotkirch

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Although gratitude is a key prosocial emotion reinforcing reciprocal altruism, it has been largely ignored in the empirical literature. We examined feelings of gratitude and the importance of reciprocity in same-sex peer relations. Participants were 772 individuals (189 men; mean age = 28.80 who completed an online survey using a vignette design. We investigated (i differences in reported gratitude and the importance of reciprocity among same-sex siblings and same-sex friends, and (ii how relationship closeness moderates these associations. Based on the theory of kin altruism, we expect that people would feel more grateful towards friends than towards their siblings, and that lack of gratitude or failure to pay back a loan would bother more with friends than with siblings, irrespective of emotional closeness. Results showed that levels of gratitude and expectations of reciprocity were higher towards friends compared to siblings. This was the case also after controlling for emotional closeness. Being close generally made participants feel more grateful and expect lower displays of gratitude in the other. Closeness was also strongly associated with emotional gratitude among siblings compared to friends. We conclude that feelings and displays of gratitude have a special role in friendships. Although a close sibling may elicit as much gratitude as a friend does, even a very close friend is not exempt from the logic of reciprocity in the same way that a sibling is.

Physical pain increases interpersonal trust in females.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, C; Gao, J; Ma, Y; Zhu, C; Dong, X-W

2018-01-01

People behave and interact with others differently when experiencing physical pain. Pain has dramatic effects on one's emotional responses, cognitive functions and social interaction. However, little has been known about whether and how physical pain influences interpersonal trust in social interaction. In the present study, we examined the influence of physical pain on trusting behaviour. A total of 112 healthy participants were recruited and assigned to physical pain condition (induced by Capsaicin) and control condition (with hand cream), respectively. Thirty minutes after pain induction, three decision-making tasks were conducted to measure behaviours in social interaction, including trust and trustworthiness (trust game), non-social risk-taking (risk game) and altruism (dictator game). Results showed that physical pain increased interpersonal trust among females, but not among males. Pain did not influence non-social risk-taking, altruism or trustworthiness, as evaluated by monetary transfers in those tasks. Moreover, the effect of physical pain on interpersonal trust was fully mediated by expectation of monetary profit. These findings demonstrate an effect of pain on interpersonal trust and suggest a reciprocity mechanism that the effect may be driven by self-interest rather than altruistic motivation. The pain effect on trust was evident only in females, implying distinct pain coping strategies used by both genders. The present work highlights the social component of pain and extends our understanding of mutual interactions between pain and social cognition. © 2017 European Pain Federation - EFIC®.

Empirical study on the link between corporate citizenship behaviour and spirituality in the corporate environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sanjana Brijball Parumasur

2016-08-01

Full Text Available This study explores the relationship between spirituality in the corporate environment and corporate or organisational citizenship behaviour. The relationships amongst the sub-dimensions of workplace spirituality (meaningfulness of work, sense of community, alignment with organisational values and the sub-dimensions of corporate or organisational citizenship behaviour (altruism, conscientiousness, sportsmanship, courtesy, civic virtue are also examined. The extent to which the sub-dimensions of organisational citizenship behaviour predict workplace spirituality are analysed. The study was undertaken in a retail products outlet that focuses on quality and professionalism. The sample was drawn using cluster sampling and the adequacy of the sample was assessed using the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure and Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity. Data was collected using a closed-ended, established questionnaire and analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results reflect that the organisation is fairly high on workplace spirituality with the focus being on meaningfulness of work and, on corporate or organisational citizenship behaviour with altruism and civic virtue being its greatest strength. There is a significant relationship between spirituality in the corporate environment and corporate or organisational citizenship behaviour, with sportsmanship and civic virtue being strong predictors of workplace spirituality. The results therefore, display the dynamic relationship between spirituality in the corporate environment and corporate or organisational citizenship behaviour, which when nurtured has the potential to enhance both bottom-lines of profits and people as well as society as a whole

Moral reasoning in women with posttraumatic stress disorder related to childhood abuse

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anthony Nazarov

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Background: Preliminary evidence suggests that relative to healthy controls, patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD show deficits on several inter-related social cognitive tasks, including theory of mind, and emotion comprehension. Systematic investigations examining other aspects of social cognition, including moral reasoning, have not been conducted in PTSD stemming from childhood trauma. Objective: To conduct a comprehensive assessment of moral reasoning performance in individuals with PTSD stemming from childhood abuse. Method: Moral reasoning performance was assessed in 28 women with PTSD related to prolonged childhood trauma and 19 matched healthy controls. Performance was assessed using 12 modified moral dilemmas and was queried in three domains: utilitarian/deontological sacrificial dilemmas (personal and impersonal, social order vs. compassion, and altruism vs. self-interest. Participants were asked whether a proposed action was morally acceptable or unacceptable and whether or not they would perform this action under the circumstances described. Results: Women with PTSD were less likely to carry out utilitarian actions in personal, sacrificial moral dilemmas, a choice driven primarily by consequential intrapersonal disapproval. Increased concern regarding intrapersonal disapproval was related to higher symptoms of guilt in the PTSD group. Patients with PTSD demonstrated less altruistic moral reasoning, primarily associated with decreased empathic role-taking for beneficiaries. Conclusions: Women with PTSD due to childhood trauma show alterations in moral reasoning marked by decreased utilitarian judgment and decreased altruism. Childhood trauma may continue to impact moral choices made into adulthood.

Enhanced subgenual cingulate response to altruistic decisions in remitted major depressive disorder

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Erdem Pulcu

2014-01-01

Conclusions: We showed that altruistic decisions probe residual sgACC hypersensitivity in MDD even after symptoms are fully remitted. The sgACC has previously been shown to be associated with guilt which promotes altruistic decisions. In contrast, the striatum showed common activation to both simple and altruistic rewards and could be involved in the so-called “warm glow” of donation. Enhanced neural response in the depression group, in areas previously linked to altruistic decisions, supports the hypothesis of a possible association between hyper-altruism and depression vulnerability, as shown by recent epidemiological studies.

Volunteering as Red Queen mechanism for cooperation in public goods games

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hauert, C.; De Monte, Silvia; Hofbauer, J.

2002-01-01

The evolution of cooperation among nonrelated individuals is one of the fundamental problems in biology and social sciences. Reciprocal altruism fails to provide a solution if interactions are not repeated often enough or groups are too large. Punishment and reward can be very effective but require...... that defectors can be traced and identified. Here we present a simple but effective mechanism operating under full anonymity. Optional participation can foil exploiters and overcome the social dilemma. In voluntary public goods interactions, cooperators and defectors will coexist. We show that this result holds...

Tapping into Our Tribal Heritage

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Grodal, Torben Kragh

2012-01-01

The article analyzes The Lord of the Rings by using cognitive and neurological theory in combination with evolutionary theory. It first provide a short introduction to bio-culturalist theories of how biology and culture interact. It then describes the basic human emotional systems and how...... they are activated in The Lord of the Rings. It further describe how fundamental psychological dispositions are linked to tribalism, to group living, including dispositions for in-group altruism and warrior bonding, and how group living enhanced dispositions to submit to social hierarchies, that in The Lord...

War as a moral imperative (not just practical politics by other means)

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Ginges, Jeremy; Atran, Scott

2011-01-01

We present findings from one survey and five experiments carried out in the USA, Nigeria and the Middle East showing that judgements about the use of deadly intergroup violence are strikingly insensitive to quantitative indicators of success, or to perceptions of their efficacy. By demonstrating that judgements about the use of war are bounded by rules of deontological reasoning and parochial commitment, these findings may have implications for understanding the trajectory of violent political conflicts. Further, these findings are compatible with theorizing that links the evolution of within-group altruism to intergroup violence. PMID:21325334

On Reproductive Work in Spain: Transnational Adoption, Egg Donation, Surrogacy.

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Marre, Diana; San Román, Beatriz; Guerra, Diana

2018-01-01

Spain's plummeting fertility since the late twentieth century may seem to reflect a waning desire for children. Nevertheless, reproductive disappointments resulting from gender inequalities cause many Spanish women to postpone motherhood and experience age-related fertility problems. For them, creating a family often becomes possible only through the reproductive labor of other women. Our analysis of transnational adoption, egg donation, and surrogacy in Spain shows how anonymity and altruism play out in these three strategies, with implications for the valuation of women's reproductive work and relationships among reproductive providers, intermediaries, recipients, and the resulting children.

Law and medical ethics in organ transplantation surgery

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Woodcock, Tom; Wheeler, Robert

2010-01-01

This article in the series describes how UK law and medical ethics have evolved to accommodate developments in organ transplantation surgery. August committees have formulated definitions of the point of death of the person which are compatible with the lawful procurement of functioning vital organs from cadavers. Some of the complexities of dead donor rules are examined. Live donors are a major source of kidneys and the laws that protect them are considered. Financial inducements and other incentives to donate erode the noble concept of altruism, but should they be unlawful? PMID:20501013

Exploring the relationship between caring, love and intimacy in nursing.

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Dowling, Maura

This article uses the five distinct perspectives on caring proposed by Morse et al (1990) to illustrate the relationship between love, intimacy and caring. Two distinct types of love, namely Agape (altruism/charity) and filia (brother love) are utilized in nursing. Only some caring relationships with patients reach an intimate level, and this is determined by patient characteristics to which the nurse responds. It is concluded that caring as a moral imperative is the most relevant to discussions on caring in nursing and the perspective on which the other four viewpoints hinge.

Supporting renewable energy on liberalised markets: green electricity between additionally and consumer sovereignty

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Menges, R.

2003-01-01

The German feed-in regulation has been perhaps the most effective promotional policy for green electricity. However, with the growing momentum of the liberalisation process the current regulation is challenged by structural problems about how to address the demand side. Price regulation leaves little room for private green electricity market activities. Moreover, the success of the feed-in regulation depends on a strict differentiation of the political segment and the emerging green electricity markets. The question, therefore, is about the role green electricity markets can (or should) perform in general. In order to evaluate green electricity markets the additionality criteria is frequently used, implying that markets are only desirable if they lead to additional environmental effects. The additionality criteria has two implications: First, transformed into individual behaviour, additionality implies that consumers are assumed to act as pure altruists. However, there is evidence from empirical studies that green electricity consumers behave more as impure altruists: they are not so much interested in the objective environmental impact of their behaviour but more objected to receive a private satisfaction from buying an environmental friendly product. Whereas theoretical models in the case of pure altruism suggest that private activities crowd out totally when policy becomes active in supporting the public good, this crowding out disappears in the case of impure altruism. Second, using end-state criteria such as the additionality principle as precondition, and neglecting process criteria such as consumer sovereignty, means to prevent establishing competitive market process right at the outset in principle. (author)

Supporting renewable energy on liberalised markets: green electricity between additionality and consumer sovereignty

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Menges, Roland

2003-01-01

The German feed-in regulation has been perhaps the most effective promotional policy for green electricity. However, with the growing momentum of the liberalisation process the current regulation is challenged by structural problems about how to address the demand side. Price regulation lefts only little room for private green electricity market activities. Moreover, the success of the feed-in regulation depends on a strict differentiation of the political segment and the emerging green electricity markets. The question, therefore, is about the role green electricity markets can (or should) perform in general. In order to evaluate green electricity markets the additionality criteria is frequently used, implying that markets are only desirable if they lead to additional environmental effects. The additionality criteria has two implications: First, transformed into individual behaviour, additionality implies that consumers are assumed to act as pure altruists. However, there is evidence from empirical studies that green electricity consumers behave more as impure altruists: they are not so much interested in the objective environmental impact of their behaviour but more objected to receive a private satisfaction from buying an environmental friendly product. Whereas theoretical models in the case of pure altruism suggest that private activities crowd out totally when policy becomes active in supporting the public good, this crowding out disappears in the case of impure altruism. Second, using end-state criteria such as the additionality principle as pre-condition, and neglecting process criteria such as consumer sovereignty, means to prevent establishing competitive market process right at the outset in principle

Altruistic sharing behavior in children: Role of theory of mind and inhibitory control.

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Liu, Buyun; Huang, Zhelan; Xu, Guifeng; Jin, Yu; Chen, Yajun; Li, Xiuhong; Wang, Qingxiong; Song, Shanshan; Jing, Jin

2016-01-01

This study aimed to assess altruistic sharing behavior in children aged 3 to 5, 6 to 8, and 9 to 11 years and to explore the involvement of potential cognitive mechanisms, namely theory of mind (ToM) and inhibitory control. A total of 158 children completed a dictator game with stickers as incentives. ToM was evaluated using a false belief task in preschoolers and the Strange Story Test in school-age children. Inhibitory control was assessed in preschoolers with the Day-Night task and in older children with the Stroop Color-Word Test. The result was that 48.10% of children aged 3 to 5 years decided to share, and the percentage rose significantly with increasing age. The difference in altruism level in children who decided to share among the three age groups was nonsignificant. These results suggest that mechanisms underlying the decision to share or not and altruistic behavior may be different. No significant linear relations were found between cognitive processes (i.e., ToM and inhibitory control) and sharing behavior. Surprisingly, 9- to 11-year-olds who shared 3 of 10 stickers performed worse in inhibitory control than did those who shared any other number of stickers. In conclusion, the proportion of children who decided to share, but not the level of altruism, increased with age. ToM was not involved in altruistic sharing, whereas inhibitory control may play a role when deciding how much to share. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Blood donors and factors impacting the blood donation decision: motives for donating blood in Turkish sample.

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Karacan, Eda; Cengiz Seval, Guldane; Aktan, Zeynep; Ayli, Meltem; Palabiyikoglu, Refia

2013-12-01

Donations in Turkey are insufficient to cover the high transfusion needs arising from large numbers of thalassemia and sickle cell anemia patients and increasing demands for blood due to advanced surgery and cancer treatment. The most acceptable means to get blood is voluntary blood donation and the blood donor system in Turkey mostly depends on a combination of voluntary and involuntary donors. The main aim of this study is to explore the motivations of Turkish voluntary blood donors toward blood donation and to determine predictors of blood donation motivation. A cross-sectional sample survey of active blood donors in Ankara, Turkey was conducted. The sample consisted of 189 male volunteer blood donor adults. Donors filled in a self-administered questionnaire including the measures of demographic information, empathetic concern, altruism, social responsibility and blood donation motivation questionnaire during donation. Factor analysis of Blood Donation Motivation Measure with varimax rotation revealed a three-factor solution named as "values and moral duty", "positive feelings and esteem" and "self-benefit and external reasons". The results with regression analyses showed that only social responsibility had an significant effect independent of age, income, and education on blood donation motivation. These result reflects that blood donation motivation not only linked to a high degree of altruistic reasons, but also to a combination of some self-regarding motives. Additionally, feelings of empathy or altruism may be less strong at the time the decision to help, other factors may have a larger influence on helping decisions. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Association between Organizational Citizenship Behavior and Educational Performance of Faculty Members in Tabriz University of Medical Sciences- 2014

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Hazratian Teimour

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Regarding the educational goals of university and academic performance, it seems that organizational citizenship behavior (OCB is one of the effective variables in increasing the educational performance of university faculty members. The present study aims to investigate the relationship between organizational citizenship behavior (OCB and educational performance of the faculty members of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences in 2013-14. Methods: Researchers selected 127 faculty members and 1,120 students from different grades in order to investigate the relationship between altruism, conscientiousness, sportsmanship, civic virtue and respect and the educational performance of faculty members. Generalized estimating equations (GEE were used in this method. Data were analyzed using SPSS 21 software and the significance level of 0.05. Results: There was a significant relationship between altruism and educational performance (P =0.043. There was a significant relationship between conscientiousness and educational performance (p=0.046. A significant relationship was observed between sportsmanship and educational performance (p=0.004. There was no significant relationship between civic virtue and educational performance (p=0.98. A significant relationship was observed between respect and educational performance (P>0.001. There was no relationship between citizenship behavior and gender of the faculty members (P> 0.05.Conclusion: The results of this study showed that the more faculty members have the spirit of cooperation and assistance to colleagues and students and try to understand the specific situations that students face, the more effective they are in increasing the educational performance at the university level.

Organizational citizenship behavior among Iranian nurses.

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Dargahi, H; Alirezaie, S; Shaham, G

2012-01-01

Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) is defined as "individual behavior that is discretionary, not directly or explicitly recognized by the formal reward system, and that in the aggregate, promotes the effective functioning of organization". OCB, enhance job satisfaction among nursing employees. According to several findings, nurses' OCB have a positive and significant influence on job satisfaction. This research is aimed to study OCB among Iranian nurses. A cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical study was conducted among 510 nurses working in 15 teaching hospitals in Tehran, Iran to be selected by stratified random sampling. The respondents were asked to complete Netemeyer's organizational citizenship behavior questionnaire that encompassed four dimensions of OCB including Sportsmanship, Civil Virtue, Conscientiousness, Altruism and selected each item of OCB dimensions and identified their attitudes about OCB items were observed in hospitals of Tehran. The data was analyzed by T-test, ANOVA and Pearson statistical methods. The results of this research showed that most of the nurses who studied in this study, had OCB behaviors. Also, we found that there was significant correlation between Iranian nurses' marriage status, qualifications and gender with sportsmanship, altruism and civic virtue. This research demonstrates the existence of OCB among Iranian nurses that are essential in developing patient - oriented behavior. The results can be used to develop further nursing management strategies for enhancement of OCB. Finally, the present study indicates new possibilities for future researches such as analysis and comparison of OCB between different hospitals and how nursing policy-makers can enhance these behaviors in Iranian hospitals.

Motivations for volunteers in food rescue nutrition.

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Mousa, T Y; Freeland-Graves, J H

2017-08-01

A variety of organizations redistribute surplus food to low-income populations through food rescue nutrition. Why volunteers participate in these charitable organizations is unclear. The aim of this study is to document the participation and motivations of volunteers who are involved specifically in food rescue nutrition. A cross-sectional study was conducted in two phases. In phase 1, a new instrument, Motivations to Volunteer Scale, was developed and validated in 40 participants (aged ≥18 years). In phase 2, the new scale and a demographics questionnaire were administered to 300 participants who were volunteering in food pantries and churches. The pilot study showed that Motivations to Volunteer Scale exhibited an internal consistency of Cronbach's α of 0.73 (P  0.05). The scale was validated also by comparison to the Volunteer Function Inventory (r = 0.86, P social life, and altruism. The mean motivation score of the 300 volunteers was 9.15 ± 0.17. Greater motivations were observed among participants who were aged >45 years, women, Hispanics, college/university graduates, physically inactive, non-smokers, and had an income ≥ $48,000. The Motivations to Volunteer Scale is a valid tool to assess why individuals volunteer in food rescue nutrition. The extent of motivations of participants was relatively high, and the primary reason for volunteering was altruism. Health professionals should be encouraged to participate in food redistribution. Copyright © 2017 The Royal Society for Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Realism and Impartiality: Making Sustainability Effective in Decision-Making.

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Bastons, Miquel; Armengou, Jaume

2017-08-01

There is both individual and collective widespread concern in society about the impact of human activity and the effects of our decisions on the physical and social environment. This concern is included within the idea of sustainability. The meaning of the concept is still ambiguous and its practical effectiveness disputed. Like many other authors, this article uses as a starting point the definition proposed by the World Commission on Environment and Development (Our common future, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1987), considering it to be a proposal for changing the assessment of the effects of decisions, from at least two perspectives: (1) what effects we should consider and (2) how we should assess them. Based on this double perspective, sustainability is explored as a method for decision-making which both expands the assessment of the consequences, and also provides an objective criterion for such assessment. It will be argued that the idea of sustainability, seen from this perspective, brings to decision-making two qualities which had been partially lost: realism and impartiality. In turn, the criteria for realism and impartiality in decision-making can be used to identify the limitations of some partial approaches to sustainability, which suffer from insufficient realism (emotional altruism), insufficient impartiality (tactical altruism) or both phenomena at once (egoism). The article concludes by demonstrating how realism and impartiality provide the basis for a new form of sustainable decision-making (ethical sustainability), which is dependent on the development of two moral virtues, prudence and benevolence, and which brings practical effectiveness and ethical sense to the concept of sustainability.

Incentive Use in Research: Protecting Vulnerable Populations from Exploitation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Haruna Muwonge

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Global investment in Medical Research and Development has markedly increased in the last few decades. However, due to the decreasing public altruism, researchers have come under increased pressures from the funding bodies to produce results. Out of desperation, some researchers have resorted to using incentives as a means of sourcing for volunteers. Consequently, the research burden has disproportionately been shared among the most vulnerable populations in the society. Incentives especially monetary ones present an ethical dilemma because of the uncertainties’ surrounding the morality, amount and type of payment, vulnerability of volunteers and possible threats to voluntary participation. Several studies done on the use of incentives in medical research have noted that financial motivation was the number one reason for subjects to volunteer in Medical research. Mutual benefit and freedom of choice by participants were given as reasons to support their use. However, scientists who are against the use of incentives believe that they are coercive or undue inducements, and may influence a subjects’ ability to give an informed consent. Guidelines exist that protect vulnerable groups from exploitation, although none sheds light into the use of incentives. Nonetheless, in the face of the waning public altruism, the benefits of using incentives far outweigh the dangers, although researchers should avoid situations where their use may become problematic. As a mode of payment to research subjects, researchers should adopt a combination of the Dickerts’ Wage and re-imbursement models as guides in quantifying the incentive. [Archives Medical Review Journal 2013; 22(3.000: 408-417

Cultural transmission and the evolution of human behaviour: a general approach based on the Price equation.

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El Mouden, C; André, J-B; Morin, O; Nettle, D

2014-02-01

Transmitted culture can be viewed as an inheritance system somewhat independent of genes that is subject to processes of descent with modification in its own right. Although many authors have conceptualized cultural change as a Darwinian process, there is no generally agreed formal framework for defining key concepts such as natural selection, fitness, relatedness and altruism for the cultural case. Here, we present and explore such a framework using the Price equation. Assuming an isolated, independently measurable culturally transmitted trait, we show that cultural natural selection maximizes cultural fitness, a distinct quantity from genetic fitness, and also that cultural relatedness and cultural altruism are not reducible to or necessarily related to their genetic counterparts. We show that antagonistic coevolution will occur between genes and culture whenever cultural fitness is not perfectly aligned with genetic fitness, as genetic selection will shape psychological mechanisms to avoid susceptibility to cultural traits that bear a genetic fitness cost. We discuss the difficulties with conceptualizing cultural change using the framework of evolutionary theory, the degree to which cultural evolution is autonomous from genetic evolution, and the extent to which cultural change should be seen as a Darwinian process. We argue that the nonselection components of evolutionary change are much more important for culture than for genes, and that this and other important differences from the genetic case mean that different approaches and emphases are needed for cultural than genetic processes. © 2013 The Authors. Journal of Evolutionary Biology © 2013 European Society For Evolutionary Biology.

Against dichotomies: On mature care and self-sacrifice in care ethics.

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van Nistelrooij, Inge; Leget, Carlo

2017-09-01

In previous issues of this journal, Carol Gilligan's original concept of mature care has been conceptualized by several (especially Norwegian) contributors. This has resulted in a dichotomous view of self and other, and of self-care and altruism, in which any form of self-sacrifice is rejected. Although this interpretation of Gilligan seems to be quite persistent in care-ethical theory, it does not seem to do justice to either Gilligan's original work or the tensions experienced in contemporary nursing practice. A close reading of Gilligan's concept of mature care leads to a view that differs radically from any dichotomy of self-care and altruism. Instead of a dichotomous view, a dialectical view on self and other is proposed that builds upon connectedness and might support a care-ethical view of nursing that is more consistent with Gilligan's own critical insights such as relationality and a practice-based ethics. A concrete case taken from nursing practice shows the interconnectedness of professional and personal responsibility. This underpins a multilayered, complex view of self-realization that encompasses sacrifices as well. When mature care is characterized as a practice of a multilayered connectedness, caregivers can be acknowledged for their relational identity and nursing practices can be recognized as multilayered and interconnected. This view is better able to capture the tensions that are related to today's nursing as a practice, which inevitably includes sacrifices of self. In conclusion, a further discussion on normative conceptualizations of care is proposed that starts with a non-normative scrutiny of caring practices.

Selflessness is sexy: reported helping behaviour increases desirability of men and women as long-term sexual partners.

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Moore, David; Wigby, Stuart; English, Sinead; Wong, Sonny; Székely, Tamás; Harrison, Freya

2013-09-03

Despite its short-term costs, behaviour that appears altruistic can increase an individual's inclusive fitness by earning direct (selfish) and/or indirect (kin-selected) benefits. An evolved preference for other-regarding or helping behaviour in potential mates has been proposed as an additional mechanism by which these behaviours can yield direct fitness benefits in humans. We asked 32 heterosexual women and 35 heterosexual men to rate the attractiveness of members of the opposite sex in the presence and the absence of information about helping behaviours. Reports of helping behaviour were associated with a significant increase in the attractiveness of both men and women as potential long-term sexual partners. Altruism also increased the attractiveness of men as potential partners for short-term flings, but to a lesser extent than when the same men were being considered for long-term relationships. Altruism did not affect the attractiveness of women as partners for short-term flings. Our results unite two important areas of evolutionary theory - social evolution and sexual selection - and extend the list of means by which helping behaviours, which appear at first glance to be costly to the actor, can in fact earn direct fitness benefits. Helping behaviours may be attractive because they signal 'good genes' and/or because they are perceived as a signal of likely provision of non-genetic benefits (e.g. parental care). Exactly why helping behaviours in a non-mating context might be attractive to potential mates, and whether they are honest signals of mate quality, remains to be elucidated.

What motivates participation in violent political action: selective incentives or parochial altruism?

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Ginges, Jeremy; Atran, Scott

2009-06-01

In standard models of decision making, participation in violent political action is understood as the product of instrumentally rational reasoning. According to this line of thinking, instrumentally rational individuals will participate in violent political action only if there are selective incentives that are limited to participants. We argue in favor of an alternate model of political violence where participants are motivated by moral commitments to collective sacred values. Correlative and experimental empirical evidence in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict strongly supports this alternate view.

Altruism of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli: recent hypothesis versus experimental results

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joanna M Los

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC may cause bloody diarrhea and hemorrhagic colitis, with subsequent systemic disease. Since genes coding for Shiga toxins (stx genes are located on lambdoid prophages, their effective production occurs only after prophage induction. Such induction and subsequent lytic development of Shiga toxin-converting bacteriophages results not only in production of toxic proteins, but also in the lysis (and thus, the death of the host cell. Therefore, one may ask the question: what is the benefit for bacteria to produce the toxin if they die due to phage production and subsequent cell lysis? Recently, a hypothesis was proposed (simultaneously but independently by two research groups that STEC may benefit from Shiga toxin production as a result of toxin-dependent killing of eukaryotic cells such as unicellular predators or human leukocytes. This hypothesis could make sense only if we assume that prophage induction (and production of the toxin occurs only in a small fraction of bacterial cells, thus, a few members of the population are sacrificed for the benefit of the rest, providing an example of ‘bacterial altruism’. However, various reports indicating that the frequency of spontaneous induction of Shiga toxin-converting prophages is higher than that of other lambdoid prophages might seem to contradict the for-mentioned model. On the other hand, analysis of recently published results, discussed here, indicated that the efficiency of prophage excision under conditions that may likely occur in the natural habitat of STEC is sufficiently low to ensure survival of a large fraction of the bacterial host. A molecular mechanism by which partial prophage induction may occur is proposed. We conclude that the published data supports the proposed model of bacterial ‘altruism’ where prophage induction occurs at a low enough frequency to render toxin production a positive selective force on the general STEC population.

A psychological approach to ethics.

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De Meira Penna, J O

1985-09-01

This article has the purpose of calling attention to C.G. Jung's archetypal concept of the Self as an approach to ethics. The distinction between simple morality and transcendent ethics is established. Comparison is made between the archetype of the Self and Kant's categorical imperative. Freud's superego, however, is assimilated to a "natural" outlook on morality, such as the notion of altruism in sociobiology. The superego is only the psychic effect of the current moral code-which could be explained either culturally or as a Lamarckian acquired characteristic of the unconscious. Jung's transcendent ethics is expressed in an "ethical mandala."

[Florence Nightingale and charity sisters: revisiting the history].

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Padilha, Maria Itayra Coelho de Souza; Mancia, Joel Rolim

2005-01-01

This study presents an historical analysis on the links between the nursing practice and the influence received from various religious orders/associations along the times, especially from Saint Vincent Paul's charity sisters. The professional nursing which was pioneered by Florence Nightingale in the XlXth century, was directly influenced by the teachings of love and fraternity. In addition, other contributions from the religious orders/associations were the concepts of altruism, valorization of an adequate environment for the care of patients, and the division of work in nursing. The study shows the influence of Charity Sisters on Florence Nightingale.

A Competitive Market in Human Organs

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Danny Frederick

2010-11-01

Full Text Available I offer consequentialist and deontological arguments for a competitive market in human organs, from live as well as dead donors. I consider the objections that a market in organs will frustrate altruism, coerce the desperate, expose under-informed agents to unacceptable risks, exacerbate inequality, degrade those who participate in it, involve a kind of slavery, impose invidious costs, and impair third-party choice sets. I show that each of these objections is without merit and that, in consequence, the opposition to markets in organs is an untenable endorsement of death, suffering and the suppression of freedom.

Brood parasitic cowbird nestlings use host young to procure resources.

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Kilner, Rebecca M; Madden, Joah R; Hauber, Mark E

2004-08-06

Young brood parasites that tolerate the company of host offspring challenge the existing evolutionary view of family life. In theory, all parasitic nestlings should be ruthlessly self-interested and should kill host offspring soon after hatching. Yet many species allow host young to live, even though they are rivals for host resources. Here we show that the tolerance of host nestlings by the parasitic brown-headed cowbird Molothrus ater is adaptive. Host young procure the cowbird a higher provisioning rate, so it grows more rapidly. The cowbird's unexpected altruism toward host offspring simply promotes its selfish interests in exploiting host parents.

Population and the environment: a parable of firewood and other tales.

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Nerlove, M

1991-12-01

The author analyzes the relationship between population and the environment, with a focus on "the role which environmental degradation and natural resources depletion may play in producing the...population pressure which lies behind such degradation and depletion especially in developing countries.... The principal conclusion of this analysis is that the possibilities for a stable equilibrium between human population and its environment are quite limited....I show that parental altruism toward their children can only make matters worse, if socially unchecked, by leading to an increase of the birthrate in every environmental state in comparison with that which would occur in its absence." excerpt

Characteristics of caring self-efficacy in pediatric nurses: a qualitative study.

Science.gov (United States)

Alavi, Azam; Bahrami, Masoud; Zargham-Boroujeni, Ali; Yousefy, Alireza

2015-07-01

The present study was conducted to clarify pediatric nurses' characteristics of caring self-efficacy. This study was conducted using a qualitative content analysis approach. The participants included 27 pediatric nurses and clinical instructors, selected purposively. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and were analyzed using the content analysis method. Data analysis generated four main themes as attributes of a self-efficient pediatric nurse including: (a) professional communications; (b) management of care; (c) altruism; and (d) proficiency. Nursing managers and instructors can use these results to help develop nurses' empowerment and self-efficacy, especially in pediatric care. © 2015, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The effect of stress and personality on dangerous driving behavior among Chinese drivers.

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Ge, Yan; Qu, Weina; Jiang, Caihong; Du, Feng; Sun, Xianghong; Zhang, Kan

2014-12-01

The relationship between stress and road safety has been studied for many years, but the effect of global stress and its joint effect with personality on driving behavior have received little attention in previous studies. This study aimed to elucidate the impact of global stress and various personality traits on driving behavior. 242 drivers completed the Perceived Stress Scale-10 (PSS-10), the Dula Dangerous Driving Index (DDDI), and several personality trait scales related to anger, sensation seeking, and altruism. The results showed that perceived stress and sensation seeking were significantly correlated with the four subcategories of dangerous driving behavior, namely, negative cognitive/emotional driving (NCED), aggressive driving (AD), risky driving (RD), and drunk driving (DD). Moreover, anger was positively correlated with negative cognitive/emotional driving, aggressive driving, and risky driving, and altruism was negatively correlated with aggressive driving and drunk driving. Hierarchical multiple regressions were applied to analyze the mediating effect of personality traits, and the results showed that anger mediated the relationship between stress and dangerous driving behavior and that this mediating role was especially strong for negative cognitive/emotional driving and aggressive driving. Collectively, the results showed that stress is an important factor that can affect people's driving behavior but that personality traits mediate the effect of stress on driving behavior. The findings from this study regarding the relationship among stress, anger, and dangerous driving behavior could be applied in the development of intervention programs for stress and anger management in order to improve drivers' ability to manage emotional thoughts and adjust their behavior on the road. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Psychological resilience in U.S. military veterans: A 2-year, nationally representative prospective cohort study.

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Isaacs, Kayla; Mota, Natalie P; Tsai, Jack; Harpaz-Rotem, Ilan; Cook, Joan M; Kirwin, Paul D; Krystal, John H; Southwick, Steven M; Pietrzak, Robert H

2017-01-01

Although many cross-sectional studies have examined the correlates of psychological resilience in U.S. military veterans, few longitudinal studies have identified long-term predictors of resilience in this population. The current prospective cohort study utilized data from a nationally representative sample of 2157 U.S. military veterans who completed web-based surveys in two waves (2011 and 2013) as part of the National Health and Resilience in Veterans Study (NHRVS). Cluster analysis of cumulative lifetime exposure to potentially traumatic events and Wave 2 measures of current symptoms of posttraumatic stress, major depressive, and generalized anxiety disorders was performed to characterize different profiles of current trauma-related psychological symptoms. Different profiles were compared with respect to sociodemographic, clinical, and psychosocial characteristics. A three-group cluster analysis revealed a Control group with low lifetime trauma exposure and low current psychological distress (59.5%), a Resilient group with high lifetime trauma and low current distress (27.4%), and a Distressed group with both high trauma exposure and current distress symptoms (13.1%). These results suggest that the majority of trauma-exposed veterans (67.7%) are psychologically resilient. Compared with the Distressed group, the Resilient group was younger, more likely to be Caucasian, and scored lower on measures of physical health difficulties, past psychiatric history, and substance abuse. Higher levels of emotional stability, extraversion, dispositional gratitude, purpose in life, and altruism, and lower levels of openness to experiences predicted resilient status. Prevention and treatment efforts designed to enhance modifiable factors such as gratitude, sense of purpose, and altruism may help promote resilience in highly trauma-exposed veterans. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Social networking online to recover from opioid use disorder: A study of community interactions.

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D'Agostino, Alexandra R; Optican, Allison R; Sowles, Shaina J; Krauss, Melissa J; Escobar Lee, Kiriam; Cavazos-Rehg, Patricia A

2017-12-01

Social media has increasingly become a venue for health discourse and support, particularly for vulnerable individuals. This study examines user-generated content of an online Reddit community targeting individuals recovering from opiate addiction. 100 Reddit posts and their comments were collected from the online community on August 19, 2016. Posts were qualitatively coded for opioid use disorder (OUD) criteria as outlined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), as well as other common themes. Comments were coded for expression of distinct therapeutic factors (i.e., instillation of hope, universality, imparting information, and altruism). All posts and comments were coded for addiction phase of the author (i.e., using, withdrawing, recovering). 73 unique usernames authored the 100 posts. Among the 73 usernames, 33% (24/73) described enough symptoms in their posts to meet DSM-V criteria for OUD (16/73 or 22% mild severity, 7/73 or 10% moderate severity, and 1/73 or 1% high severity. Among the 100 posts, advice was requested in 43% (43/100) of the posts and support was sought in 24% (24/100) of the posts. There were 511 comments made on the 100 posts, nearly all of which contained at least one distinct therapeutic factor (486/511, 95%) with altruism being the most common (341/511, 67%). This research provides validity to the supportive content generated on an online recovery-oriented community, while also revealing discussions of self-reported struggles with OUD among group members. Future research should explore the feasibility of incorporating social media-based peer support into traditional addiction treatments. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Students' satisfaction with a dental summer programme and importance of influencing factors for choosing dentistry as their career.

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Suen, R P C; Lai, S M L; Bridges, S; Chu, C H

2014-05-01

To study the students' satisfaction with the week-long summer programme and the importance of common influencing factors (IFs) for choosing dentistry as their career. Anonymous questionnaire was given to all 214 participants in July of 2011 and 2012. Demographic information including gender, age and education level was collected. The students were asked about their satisfaction with the programme with separate ratings for learning experiences, including hands-on workshops (HOW); clinic observations (CO); problem-based learning tutorials (PBL); and lectures (L). They also rated the relative importance of the ten common IFs. The Friedman test was used to study the order of their preferences of the programme's activities. The Chi-square test was used to study the influence of their demographic factors on the importance of the IFs. A total of 208 students returned their questionnaires. The majority were below the age of 18 (81%), and 44% were studying in an international school. Most of the students (96%) were satisfied with the programme overall. They liked the HOWs and COs more than the PBL tutorials and Ls. 'Altruism' and 'medical/health care career' were the two most important IFs overall. 'Altruism' and 'past experience with dentist' were considered more important by those aged 18 or above. 'Past experience with dentist' and 'working with hands' were considered more important by the international school students. Most participants were satisfied with the summer programme. They preferred practical, skill-based activities to knowledge-based activities. The importance of some IFs was associated with age and education system. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Moral emotions as determinants of third-party punishment

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Rob M. A. Nelissen

2009-12-01

Full Text Available Third-party punishment has recently received attention as an explanation for human altruism. Feelings of anger in response to norm violations are assumed to motivate third-party sanctions, yet there is only sparse and indirect support for this idea. We investigated the impact of both anger and guilt feelings on third-party sanctions. In two studies both emotions were independently manipulated. Results show that anger and guilt independently constitute sufficient but not necessary causes of punishment. Low levels of punishment are observed only when neither emotion is elicited. We discuss the implications of these findings for the functions of altruistic sanctions.

Charitable giving and reflexive individuals: How personal reflexivity mediates between structure and agency.

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Sanghera, Balihar

2017-03-01

This article examines how individuals are reflexive beings who interpret the world in relation to things that matter to them, and how charitable acts are evaluated and embedded in their lives with different degrees of meaning and importance. Rather than framing the discussion of charitable practices in terms of an altruism/egoism binary or imputing motivations and values to social structures, the article explains how reflexivity is an important and neglected dimension of social practices, and how it interacts with sympathy, sentiments and discourses to shape giving. The study also shows that there are different modes of reflexivity, which have varied effects on charity and volunteering.

Citizenship and withdrawal in the workplace: relationship between organizational citizenship behavior, intention to leave current job and intention to leave the organization.

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Paillé, Pascal; Grima, François

2011-01-01

This study investigates the relationship between organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and employee intention to leave the organization and current job using a sample of French employees. A survey was sent to 1,200 alumni of a business school in France. Participation in the study was voluntary. The participants were 355 working adults with French citizenship. This paper provides several interesting findings. While no relationship was found between altruism and intention to leave both the organization and the current job, sportsmanship, civic virtue and helping others emerged as the strongest predictors of intention to leave the organization and intention to leave the current job. Results are discussed.

The heritability of blood donation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pedersen, Ole Birger; Axel, Skytthe; Rostgaard, Klaus

2015-01-01

active Danish blood donors from 2002 to 2012, to establish blood donor status for Danish twins, who at age 17 years became eligible for donation in 2002 or later. Casewise concordance in monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins were presented and heritability was estimated in Mx by variance component...... to donate blood, respectively. CONCLUSION: Becoming a volunteer blood donor is determined by both genetic and environmental factors shared within families.......BACKGROUND: Voluntary blood donation is believed to be mostly motivated by altruism. Because studies have suggested that altruistic personality is determined by both genetic and environmental factors, we speculated that willingness to donate blood could also be governed by constitutional factors...

Reasons for Doing Good: Behavioural Explanations of Prosociality in Economics

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Magdalena Adamus

2017-06-01

Full Text Available This paper discusses issues of altruism and prosocial behaviour within economics. The first part discusses relations between understanding of expected utility theory and features of an economic man. It also defines the most important properties of the game and provides some simple solutions. The second part includes a critical overview of selected and increasingly complex concepts explaining the phenomenon of prosocial behaviour. It begins with models focusing only on final allocations and ends with those studying the role of intentions, motivations and social status of agents. It also shows how needs, social conditions, norms and individual characteristics affect the propensity to behave prosocially.

A Closer Look at Transcendence and Its Relationship to Mental Health.

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Peteet, John R

2018-04-01

Experiences of transcendence can promote growth, creativity and altruism, but often exist in tension with critical thought and can feature problematically in certain mental disorders. Identification of the core elements in the experience of transcendence-suspending disbelief, being moved or inspired, surrendering oneself and identifying within a larger context, can clarify its relationship to psychopathology, and the basis for a clinician's role. To help individuals engage transcendent resources well, clinicians can help patients recognize how depression and trauma may interfere with engagement, masochistic and magical tendencies may distort healthy self-surrender, and vulnerability to social pressure may interfere with mature identification with a larger context or community.

ONLINE PRODUCT PURCHASE WITH DONATION PURPOSES: THE ROLE OF DONATION MOTIVATIONS AND ONLINE PURCHASE ELEMENTS ON PURCHASE INTENTION

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Muhammet Ali TİLTAY

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Nonprofit organizations provide products and services via online shopping websites in order to procure financial sources. The consumers that purchase these products and services both make donations and fulfill their needs. This study examines the role of donation motivations and online purchase elements on purchase intention. The study, which has been conducted via taking the online store of the Foundation for Children with Leukemia, lsvdukkan.com, has found out that the online purchase elements (trust, usefulness, interactivity and altruism motivation are effective on purchase intention. The results of the study will be able to create effective sale strategies for the online stores of nonprofit organizations.

From altruism to monetisation: Australian women's ideas about money, ethics and research eggs.

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Waldby, Catherine; Kerridge, Ian; Boulos, Margaret; Carroll, Katherine

2013-10-01

We report the results of a qualitative study carried out in metropolitan Australia between 2009 and 2011 that canvassed the issue of payment for research oöcyte donation with participants drawn from three potential donor groups; fertility patients, reproductive donors and young, non-patient women. Research oöcytes are controversial tissues because women around the world have proved largely unwilling to donate them altruistically. In the ensuing international debate about procurement, the issue of money and its appropriate and inappropriate uses in tissue donation has taken centre stage. While there is now an abundance of expert commentary on this matter, there are almost no studies that probe this issue with potential donor populations. Our study asked the three groups of women about their understandings of altruistic, reimbursed, subsidised, compensated and paid donation for both reproductive and research eggs. We identify a resistance to the introduction of money into the sphere of reproductive donation, which the majority of respondents felt should remain an area of personalised gift relations. In the area of research donation we find a strong relationship between degrees of liquidity (the extent to which money is constrained or unconstrained) and a sense of ethical appropriateness. We also describe a culturally specific sense of fairness and equity among participants, associated with the relatively high public subsidisation of fertility treatment in Australia, which they used to benchmark their sense of appropriate and inappropriate uses of money. While the participant responses reflect the regulatory environment in Australia, particularly the absence of a US style market in reproductive oöcytes, they also make an important contribution to the global debate. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Understanding amygdala responsiveness to fearful expressions through the lens of psychopathy and altruism.

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Marsh, Abigail A

2016-06-01

Because the face is the central focus of human social interactions, emotional facial expressions provide a unique window into the emotional lives of others. They play a particularly important role in fostering empathy, which entails understanding and responding to others' emotions, especially distress-related emotions such as fear. This Review considers how fearful facial as well as vocal and postural expressions are interpreted, with an emphasis on the role of the amygdala. The amygdala may be best known for its role in the acquisition and expression of conditioned fear, but it also supports the perception and recognition of others' fear. Various explanations have been supplied for the amygdala's role in interpreting and responding to fearful expressions. They include theories that amygdala responses to fearful expressions 1) reflect heightened vigilance in response to uncertain danger, 2) promote heightened attention to the eye region of faces, 3) represent a response to an unconditioned aversive stimulus, or 4) reflect the generation of an empathic fear response. Among these, only empathic fear explains why amygdala lesions would impair fear recognition across modalities. Supporting the possibility of a link between fundamental empathic processes and amygdala responses to fear is evidence that impaired fear recognition in psychopathic individuals results from amygdala dysfunction, whereas enhanced fear recognition in altruistic individuals results from enhanced amygdala function. Empathic concern and caring behaviors may be fostered by sensitivity to signs of acute distress in others, which relies on intact functioning of the amygdala. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The association between religiousness and children's altruism: The role of the recipient's neediness.

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Sabato, Hagit; Kogut, Tehila

2018-03-29

We examined the role of the recipient's neediness as a moderator in the relation between children's household religiosity and prosocial behavior. Examining the behavior of children (2nd and 5th graders) from religious and nonreligious households in the dictator game, we found that the extent of sharing did not differ significantly between the 2 groups when the recipient was not described as needy. However, when the recipient was presented as a poor (needy) child, the religious group exhibited significantly more sharing behavior. Although the religious children's tendency to share more with needy recipients compared with the not-needy ones appeared already in the 2nd grade, it increased with age as children grew and internalized the norms of their immediate society. Among the major religions, the recipient's neediness is an important variable in the decision to give, which shapes religious children's prosocial behavior from an early age. Thus, future research should take this moderator into account when studying the relation between religiousness and prosociality in general and in the development of prosociality in children in particular. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Altruism and Indirect Reciprocity: The Interaction of Person and Situation in Prosocial Behavior

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Simpson, Brent; Willer, Robb

2008-01-01

A persistent puzzle in the social and biological sciences is the existence of prosocial behavior, actions that benefit others, often at a cost to oneself. Recent theoretical models and empirical studies of indirect reciprocity show that actors behave prosocially in order to develop an altruistic reputation and receive future benefits from third…

Egoism, altruism, and social justice : theory and experiments on cooperation in social dilemmas

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vries, Sjerp de

1991-01-01

Cooperative or altruistic behavior in the absence of egoistic incentives is an issue that has puzzled many social scientists. In this book an attempt is made to gain more insight into such behavior for a specific type of situation: the social dilemma. ...

Socio-demographic and fertility-related characteristics and motivations of oocyte donors in eleven European countries.

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Pennings, G; de Mouzon, J; Shenfield, F; Ferraretti, A P; Mardesic, T; Ruiz, A; Goossens, V

2014-05-01

donors was 47.8% pure altruism, 33.9% altruism and financial, 10.8% pure financial, 5.9% altruism and own treatment and finally 2% own treatment only. About 15% of the donors were egg sharers (patient donors), mainly from the UK and Poland. Women were donating for the first time in 55.4% of cases, for the second time in 20.3% and for the third time in 12.8%. The motivation to donate was significantly related to being of foreign origin (P rate may have led to a bias in donor characteristics. A possible effect of social desirability in the answers by the donors should be taken into account. The diversity of the donor population reflects the differences in European legislation (for example, on anonymity and payment) and economic circumstances. The differences in systems of reimbursement/payment demonstrate the need to have a thorough discussion on the specific meaning of these terms. The study was funded by the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology. The authors declare no conflicting interests.

The gender gap in relation to happiness and preferences in married couples after childbirth: evidence from a field experiment in rural Ghana.

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Kamiya, Yusuke; Akpalu, Bright; Mahama, Emmanuel; Ayipah, Emmanuel Kwesi; Owusu-Agyei, Seth; Hodgson, Abraham; Shibanuma, Akira; Kikuchi, Kimiyo; Jimba, Masamine

2017-03-15

How does the gap in preferences between married couples affect their happiness after childbirth? Are couples that share similar preferences happier? In recent years, gender, marriage, and happiness have been considered to be key issues in public health research. Although much research has examined the happiness status of married couples, practically no study has explored the gender gap in relation to happiness and the preferences of married couples after childbirth. Therefore, our study was conducted to assess the association between the preference gap and the happiness status among married couples in the afterbirth period. We conducted a field experiment in rural communities in the Brong-Ahafo region of Ghana. Participants were 80 married couples who had experienced childbirth within 2 years prior to the survey. As preference indicators, we measured trust, reciprocity, altruism, and risk lovingness through an economic experiment. Then, we assessed how, for a couple, the gap between these preferences affected their happiness. Wives' happiness was positively associated with the absolute value of the gap in risk lovingness between a couple (OR = 4.83, p = 0.08), while husbands' happiness was negatively associated with the gap in trust (OR = -3.58, p = 0.04) or altruism (OR = -3.33, p = 0.02). Within a couple, wives felt greater happiness than their husbands if there was a wider gap in trust (OR = 6.22, p = 0.01), reciprocity (OR = 2.80, p = 0.01), or risk lovingness (OR = 3.81, p = 0.07). The gender gaps in the preference indicators were found to be closely associated with the happiness levels between married couples after childbirth. For the further improvement of maternal and child health, we must consider the gender gaps between couples in relation to happiness and preferences.

Strategies for Enhancing Family Participation in Research in the ICU: Findings From a Qualitative Study.

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Dotolo, Danae; Nielsen, Elizabeth L; Curtis, J Randall; Engelberg, Ruth A

2017-08-01

Family members of critically ill patients who participate in research focused on palliative care issues have been found to be systematically different from those who do not. These differences threaten the validity of research and raise ethical questions about worsening disparities in care by failing to represent diverse perspectives. This study's aims were to explore: 1) barriers and facilitators influencing family members' decisions to participate in palliative care research; and 2) potential methods to enhance research participation. Family members who were asked to participate in a randomized trial testing the efficacy of a facilitator to improve clinician-family communication in the intensive care unit (ICU). Family members who participated (n = 17) and those who declined participation (n = 7) in Family Communication Study were interviewed about their recruitment experiences. We also included family members of currently critically ill patients to assess current experiences (n = 4). Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed. Investigators used thematic analysis to identify factors influencing family members' decisions. Transcripts were co-reviewed to synthesize codes and themes. Three factors influencing participants' decisions were identified: Altruism, Research Experience, and Enhanced Resources. Altruism and Research Experience described intrinsic characteristics that are less amenable to strategies for improving participation rates. Enhanced Resources reflects families' desires for increased access to information and logistical and emotional support. Family members found their recruitment experiences to be positive when staff were knowledgeable about the ICU, sensitive to the stressful circumstances, and conveyed a caring attitude. By training research staff to be supportive of families' emotional needs and need for logistical knowledge about the ICU, recruitment of a potentially more diverse sample of families may be enhanced. Copyright © 2017

Do gray wolves (Canis lupus) support pack mates during aggressive inter-pack interactions?

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Cassidy, Kira A; McIntyre, Richard T

2016-09-01

For group-living mammals, social coordination increases success in everything from hunting and foraging (Crofoot and Wrangham in Mind the Gap, Springer, Berlin, 2010; Bailey et al. in Behav Ecol Sociobiol 67:1-17, 2013) to agonism (Mosser and Packer in Anim Behav 78:359-370, 2009; Wilson et al. in Anim Behav 83:277-291, 2012; Cassidy et al. in Behav Ecol 26:1352-1360, 2015). Cooperation is found in many species and, due to its low costs, likely is a determining factor in the evolution of living in social groups (Smith in Anim Behav 92:291-304, 2014). Beyond cooperation, many mammals perform costly behaviors for the benefit of group mates (e.g., parental care, food sharing, grooming). Altruism is considered the most extreme case of cooperation where the altruist increases the fitness of the recipient while decreasing its own fitness (Bell in Selection: the mechanism of evolution. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2008). Gray wolf life history requires intra-pack familiarity, communication, and cooperation in order to succeed in hunting (MacNulty et al. in Behav Ecol doi: 10.1093/beheco/arr159 2011) and protecting group resources (Stahler et al. in J Anim Ecol 82: 222-234, 2013; Cassidy et al. in Behav Ecol 26:1352-1360, 2015). Here, we report 121 territorial aggressive inter-pack interactions in Yellowstone National Park between 1 April 1995 and 1 April 2011 (>5300 days of observation) and examine each interaction where one wolf interferes when its pack mate is being attacked by a rival group. This behavior was recorded six times (17.6 % of interactions involving an attack) and often occurred between dyads of closely related individuals. We discuss this behavior as it relates to the evolution of cooperation, sociality, and altruism.

Motives for participating in a clinical research trial: a pilot study in Brazil.

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Nappo, Solange A; Iafrate, Giovanna B; Sanchez, Zila M

2013-01-10

In the past, clinical study participants have suffered from the experiments that they were subjected to. Study subjects may not understand the study process or may participate in clinical studies because they do not have access to medical care. The objectives of the present study were 1. to analyze the motives that might cause a volunteer to participate as a study subject; 2. to identify the social-demographic profile of this study subjects; and 3. to determine whether the motives to volunteer as a study subject are in accordance with the established legal and ethical principles for research in Brazil. Mixed-methods research was used (a qualitative-quantitative approach). A sample of 80 volunteers underwent a semi-structured interview, which was based on a survey script that was elaborated from discussions with key informants. The sample was randomly selected from a database of clinical study volunteers that was provided by Brazilian clinical study centers. The interviews were recorded and transcribed. Descriptive statistics were used for content analysis, including contingency tables with hypothesis testing. The motivations for clinical study participation were linked to types of benefit. The most frequently encountered motivations were financial gain and therapeutic alternative. Altruism was not a common motivator, and when altruism was present, it was observed as a secondary motivator. All participants reported that they understood the Informed Consent Statement (ICS). However, only two parts of the form were remembered by all of the volunteers: the section on being able to leave the study at any point and the section that stated that there would be some responsible professional at their disposal for the entirety of the study. The present study shows that study participants are primarily motivated by personal benefit when volunteering to participate in clinical studies. Whether these study participants had an integral understanding of the ICS is not clear.

Towards compassionate care through aesthetic rationality.

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Fisher, Pamela; Freshwater, Dawn

2014-12-01

The Francis Report, which was based on the investigation of complaints regarding standards of care in the Staffordshire NHS Trust in the UK, was published in 2013. The Report revealed that while the Trust appeared to be compliant with the standards set by official regulating bodies, the quality of care provided to patients was often appalling. While the Report constituted a 'critical moment' in health care, its findings resonated with widespread concern in the UK and elsewhere that health care is sometimes characterised by a lack of compassion. The Francis Report partially attributed this lack of compassion to a task-based culture which tended to prioritise the meeting of targets over the quality of care provided to patients. Older patients, in particular, were identified as being vulnerable to neglect. This qualitative study of hospice volunteers responds to concerns regarding the quality of organisational forms of care by considering how motivations to care may be sustained and enhanced within organisational contexts. Charitable and third sector organisations, such as the hospice in this study, have been identified as potentially relevant to other health and social care contexts precisely because they emphasise values such as altruism and goodwill. Our sociological approach suggests that altruism or compassion can be encouraged within contexts that emphasise a sociability of care. We argue that a sociability of care may be encouraged in organisational contexts if dominant understandings of rationality are extended through the incorporation of aesthetic rationality, a feminist perspective taken from Roslyn Bologh. This, however, would require a degree of authentic emotional engagement on the part of formal caregivers, which is more typically associated with relationships in the private sphere. © 2014 Nordic College of Caring Science.

Genetic clusters and sex-biased gene flow in a unicolonial Formica ant

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Chapuisat Michel

2009-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Animal societies are diverse, ranging from small family-based groups to extraordinarily large social networks in which many unrelated individuals interact. At the extreme of this continuum, some ant species form unicolonial populations in which workers and queens can move among multiple interconnected nests without eliciting aggression. Although unicoloniality has been mostly studied in invasive ants, it also occurs in some native non-invasive species. Unicoloniality is commonly associated with very high queen number, which may result in levels of relatedness among nestmates being so low as to raise the question of the maintenance of altruism by kin selection in such systems. However, the actual relatedness among cooperating individuals critically depends on effective dispersal and the ensuing pattern of genetic structuring. In order to better understand the evolution of unicoloniality in native non-invasive ants, we investigated the fine-scale population genetic structure and gene flow in three unicolonial populations of the wood ant F. paralugubris. Results The analysis of geo-referenced microsatellite genotypes and mitochondrial haplotypes revealed the presence of cryptic clusters of genetically-differentiated nests in the three populations of F. paralugubris. Because of this spatial genetic heterogeneity, members of the same clusters were moderately but significantly related. The comparison of nuclear (microsatellite and mitochondrial differentiation indicated that effective gene flow was male-biased in all populations. Conclusion The three unicolonial populations exhibited male-biased and mostly local gene flow. The high number of queens per nest, exchanges among neighbouring nests and restricted long-distance gene flow resulted in large clusters of genetically similar nests. The positive relatedness among clustermates suggests that kin selection may still contribute to the maintenance of altruism in unicolonial

Career choices in health care: is nursing a special case? A content analysis of survey data.

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Miers, Margaret E; Rickaby, Caroline E; Pollard, Katherine C

2007-09-01

As demand for nurses and other health professionals continues to outstrip supply it is important to understand what motivates individuals to join a non-medical health profession. The objectives of this study were to investigate students' reasons for choosing a particular nursing specialism, midwifery or other non-medical health profession, and to compare motivation factors across professions, gender, age, level of award, prior qualifications, prior experience and over time. A prospective follow-up study collected survey responses at the beginning and end of pre-qualifying professional programmes. The study took place in one large United Kingdom faculty. The study participants were 775 first-year students undertaking non-medical health professional programmes and 393 qualifying students. An open-ended question was included in a self-completed questionnaire administered at entry and at qualification. Content analysis identified themes. Altruism was the most frequently cited reason for wishing to join a non-medical health profession, followed by personal interest/abilities, professional values/rewards, and prior experience of the area. Students entering nursing were less likely to cite an altruistic motivation than those entering other non-medical health professions (chi(2)=21.61, df=1, pvalues/rewards (chi(2)=20.38, df=8, p=0.009). Students on degree level programmes were more likely to report altruism than those on diploma level courses (chi(2)=17.37, df=1, pvalues/rewards (chi(2)=6.67, p=0.010) decreased over time. Findings suggest that although a service orientation remains a key factor in choosing nursing, students also look for a career which matches their interests and attributes, as well as offering professional values and rewards. Nursing may be in danger of losing service orientated recruits to other non-medical health professions.

Interspecific reciprocity explains mobbing behaviour of the breeding chaffinches, Fringilla coelebs.

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Krams, Indrikis; Krama, Tatjana

2002-01-01

When prey animals discover a predator close by, they mob it while uttering characteristic sounds that attract other prey individuals to the vicinity. Mobbing causes a predator to vacate its immediate foraging area, which gives an opportunity for prey individuals to continue their interrupted daily activity. Besides the increased benefits, mobbing behaviour also has its costs owing to injuries or death. The initiator of mobbing may be at increased risk of predation by attracting the predator's attention, especially if not joined by other neighbouring prey individuals. Communities of breeding birds have always been considered as temporal aggregations. Since an altruist could not prevent cheaters from exploiting its altruism in an anonymous community, this excluded any possibility of explaining mobbing behaviour in terms of reciprocal altruism. However, sedentary birds may have become acquainted since the previous non-breeding season. Migrant birds, forming anonymous communities at the beginning of the breeding season, may also develop closer social ties during the course of the breeding season. We tested whether a male chaffinch, a migrant bird, would initiate active harassment of a predator both at the beginning of the breeding season and a week later when it has become a member of a non-anonymous multi-species aggregation of sedentary birds. We expected that male chaffinches would be less likely to initiate a mob at the beginning of the breeding season when part of an anonymous multi-species aggregation of migratory birds. However, their mobbing activity should increase as the breeding season advances. Our results support these predictions. Cooperation among individuals belonging to different species in driving the predator away may be explained as interspecific reciprocity based on interspecific recognition and temporal stability of the breeding communities. PMID:12495502

Controversies in hybrid banking: attitudes of Swiss public umbilical cord blood donors toward private and public banking.

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Manegold, Gwendolin; Meyer-Monard, Sandrine; Tichelli, André; Granado, Christina; Hösli, Irene; Troeger, Carolyn

2011-07-01

Umbilical cord blood (UCB) stored in public inventories has become an alternative stem cell source for allogeneic stem cell transplantation. The potential use of autologous UCB from private banks is a matter of debate. In the face of the limited resources of public inventories, a discussion on "hybrid" public and private UCB banking has evolved. We aimed to explore the attitudes of the donating parents toward public and private UCB banking. A standardized, anonymous questionnaire was sent to the most recent 621 public UCB donors including items regarding satisfaction with recruitment process, the need for a second consent before release of the UCB unit for stem cell transplantation, and the donors' views on public and private UCB banking. Furthermore, we asked about their views on UCB research. Of the questionnaires, 48% were returned, and 16% were lost due to mail contact. Of our donors, 95% would donate to the public bank again. As much as 35% of them were convinced that public banking was useful. Whereas 27% had never heard about private UCB banking, 34% discussed both options. Nearly 70% of donors opted for public banking due to altruism and the high costs of private banking. Of our public UCB donors, 81% stated that they did not need a re-consent before UCB release for stem cell transplantation. In case of sample rejection, 53.5% wanted to know details about the particular research project. A total of 9% would not consent. Almost all donors would choose public banking again due to altruism and the high costs of private banking. Shortly after donation, mail contact with former UCB donors was difficult. This might be a relevant issue in any sequential hybrid banking.

Gender and Competition in Adolescence

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dreber, Anna; Essen, Emma von; Ranehill, Eva

2013-01-01

We look at gender differences among adolescents in Sweden in preferences for competition, altruism and risk. For competitiveness, we explore two different tasks that differ in associated stereotypes. We find no gender difference in competitiveness when comparing performance under competition...... to that without competition. We further find that boys and girls are equally likely to self-select into competition in a verbal task, but that boys are significantly more likely to choose to compete in a mathematical task. This gender gap diminishes and becomes nonsignificant when we control for actual...... performance, beliefs about relative performance, and risk preferences, or for beliefs only. Girls are also more altruistic and less risk taking than boys....

Motivations and Benefits of Student Volunteering: Comparing Regular, Occasional, and Non-Volunteers in Five Countries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Karen Smith

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Programmes targeting student volunteering and service learning are part of encouraging civic behaviour amongst young people. This article reports on a large scale international survey comparing volunteering amongst tertiary students at universities in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. The data revealed high rates of student volunteering and the popularity of occasional or episodic volunteering. There were strong commonalities in student volunteering behaviour, motivations and benefits across the five Western predominately English-speaking countries. Altruism and self-orientated career motivations and benefits were most important to students; however volunteering and non-volunteering students differed in the relative value they attached to volunteering for CV-enhancement and social factors.

An experiment on individual ‘parochial altruism’ revealing no connection between individual ‘altruism’ and individual ‘parochialism’

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Corr, Philip J.; Hargreaves Heap, Shaun P.; Seger, Charles R.; Tsutsui, Kei

2015-01-01

Is parochial altruism an attribute of individual behavior? This is the question we address with an experiment. We examine whether the individual pro-sociality that is revealed in the public goods and trust games when interacting with fellow group members helps predict individual parochialism, as measured by the in-group bias (i.e., the difference in these games in pro-sociality when interacting with own group members as compared with members of another group). We find that it is not. An examination of the Big-5 personality predictors of each behavior reinforces this result: they are different. In short, knowing how pro-social individuals are with respect to fellow group members does not help predict their parochialism. PMID:26347703

Applying threshold models to donations to a green electricity fund

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ito, Nobuyuki; Takeuchi, Kenji; Tsuge, Takahiro; Kishimoto, Atsuo

2010-01-01

This study applies a threshold model proposed by to analyze the diffusion process of donating behavior for renewable energy. We first use a stated preference survey to estimate the determinants of a decision to support the donation scheme under various predicted participation rates. Using the estimated coefficients, we simulate how herd behavior spreads and the participation rate reaches the equilibrium. The participation rate at the equilibrium is estimated as 37.88% when the suggested donation is 500 yen, while it is 17.76% when the suggested amount is 1000 yen. The influence of environmentalism and altruism is also examined, and we find that these motivations increase the participation rate by 31.51% on average.

Moral competence as a positive youth development construct: conceptual bases and implications for curriculum development.

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Ma, Hing Keung

2006-01-01

Moral competence refers to the orientation to perform altruistic behavior and the ability to judge moral issues logically, consistently and at an advanced level of development. A brief review of the concepts of altruism and justice is presented. The gender and cultural issues are also discussed. The contents of moral competence program units include four major topics: (1) Fairness, (2) Proper conduct (mainly altruistic and prosocial orientation), (3) Responsibility and altruistic orientation, and (4) Integrity and fairness. The general goal is to help students to develop an altruistic orientation and a judgment structure of a high level of justice. This paper is part of the development of the positive youth development program in Hong Kong.

The Interfamilial Principle and the Harvest Festival.

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Cherkassky, Lisa

2016-03-01

It is widely accepted that younger children can act as saviour siblings by donating cord blood or bone marrow to their gravely-ill brothers or sisters. However, it is under dispute whether these procedures are in the best interests of the child. This article suggests that parents may be relying on a thinly-veiled interfamilial approach, where the wider benefit to the whole family is used to justify the procedure to the Human Tissue Authority in the United Kingdom. This article suggests that the merging of familial interests to validate a non-therapeutic bone marrow harvest on a child forces altruism in a patient too young to understand, rendering the harvests unlawful under current law.

Evolution of tag-based cooperation with emotion on complex networks

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Lima, F. W. S.

2018-04-01

We study the evolution of the four strategies: Ethnocentric, altruistic, egoistic and cosmopolitan in one community of individuals through Monte Carlo simulations. Interactions and reproduction among computational agents are simulated on undirected Barabási-Albert (UBA) networks and Erdös-Rènyi random graphs (ER).We study the Hammond-Axelrod model on both UBA networks and ER random graphs for the asexual reproduction case. We use a modified version of the traditional Hammond-Axelrod model and we also allow the agents’ decisions about one of the strategies to take into account the emotion among their equals. Our simulations showed that egoism and altruism win, differently from other results found in the literature where ethnocentric strategy is common.

Punishment in the form of shared cost promotes altruism in the cooperative dilemma games.

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Zhang, Chunyan; Zhu, Yuying; Chen, Zengqiang; Zhang, Jianlei

2017-05-07

One phenomenon or social institution often observed in multi-agent interactions is the altruistic punishment, i.e. the punishment of unfair behavior by others at a personal cost. Inspired by the works focusing on punishment and the intricate mechanism behind it, we theoretically study the strategy evolution in the framework of two-strategy game models with the punishment on defectors, moreover, the cost of punishing will be evenly shared among the cooperators. Theoretical computations suggest that larger punishment on defectors or smaller punishment cost incurred by cooperators will enhance the fixation of altruistic cooperation in the population. Through the replicate dynamics, the group size of the randomly selected individuals from the sufficiently large population will notably affect the strategy evolution in populations nested within a dilemma. By theoretical modeling the concept of shared cost for punishment from one point of view, our findings underscore the importance of punishment with shared cost as a factor in real-life decisions in an evolutionary game context. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

'It seemed churlish not to': How living non-directed kidney donors construct their altruism.

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Challenor, Julianna; Watts, Jay

2014-07-01

Our objective was to explore how prospective altruistic kidney donors construct their decision to donate. Using a qualitative design and biographical-narrative semi-structured interviews, we aimed to produce text for analysis on two levels: the social implications for subjectivity and practice and a tentative psychodynamic explanation of the participants' psychological investment in the discourses they used. A total of six prospective altruistic kidney donors were interviewed. A psychosocial approach to the analysis was taken. In-depth discourse analysis integrated Foucauldian with psycho-discursive approaches and psychodynamic theory was applied to sections of text in which participants seemed to have particular emotional investment. Analysis generated three major discursive themes: other-oriented, rational and self-oriented discourses. The desire to donate was experienced as compelling by participants. Participants used discourses to position themselves as concerned with the needs of the recipient, to resist questioning and criticism, and to manage difficult feelings around mortality. Participants tended to reject personal motivations for altruistic donation, positioning relatives' disapproval as selfish and illogical. These results suggest that the term 'altruistic' for living non-directed organ donation constrains available discourses, severely limiting what can be said, felt, thought and done by donors, clinicians and the public. A more useful approach would acknowledge potential psychological motives and gains for the donor. © The Author(s) 2013.

Altruism, egoism, or neither: A cognitive-efficiency-based evolutionary biological perspective on helping behavior.

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Schulz, Armin W

2016-04-01

I argue for differences in the cognitive efficiency of different psychologies underlying helping behavior, and present an account of the adaptive pressures that result from these differences. Specifically, I argue that organisms often face pressure to move away from only being egoistically motivated to help: non-egoistic organisms are often able to determine how to help other organisms more quickly and with less recourse to costly cognitive resources like concentration and attention. Furthermore, I also argue that, while these pressures away from pure egoism can lead to the evolution of altruists, they can also lead to the evolution of reciprocation-focused behaviorist helpers or even of reflex-driven helpers (who are neither altruists nor egoists). In this way, I seek to broaden the set of considerations typically taken into account when assessing the evolution of the psychology of helping behavior-which tend to be restricted to matters of reliability-and also try to make clearer the role of evolutionary biological considerations in the discussion of this apparently straightforwardly psychological phenomenon. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A lifespan perspective on attachment and care for others: Empathy, altruism, and prosocial behavior

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Shaver, P.R.; Mikulincer, M.; Gross, J.T.; Stern, J.A.; Cassidy, J.A.; Cassidy, J.; Shaver, P.R.

2016-01-01

Attachment theory (Bowlby, 1969/1982, 1973, 1980) is, at its core, a theory of prosocial behavior. It explains how, in early childhood, interactions with mindful, caring, and supportive parental figures ("attachment figures") create and solidify children's positive mental representations of others

Developmental Changes in Verbal and Behavioral Sensitivity to Cues of Social Norms of Altruism.

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Peterson, Lizette

1980-01-01

Kindergarten, third- and sixth-grade children indicated verbally that giving in response to dependency cues was more meritorious than giving in expectation of reciprocity. When provided an opportunity to choose between giving to dependents or those who could reciprocate, children chose to help others who could reciprocate. Further experimentation…

In love and war: altruism, norm formation, and two different types of group selection.

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van Veelen, Matthijs; Hopfensitz, Astrid

2007-12-21

We analyse simulations reported in "The co-evolution of individual behaviors and social institutions" by Bowles et al., 2003 in the Journal of Theoretical Biology 223, 135-147, and begin with distinguishing two types of group selection models. The literature does not provide different names for them, but they are shown to be fundamentally different and have quite different empirical implications. The working of the first one depends on the answer to the question "is the probability that you also are an altruist large enough", while the other needs an affirmative answer to "are our interests enough in line". The first one therefore can also be understood as a kin selection model, while the working of the second can also be described in terms of the direct benefits. The actual simulation model is a combination of the two. It is also a Markov chain, which has important implications for how the output data should be handled.

In love and war: altruism, norm formation, and two different types of group selection

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van Veelen, C.M.; Hopfensitz, A.

2007-01-01

We analyse simulations reported in "The co-evolution of individual behaviors and social institutions" by Bowles et al., 2003 in the Journal of Theoretical Biology 223, 135-147, and begin with distinguishing two types of group selection models. The literature does not provide different names for

A study on relationship between female employees’ organizational citizenship behavior and job satisfaction within organization

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Majid Iranshahi

2013-09-01

Full Text Available This paper presents an investigation to assess the relationship between female employees’ organizational citizenship behavior and job satisfaction within organization. A questionnaire is designed and distributed among employees who work in city of Qom, Iran and after analyzing the responses by SPSS software program, the relationships between variables are assessed by Pearson test after confirming the normality of the data using Kolmogrov-Smirnov test. The results of the studies reflect a strong relationship between citizen-organization behavior of female employees and job satisfaction. In addition, the survey examines six sub-hypotheses and confirms that there are positive and meaningful relationships between female employees’ custom, altruism, work consciousness, mutual coordination, fairness and courtesy on one side and job satisfaction on the other side.

An experiment on individual ‘parochial altruism’ revealing no connection between individual ‘altruism’ and individual ‘parochialism’

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Shaun eHargreaves Heap

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Is parochial altruism an attribute of individual behaviour? This is the question we address with an experiment. We examine whether the individual pro-sociality that is revealed in the public goods and trust games when interacting with fellow group members helps predict individual parochialism, as measured by the in-group bias (i.e., the difference in these games in pro-sociality when interacting with own group members as compared with members of another group. We find that it is not. An examination of the Big 5 personality predictors of each behaviour reinforces this result: they are different. In short, knowing how ‘nice’ individuals are with respect to fellow group members does not help predict their parochialism.

ETIKA BISNIS AL-GHAZALI DAN ADAM SMITH DALAM PERSPEKTIF ILMU BISNIS DAN EKONOMI

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AM. M. Hafidz MS.

2013-05-01

Full Text Available Penelitian ini adalah untuk mengeksplorasi: (1 pembangunan etika bisnis yang telah dirumuskan oleh al-Ghazali dan Adam Smith, (2 persamaan dan perbedaan antara dua etika bisnis pria, dan (3 relevansi bisnis mereka etika bisnis modern dunia dan ekonomi. Bisnis etika dibangun oleh al-Ghazali dan Smith di dataran praksis tidak jauh berbeda. Etika bisnis konstruksi dibangun oleh al-Ghazali didasarkan pada prinsip-prinsip seperti orientasi itikad baik tentang dunia dan akhirat, kejujuran, kepentingan pribadi dan social keseimbangan, dan perilaku / perbuatan yang tepat. Di sisi lain, etika bisnis konstruksi dibangun oleh Smith, berdasarkan keadilan, altruisme, keadilan dan liberal (kebebasan ekonomi. Baik etika bisnis yang diperkenalkan oleh kedua sangat relevan untuk menjadi digunakan sebagai bahan pokok acuan dalam etika bisnis modern.

Organizational citizenship behavior in schools: validation of a questionnaire.

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Neves, Paula C; Paixão, Rui; Alarcão, Madalena; Gomes, A Duarte

2014-01-01

The present study examines the psychometric properties (including factorial validity) of an organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) scale in a school context. A total of 321 middle and high school teachers from 59 schools in urban and rural areas of central Portugal completed the OCB scale at their schools. The confirmatory factor analysis validated a hierarchical model with four latent factors on the first level (altruism, conscientiousness, civic participation and courtesy) and a second order factor (OCB). The revised model fit with the data, χ 2 /gl = 1.97; CFI = .962; GFI = .952, RMSEA = .05. The proposed scale (comportamentos de cidadania organizacional em escolas- Revista CCOE-R)- is a valid instrument to assess teacher's perceptions of OCB in their schools, allowing investigation at the organizational level of analysis.

Development and validation of an Agreeableness scale in the Big Five personality model / Construção e validação da escala fatorial de Socialização no modelo dos Cinco Grandes Fatores de Personalidade

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Carlos Henrique Sancineto da Silva Nunes

2007-01-01

Full Text Available The present study was designed to develop and assess construct validity of an Agreeableness scale (Escala Fatorial de Socialização – EFS in the Big Five model. In this model, Agreeableness is comprised by traits that describe altruism, straightforwardness, trust in people, as well as coldness, antisocial behaviors, among others. The participants were 1.100 individuals, from five States in Brazil, of both sexes, with high school or university level of education. Factor analyses were conducted to determine the EFS dimensions. A 3-factor solution was found to be more adequate. The factors found were named: Cordiality, Pro-sociability, and Trust in people. Internal consistency (Cronbach's alphas for the factors were .91, .84, and .80 respectively, and .92 for the general scale.

Trust, nostalgia and narrative accounts of blood banking in England in the 21st century.

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Wynne Busby, Helen

2010-07-01

Historically, cultural accounts and descriptions of blood banking in Britain have been associated with notions of altruism, national solidarity and imagined community. While these ideals have continued to be influential, the business of procuring and supplying blood has become increasingly complex. Drawing on interview data with donors in one blood centre in England, this article reports that these donors tend not to acknowledge the complex dynamics of production and exchange in modern blood systems. This, it is argued, is congruent with nostalgic narratives in both popular and official accounts of blood services, which tend to bracket these important changes. A shift to a more open institutional narrative about modern blood services is advocated, as blood services face current and future challenges.

Exchange and Sociability in the Mutual Aid Networks in La Ventilla Neighborhood of Madrid

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Ivonne Herrera-Pineda

2016-01-01

Full Text Available We analyzed the logic of informal exchanges on three personal networks of Madrid's La Ventilla neighborhood to understand its relationship with sociability during an economic crisis. Trust and the obligation to reciprocate constitute a dynamic and multifunctional logic of the gift that allows for a social base that is stronger than other types of exchange, although not without confl icts. The long term evolution of this dynamic can be explained with a simplifi ed qualitative model that considers the processes of dyadic sociability-exchange, trust and collective sociability. To conclude, we propose an approach based on the logic of reciprocity to overcome the dichotomy between selfi shness and altruism that underlies the now dominant logic of solidarity.

Genetic and environmental contributions to pro-social attitudes: a twin study of social responsibility.

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Rushton, J Philippe

2004-12-22

Although 51 twin and adoption studies have been performed on the genetic architecture of antisocial behaviour, only four previous studies have examined a genetic contribution to pro-social behaviour. Earlier work by the author with the University of London Institute of Psychiatry Adult Twin Register found that genes contributed approximately half of the variance to measures of self-report altruism, empathy, nurturance and aggression, including acts of violence. The present study extends those results by using a 22-item Social Responsibility Questionnaire with 174 pairs of monozygotic twins and 148 pairs of dizygotic twins. Forty-two per cent of the reliable variance was due to the twins' genes, 23% to the twins' common environment and the remainder to the twins' non-shared environment.

How virtue ethics informs medical professionalism.

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McCammon, Susan D; Brody, Howard

2012-12-01

We argue that a turn toward virtue ethics as a way of understanding medical professionalism represents both a valuable corrective and a missed opportunity. We look at three ways in which a closer appeal to virtue ethics could help address current problems or issues in professionalism education-first, balancing professionalism training with demands for professional virtues as a prerequisite; second, preventing demands for the demonstrable achievement of competencies from working against ideal professionalism education as lifelong learning; and third, avoiding temptations to dismiss moral distress as a mere "hidden curriculum" problem. As a further demonstration of how best to approach a lifelong practice of medical virtue, we will examine altruism as a mean between the extremes of self-sacrifice and selfishness.

Evaluating career values of dietetic students. A model for other allied health professions.

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Suarez, Vista V; Shanklin, Carol W

2004-01-01

Increased job opportunities in health professions make recruitment of students imperative. Effective recruitment requires a knowledge of what students value when making career decisions. This study of dietetic (n = 514) and other college students (n = 352) showed that achievement and economic security were the most important factors in their career selection regardless of major or race. Dietetic majors rated achievement, economic security, ability utilization, personal development, altruism, and working conditions significantly higher than did nondietetic students (p values important to students in this study are attainable through careers in dietetics and other allied health professions. The results of this study should be examined further with a larger sample of allied health majors to assist educators in recruiting and providing career counseling to students.

'Healthy gums do matter': A case study of clinical leadership within primary dental care.

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Moore, D; Saleem, S; Hawthorn, E; Pealing, R; Ashley, M; Bridgman, C

2015-09-25

The Health and Social Care Act 2012 heralded wide reaching reforms intended to place clinicians at the heart of the health service. For NHS general dental practice, the conduits for this clinical leadership are the NHS England local professional networks. In Greater Manchester, the local professional network has developed and piloted a clinician led quality improvement project: 'Healthy Gums DO Matter, a Practitioner's Toolkit'. Used as a case study, the project highlighted the following facilitators to clinical leadership in dentistry: supportive environment; mentoring and transformational leadership; alignment of project goals with national policy; funding allowance; cross-boundary collaboration; determination; altruism; and support from wider academic and specialist colleagues. Barriers to clinical leadership identified were: the hierarchical nature of healthcare, territorialism and competing clinical commitments.

Leadership experiences and characteristics of chairs of academic departments of psychiatry.

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Keith, Samuel J; Buckley, Peter F

2011-01-01

Effective leadership in academic medicine requires a broad constellation of skills, experiences, and core values. The authors sought to describe and define these. The authors conducted a web-based survey among 132 Chairs of North American departments of psychiatry. Eighty-five Chairs (64%) responded to the survey, the majority of whom were first-time Chairs. Identified leadership attributes included strategic/visionary acumen, interpersonal communication skills, core administrative and academic/technical skills, motivational capacity, personal integrity, and altruism/tenacity. The identified values are consistent with the leadership attributes that are described as necessary for success in the business community. Developing the required skill-set among faculty who aspire to become a departmental Chair is an important commitment for Deans and extant psychiatry Chairs. Copyright © 2011 Academic Psychiatry

[Ethics and blood transfusion].

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Tissot, J-D; Garraud, O; Danic, B; Cabaud, J-J; Lefrère, J-J

2013-09-01

Blood donation is an act of solidarity. Most often, this act is done on a volunteer basis and, depending on countries and circumstances, is not remunerated. The increase in need, the always-greater number of deferral criteria, the safety issues and the changes in the structures of our societies are among the many subjects for ethical debates. Taking these into account, the actors of the transfusion must analyze certain parameters: the value of a donation, the meaning of volunteering, the appropriateness of remunerating the act of giving a part of one's self, no longer as a donation or an expression of altruism and solidarity, but as a commercial act regimented by economic laws. Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier SAS.

Empirical Study on Sustainable Opportunities Recognition. A Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC Joinery Industry Analysis Using Augmented Sustainable Development Process Model

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Eduard-Gabriel Ceptureanu

2017-09-01

Full Text Available This paper analyzes factors influencing recognition of sustainable opportunities by using an augmented sustainability process model. The conceptual model used two main factors, Knowledge and Motivation, and one moderating variable, Social embeddedness. We investigated entrepreneurs from PVC joinery industry and concluded that while market orientation and sustainable entrepreneurial orientation definitely and positively influence sustainable opportunity recognition, others variables like knowledge of the natural/communal environment, awareness of sustainable development or focus on success have less support. Among all variables analyzed, perception of the threat of the natural/communal environment and altruism toward others have the poorest impact on opportunity recognition. Finally, we concluded that social embeddedness has a moderating effect on sustainable opportunity recognition, even though the results were mixed.

Primate empathy: three factors and their combinations for empathy-related phenomena.

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Yamamoto, Shinya

2017-05-01

Empathy as a research topic is receiving increasing attention, although there seems some confusion on the definition of empathy across different fields. Frans de Waal (de Waal FBM. Putting the altruism back into altruism: the evolution of empathy. Annu Rev Psychol 2008, 59:279-300. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.59.103006.093625) used empathy as an umbrella term and proposed a comprehensive model for the evolution of empathy with some of its basic elements in nonhuman animals. In de Waal's model, empathy consists of several layers distinguished by required cognitive levels; the perception-action mechanism plays the core role for connecting ourself and others. Then, human-like empathy such as perspective-taking develops in outer layers according to cognitive sophistication, leading to prosocial acts such as targeted helping. I agree that animals demonstrate many empathy-related phenomena; however, the species differences and the level of cognitive sophistication of the phenomena might be interpreted in another way than this simple linearly developing model. Our recent studies with chimpanzees showed that their perspective-taking ability does not necessarily lead to proactive helping behavior. Herein, as a springboard for further studies, I reorganize the empathy-related phenomena by proposing a combination model instead of the linear development model. This combination model is composed of three organizing factors: matching with others, understanding of others, and prosociality. With these three factors and their combinations, most empathy-related matters can be categorized and mapped to appropriate context; this may be a good first step to discuss the evolution of empathy in relation to the neural connections in human and nonhuman animal brains. I would like to propose further comparative studies, especially from the viewpoint of Homo-Pan (chimpanzee and bonobo) comparison. WIREs Cogn Sci 2017, 8:e1431. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1431 For further resources related to this article

The minyan as a psychological support system.

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Scheidlinger, S

1997-08-01

Most individuals participate in some of the rituals and/or regular activities of religious institutions such as churches or synagogues. Through such involvements, people are offered vital assistance in dealing with developmental changes, opportunities for personal development and for group support, and more generally, a sense of continuity and of meaning in life. This paper deals with only one small aspect of Jewish observance, an aspect of the centuries-old required weekly prayer groups-the minyan. The prime emphasis resides in the rarely recognized, nonliturgical dimension of this small group experience. Using psychoanalysis in the sense of a general psychology as background, I have considered the minyan as combining elements of a psychological support system and of a small group. In addition to the gratification of affiliative needs (social hunger) and the countering of loneliness and of isolation, this group experience helps its members maintain an intergenerational sense of personal identity and of self-esteem. In the face of marked life stressors such as death in the family, religious institutions such as the minyan, with its prescribed ritual steps for grieving (i.e., kaddish), fulfill especially significant preventive and restitutive mental health functions. I have also hypothesized that on a covert, fantasy level, the caring and nurturing family-like weekday minyan may even represent a mother-symbol (mother group) in line with people's universal need to establish a psychological union with others, thus restoring an earlier, conflict-free state of the child-mother bond. In an extended societal sense, the earlier emphasis in Western cultures on the virtual worship of individuality, autonomy, and independence has given way recently to a renewed appreciation of cooperation, communalism, and altruism. The minyan, as a small religious communal aggregate with its inherent climate of mutuality, reciprocity, and continuity, has, in a sense, anticipated these new

Emergency Medicine Resident Perceptions of Medical Professionalism

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Joshua Jauregui

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Medical professionalism is a core competency for emergency medicine (EM trainees; but defining professionalism remains challenging, leading to difficulties creating objectives and performing assessment. Because professionalism is dynamic, culture-specific, and often taught by modeling, an exploration of trainees’ perceptions can highlight their educational baseline and elucidate the importance they place on general conventional professionalism domains. To this end, our objective was to assess the relative value EM residents place on traditional components of professionalism. Methods: We performed a cross-sectional, multi-institutional survey of incoming and graduating EM residents at four programs. The survey was developed using the American Board of Internal Medicine’s “Project Professionalism” and the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education definition of professionalism competency. We identified 27 attributes within seven domains: clinical excellence, humanism, accountability, altruism, duty and service, honor and integrity, and respect for others. Residents were asked to rate each attribute on a 10-point scale. We analyzed data to assess variance across attributes as well as differences between residents at different training levels or different institutions. Results: Of the 114 residents eligible, 100 (88% completed the survey. The relative value assigned to different professional attributes varied considerably, with those in the altruism domain valued significantly lower and those in the “respect for others” and “honor and integrity” valued significantly higher (p<0.001. Significant differences were found between interns and seniors for five attributes primarily in the “duty and service” domain (p<0.05. Among different residencies, significant differences were found with attributes within the “altruism” and “duty and service” domains (p<0.05. Conclusion: Residents perceive differences in

Motivation and satisfaction among community health workers in Morogoro Region, Tanzania: nuanced needs and varied ambitions.

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Mpembeni, Rose N M; Bhatnagar, Aarushi; LeFevre, Amnesty; Chitama, Dereck; Urassa, David P; Kilewo, Charles; Mdee, Rebecca M; Semu, Helen; Winch, Peter J; Killewo, Japhet; Baqui, Abdullah H; George, Asha

2015-06-05

In 2012, the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MOHSW), Tanzania, approved national guidelines and training materials for community health workers (CHWs) in integrated maternal, newborn and child health (Integrated MNCH), with CHWs trained and deployed across five districts of Morogoro Region soon after. To inform future scale up, this study assessed motivation and satisfaction among these CHWs. A survey of all CHWs trained by the Integrated MNCH Programme was conducted in the last quarter of 2013. Motivation and satisfaction were assessed using a five-point Likert scale with 29 and 27 items based on a literature review and discussions with CHW programme stakeholders. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted to identify motivation and satisfaction determinants. Out of 238 eligible CHWs, 96 % were included in the study. Findings showed that respondents were motivated to become CHWs due to altruism (work on MNCH, desire to serve God, work hard) and intrinsic needs (help community, improve health, pride) than due to external stimuli (monetary incentives, skill utilization, community respect or hope for employment). CHWs were satisfied by relationships with health workers and communities, job aids and the capacity to provide services. CHWs were dissatisfied with the lack of transportation, communication devices and financial incentives for carrying out their tasks. Factors influencing motivation and satisfaction did not differ across CHW socio-demographic characteristics. Nonetheless, older and less educated CHWs were more likely to be motivated by altruism, intrinsic needs and skill utilization, community respect and hope for employment. Less educated CHWs were more satisfied with service and quality factors and more wealthy CHWs satisfied with job aids. A combination of financial and non-financial incentives is required to support motivation and satisfaction among CHWs. Although CHWs joined mainly due to their altruistic nature, they became discontented with

Phenotypic Dimensions of Spirituality: Implications for Mental Health in China, India, and the United States.

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McClintock, Clayton H; Lau, Elsa; Miller, Lisa

2016-01-01

While the field of empirical study on religion and spirituality in relation to mental health has rapidly expanded over the past decade, little is known about underlying dimensions of spirituality cross-culturally conceived. We aimed to bridge this gap by inductively deriving potential universal dimensions of spirituality through a large-scale, multi-national data collection, and examining the relationships of these dimensions with common psychiatric conditions. Five-thousand five-hundred and twelve participants from China, India, and the United States completed a two-hour online survey consisting of wide-ranging measures of the lived experience of spirituality, as well as clinical assessments. A series of inductive Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and cross-validating Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling (ESEM) were conducted to derive common underlying dimensions of spirituality. Logistic regression analyses were then conducted with each dimension to predict depression, suicidal ideation, generalized anxiety, and substance-related disorders. Preliminary EFA results were consistently supported by ESEM findings. Analyses of 40 spirituality measures revealed five invariant factors across countries which were interpreted as five dimensions of universal spiritual experience, specifically: love, in the fabric of relationships and as a sacred reality; unifying interconnectedness, as a sense of energetic oneness with other beings in the universe; altruism, as a commitment beyond the self with care and service; contemplative practice, such as meditation, prayer, yoga, or qigong; and religious and spiritual reflection and commitment, as a life well-examined. Love, interconnectedness, and altruism were associated with less risk of psychopathology for all countries. Religious and spiritual reflection and commitment and contemplative practice were associated with less risk in India and the United States but associated with greater risk in China. Education was directly

Motives for participating in a clinical research trial: a pilot study in Brazil

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Nappo Solange A

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background In the past, clinical study participants have suffered from the experiments that they were subjected to. Study subjects may not understand the study process or may participate in clinical studies because they do not have access to medical care. The objectives of the present study were 1. to analyze the motives that might cause a volunteer to participate as a study subject; 2. to identify the social-demographic profile of this study subjects; and 3. to determine whether the motives to volunteer as a study subject are in accordance with the established legal and ethical principles for research in Brazil. Methods Mixed-methods research was used (a qualitative-quantitative approach. A sample of 80 volunteers underwent a semi-structured interview, which was based on a survey script that was elaborated from discussions with key informants. The sample was randomly selected from a database of clinical study volunteers that was provided by Brazilian clinical study centers. The interviews were recorded and transcribed. Descriptive statistics were used for content analysis, including contingency tables with hypothesis testing. Results The motivations for clinical study participation were linked to types of benefit. The most frequently encountered motivations were financial gain and therapeutic alternative. Altruism was not a common motivator, and when altruism was present, it was observed as a secondary motivator. All participants reported that they understood the Informed Consent Statement (ICS. However, only two parts of the form were remembered by all of the volunteers: the section on being able to leave the study at any point and the section that stated that there would be some responsible professional at their disposal for the entirety of the study. Conclusions The present study shows that study participants are primarily motivated by personal benefit when volunteering to participate in clinical studies. Whether these study

Phenotypic Dimensions of Spirituality: Implications for Mental Health in China, India, and the United States

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Clayton Hoi-Yun McClintock

2016-10-01

Full Text Available While the field of empirical study on religion and spirituality in relation to mental health has rapidly expanded over the past decade, little is known about underlying dimensions of spirituality cross-culturally conceived. We aimed to bridge this gap by inductively deriving potential universal dimensions of spirituality through a large-scale, multi-national data collection and examining the relationships of these dimensions with common psychiatric conditions. Five-thousand five-hundred twelve participants from China, India, and the United States completed a two-hour online survey consisting of wide-ranging measures of the lived experience of spirituality, as well as clinical assessments. A series of inductive Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA and cross-validating Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling (ESEM were conducted to derive common underlying dimensions of spirituality. Logistic regression analyses were then conducted with each dimension to predict depression, suicidal ideation, generalized anxiety, and substance-related disorders. Preliminary EFA results were consistently supported by ESEM findings. Analyses of forty spirituality measures revealed five invariant factors across countries which were interpreted as five dimensions of universal spiritual experience, specifically: love, in the fabric of relationships and as a sacred reality; unifying interconnectedness, as a sense of energetic oneness with other beings in the universe; altruism, as a commitment beyond the self with care and service; contemplative practice, such as meditation, prayer, yoga, or qigong; and religious and spiritual reflection and commitment, as a life well-examined. Love, interconnectedness, and altruism were associated with less risk of psychopathology for all countries. Religious and spiritual reflection and commitment and contemplative practice were associated with less risk in India and the United States but associated with greater risk in China. Education

Nursing Care as Perceived by Nurses Working in Disability Community Settings in Greece.

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Fotiadou, Elpida; Malliarou, Maria; Zetta, Stella; Gouva, Mary; Kotrotsiou, Evaggelia

2015-06-25

The concept of nursing care in learning disability community settings has not been investigated in Greece. The aim of this paper is to investigate how nurses working in learning disability community settings perceive the meaning of nursing care. The sample consisted of 100 nurses and nursing assistants working in a social care hospice. Participants were asked to answer questions about socio- demographic characteristics of the sample and fill in a questionnaire of care (GR-NDI-24), the "Job-Communication-Satisfaction-Importance" (JCSI) questionnaire and the altruism scale of Ahmed and Jackson. The data analysis was realized with statistical methods of descriptive and inductive statistics. The analysis was made with the use of SPSS (version 19). The majority of the sample was women (78%). The majority of participants were married (66 %), DE graduates (66%) without postgraduate studies (96.7%). The mean age of respondents was 36.98±6.70 years. On the scales of caring and altruism, the mean values were 40.89±15.87 and 28.12±4.16 respectively. Very or fully satisfied with his work was 72% of the sample. The scope of work emerges as the most important factor influencing job satisfaction. The wages and working conditions (73% and 40% respectively) are the parameters of work which gathers the most dissatisfaction, while the salary is emerging as the most important parameter, the improvement of which would provide the highest satisfaction. Marginally statistically significant difference was observed in the range between TE graduates (d=40) and those of the DE grade (d=37), p=0.053. No statistically significant differences were observed in relation to other working and demographic characteristics (p>0.05). Greater care importance was associated with greater job satisfaction (pmateriality of care and job satisfaction in future research will allow to further highlight all the aspects affecting job satisfaction and performance of nurses. This will identify critical

Trust and altruism--organ distribution scandals: do they provide good reasons to refuse posthumous donation?

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Dufner, Annette; Harris, John

2015-06-01

A recent organ distribution scandal in Germany raises questions of general importance on which many thousands of lives may well depend. The scandal in Germany has produced reactions that are likely to occur whenever and wherever distribution irregularities occur and become public knowledge. After it had become known that physicians in three German hospitals were in the habit of manipulating records in order to fast-track their patients' cases, the country experienced a decrease of available organs by a staggering 40% in October 2012. Even though this loss of trust by donors and their families is understandable, and potentially a legitimate form of protest against wrongful distribution, the withdrawal of agreement to serve as a posthumous donor in response to irregularities also inevitably results in avoidable poor outcomes for highly vulnerable individuals. In this paper, we provide a moral analysis of such dilemmas and make recommendations as to the way forward. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press, on behalf of the Journal of Medicine and Philosophy Inc. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Between altruism and narcissism: An action theoretical approach of personal homepages devoted to existential meaning

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hijmans, E.J.S.; Selm, M. van

2002-01-01

This article aims to examine existential meaning constructions from an action theoretical perspective in a specific Internet environment: the personal homepage. Personal homepages are on-line multi-media documents addressing the question Who am I? Authors of personal homepages provide information on

Difference in neural response to social exclusion observation and subsequent altruism between adolescents and adults.

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Tousignant, Béatrice; Eugène, Fanny; Sirois, Katia; Jackson, Philip L

2017-04-13

Empathy and prosocial behaviors toward peers promote successful social development and creation of significant long-term relationships, but surprisingly little is known about the maturation of these skills during the period of adolescence. As the majority of studies have used questionnaires or pain observation paradigms, it remains unknown whether the empathic response of adolescents differs from that of adults in a paradigm that is closer to everyday life. In the current study, fMRI was used to examine the neural correlates of social exclusion observation and subsequent prosocial behavior in 20 adolescents (aged 12-17 years) and 20 adults (aged 22-30 years) while playing a ball-tossing game with what they believed to be real individuals. Observing someone being excluded compared to observing equal inclusion of all players elicited a significantly higher activation of the IFG (pars triangularis) in adults compared to adolescents. When given the opportunity to directly help the excluded player during the game, adolescents showed significantly less prosocial behavior than adults, which was underpinned by a significantly lower activity in the right temporoparietal junction, medial/dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and fusiform face area. These findings might indicate that adolescents have a lower propensity to take the victim's perspective and share his or her distress when witnessing social exclusion, which leads to a lower altruistic motivation to help. The factors that could generate what can be interpreted as a downward modulation of empathy during adolescence are discussed. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Signal Incongruence and its Consequences

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Vergne, Jean-Philippe; Wernicke, Maria Stokholm; Brenner, Steffen

2018-01-01

theory on signal incongruence, we find that firms engaged in philanthropy receive more media disapproval when they overcompensate their CEO, but they are also more likely to decrease CEO overcompensation as a response. Our study contributes to the signaling literature by theorizing about signal......We draw on the signaling and infomediary literatures to examine how media evaluations of CEO overcompensation (a negative cue associated with selfishness and greed) are affected by the presence of corporate philanthropy (a positive cue associated with altruism and generosity). In line with our...... incongruence, and to infomediary and corporate governance research by showing that media disapproval can lead to lower executive compensation. We also reconcile two conflicting views on firm prosocial behavior by showing that, in the presence of incongruent cues, philanthropy can simultaneously enhance...

Association Between Organizational Citizenship Behavior and Educational Performance of Faculty Members in Tabriz University of Medical Sciences- 2014 [Res Dev Med Educ 2015;4(1:81-84

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Asadullah Khadivi

2015-12-01

Results: There was a significant relationship between altruism and educational performance (P =0.043. There was a significant relationship between conscientiousness and educational performance (p=0.046. A significant relationship was observed between sportsmanship and educational performance (p=0.004. There was no significant relationship between civic virtue and educational performance (p=0.98. A significant relationship was observed between respect and educational performance (P>0.001. There was no relationship between citizenship behavior and gender of the faculty members (P> 0.05. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that the more faculty members have the spirit of cooperation and assistance to colleagues and students and try to understand the specific situations that students face, the more effective they are in increasing the educational performance at the university level.

Spatial Evolutionary Games of Interaction among Generic Cancer Cells

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Bach, Lars Arve; Sumpter, David J.T.; Alsner, Jan

2003-01-01

Evolutionary game models of cellular interactions have shown that heterogeneity in the cellular genotypic composition is maintained through evolution to stable coexistence of growth-promoting and non-promoting cell types. We generalise these mean-field models and relax the assumption of perfect...... mixing of cells by instead implementing an individual-based model that includes the stochastic and spatial effects likely to occur in tumours. The scope for coexistence of genotypic strategies changed with the inclusion of explicit space and stochasticity. The spatial models show some interesting...... deviations from their mean-field counterparts, for example the possibility of altruistic (paracrine) cell strategies to thrive. Such effects can however, be highly sensitive to model implementation and the more realistic models with semi-synchronous and stochastic updating do not show evolution of altruism...

Risk-Averse Evolutionary Game Model of Aviation Joint Emergency Response

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Wei Pan

2016-01-01

Full Text Available We study effects of risk-averse attitude of both participators in aviation joint emergency response on the coevolution of cooperation mechanisms and individual preferences between airport and nonprofit organization. First, based on the current aviation joint emergency mechanism in China, we put forward two mechanisms to select the joint nonprofit organization, including reputation cooperation and bidding competition. Meanwhile, we consider two preferences including altruism and selfishness. Then we build replicator dynamics equations using the theory of conditional value-at-risk (CVaR taking risk aversion attitude into account. Finally, we introduce the factor of government and give all participators some suggestions. We show that the risk-averse attitude of the other game participator affects the one participator’s decision and the effects subject to some parameters.

Perceptions of parents on the participation of their infants in clinical research

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Gammelgaard, A; Knudsen, Lisbeth E.; Bisgaard, H

2006-01-01

OBJECTIVE: To analyse the motivations and perceptions of parents on the participation of their infants and young children in a comprehensive and invasive clinical research study. METHODS: Semistructured qualitative interviews were conducted with 23 mothers with asthma whose infants and young...... children were participating in the Copenhagen Prospective Study on Asthma in Childhood. The interviews were audiotaped, transcribed and analysed using the template analysis method. RESULTS: Parents were motivated by altruism and by the opportunity to get their child checked regularly by medical experts...... to prevent the possible development of asthma. Parents found it very important that their children enjoyed their visits to the research clinic, and that they could withdraw from the study if their child started responding negatively to those visits. No apparent difference was seen in the attitude between...

Blood donors' perceptions, motivators and deterrents in Sub-Saharan Africa - a scoping review of evidence

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Asamoah-Akuoko, Lucy; Hassall, Oliver W; Bates, Imelda

2017-01-01

Achieving an adequate blood supply in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) through donor mobilization and retention is crucial. Factors that motivate or deter blood donors vary according to beliefs and social norms. Understanding the factors that influence blood donation behaviour in SSA is vital to developing...... effective strategies to address blood donor motivation and retention. This review of 35 studies from 16 SSA countries collates available evidence concerning the perceptions, motivators and deterrents that influence blood donors in SSA. The review revealed a common understanding that blood and blood donation...... save lives. The main deterrent to blood donation was fear due to lack of knowledge and discouraging spiritual, religious and cultural perceptions of blood donation. The main motivators for blood donation were altruism, donating blood for family and incentives. The findings support the need for targeted...

Neural components of altruistic punishment

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Emily eDu

2015-02-01

Full Text Available Altruistic punishment, which occurs when an individual incurs a cost to punish in response to unfairness or a norm violation, may play a role in perpetuating cooperation. The neural correlates underlying costly punishment have only recently begun to be explored. Here we review the current state of research on the neural basis of altruism from the perspectives of costly punishment, emphasizing the importance of characterizing elementary neural processes underlying a decision to punish. In particular, we emphasize three cognitive processes that contribute to the decision to altruistically punish in most scenarios: inequity aversion, cost-benefit calculation, and social reference frame to distinguish self from others. Overall, we argue for the importance of understanding the neural correlates of altruistic punishment with respect to the core computations necessary to achieve a decision to punish.

Native supercolonies of unrelated individuals in the invasive Argentine ant

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pedersen, Jes Søe; Krieger, Michael J. B.; Vogel, Valérie

2006-01-01

organization is not only a key attribute responsible for the ecological dominance of these ants, but also an evolutionary paradox because relatedness between nestmates is effectively zero. Recently, it has been proposed that, in the Argentine ant, unicoloniality is a derived trait that evolved after its......Kinship among group members has long been recognized as a main factor promoting the evolution of sociality and reproductive altruism, yet some ants have an extraordinary social organization, called unicoloniality, whereby individuals mix freely among physically separated nests. This type of social...... with related individuals who are aggressive toward members of other colonies, we found that native populations also form supercolonies, and are effectively unicolonial. Moreover, just as in introduced populations, the relatedness between nestmates is not distinguishable from zero in these native range...

Altruists Attract

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Daniel Farrelly

2007-04-01

Full Text Available Explaining human cooperation continues to present a challenge because it goes beyond what is predicted by established theories of kinship and reciprocal altruism. Little attention has been paid to the sexual selection hypothesis that proposes that cooperation can act as a display that attracts mates. The costs of cooperating are then offset not by kinship or reciprocation but by increased mating success. Here we present results from a series of experiments which show that, as predicted by the sexual selection hypothesis, people preferentially direct cooperative behavior towards more attractive members of the opposite sex. Furthermore, cooperative behavior increases the perceived attractiveness of the cooperator. Economically costly behaviors can therefore bring benefits through mate choice and sexual selection should be regarded as an evolutionary mechanism capable of promoting cooperation.

Appetite for self-destruction: suicidal biting as a nest defense strategy in Trigona stingless bees.

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Shackleton, Kyle; Al Toufailia, Hasan; Balfour, Nicholas J; Nascimento, Fabio S; Alves, Denise A; Ratnieks, Francis L W

Self-sacrificial behavior represents an extreme and relatively uncommon form of altruism in worker insects. It can occur, however, when inclusive fitness benefits are high, such as when defending the nest. We studied nest defense behaviors in stingless bees, which live in eusocial colonies subject to predation. We introduced a target flag to nest entrances to elicit defensive responses and quantified four measures of defensivity in 12 stingless bee species in São Paulo State, Brazil. These included three Trigona species, which are locally known for their aggression. Species varied significantly in their attack probability (cross species range = 0-1, P  bees (3.5-508.7 s, P  bee. Our results indicate that suicidal biting may be a widespread defense strategy in stingless bees, but it is not universal.

Prosocial Signalling

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Kahsay, Goytom Abraha

In contrast to the standard economic theory predictions, it seems clear that people do spend their time and resource to benefit others. Many lab and field experiment studies show that people display prosocial preferences such as altruism, reciprocity and conditional cooperation, fairness, etc....... Policy makers and charity organizations have tried to exploit this prosocial behaviour to foster supply of public goods and donations respectively. However, there is vast literature showing that incentives that aim to foster prosocial behaviour sometimes have reverse reactions, crowding out pre......’ behaviour in these circumstances and how incentives might interact with prosocial behaviour in everyday consumer goods. The aim of this thesis is to address these issues from theoretical and empirical perspectives. It proposes theoretical models to explain consumers’ prosocial behaviour in every day...

Participation in two phase II prophylactic HIV vaccine trials in the UK.

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Gray, Kimberly; Legg, K; Sharp, A; Mackie, N; Olarinde, F; De Souza, C; Weber, J; Peters, B

2008-06-02

There will be a continued imperative to recruit large numbers of healthy volunteers to early phase prophylactic HIV vaccine (PHV) trials. We studied mechanisms associated with participation in two related phase II PHV trials. The most cited reasons for volunteering were altruism and a personal connection to HIV. The most successful recruiting strategies targeted organisations dealing with HIV, health or social issues, or were directed to large audiences through the mass media. However, circulated emails and word of mouth were the most resource-effective approaches. Group discussions and the collection of a pool of potential volunteers were much less effective than one-to-one discussions and immediate screening after recruitment. We utilised our findings to devise key recommendations to assist PHV trial teams who are planning future studies.

2007 Microbial Population Biology (July 22-26, 2007)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Anthony M. Dean

2008-04-01

Microbial Population Biology covers a diverse range of cutting edge issues in the microbial sciences and beyond. Firmly founded in evolutionary biology and with a strongly integrative approach, past meetings have covered topics ranging from the dynamics and genetics of adaptation to the evolution of mutation rate, community ecology, evolutionary genomics, altruism, and epidemiology. This meeting is never dull: some of the most significant and contentious issues in biology have been thrashed out here. We anticipate the 2007 meeting being no exception. The final form of the 2007 meeting is yet to be decided, but the following topics are likely to be included: evolutionary emergence of infectious disease and antibiotic resistance, genetic architecture and implications for the evolution of microbial populations, ageing in bacteria, biogeography, evolution of symbioses, the role of microbes in ecosystem function, and ecological genomics.

Psychometric characteristics of a public-domain self-report measure of vocational interests: the Oregon Vocational Interest Scales.

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Pozzebon, Julie A; Visser, Beth A; Ashton, Michael C; Lee, Kibeom; Goldberg, Lewis R

2010-03-01

We investigated the psychometric properties of the Oregon Vocational Interest Scales (ORVIS), a brief public-domain alternative to commercial inventories, in a large community sample and in a college sample. In both samples, we examined the factor structure, scale intercorrelations, and personality correlates of the ORVIS, and in the community sample, we also examined the correlations of the ORVIS scales with cognitive abilities and with the scales of a longer, proprietary interest survey. In both samples, all 8 scales-Leadership, Organization, Altruism, Creativity, Analysis, Producing, Adventuring, and Erudition-showed wide variation in scores, high internal-consistency reliabilities, and a pattern of high convergent and low discriminant correlations with the scales of the proprietary interest survey. Overall, the results support the construct validity of the scales, which are recommended for use in research on vocational interests and other individual differences.

Work values and job satisfaction: a qualitative study of Iranian nurses.

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Ravari, Ali; Bazargan-Hejazi, Shahrzad; Ebadi, Abbas; Mirzaei, Tayebeh; Oshvandi, Khodayar

2013-06-01

This study aimed to describe the effect of nursing profession work-related values on job satisfaction among a sample of Iranian nurses. We used in-depth interviews with 30 nurses who worked in university-affiliated and public hospitals in Tehran, Iran. The results of thematic analysis of interviews are reported in four themes to present the participants' articulations in linking their work-related values to job satisfaction. The themes consist of values that "encourage tolerance," "enhance inner harmony," "reflect traditional commitment," "enhance unity," and are "centered around altruism and spiritual values." The most satisfied participants considered nursing a divine profession and a tool by which they could gain spiritual pleasure and satisfaction. Our findings highlight the potential role of nursing work-related values in reducing dissatisfaction with one's job. For the nursing profession, this may have implications in reducing job instability and turnover.

For society, state and self: juggling the logics of professionalism in general practice appraisal.

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Entwistle, Tom; Matthews, Elaine

2015-11-01

Sociologists repeatedly appeal to notions of altruism, bureaucratisation and self interest in their efforts to explain the changing place of the professions in contemporary society. We treat these three readings as institutional logics that are key to understanding the way in which doctors respond to the appraisal system at the heart of the UK's approach to revalidation. Our analysis of a survey of 998 general practitioners (GPs) working in Wales finds an altruistic commitment to learning and improvement, bureaucratic demands for reporting information and self-regarding resentment of changes in the occupational package provided by general practice. But the data also demonstrate that the maintenance of the appraisal regime is dependent on the preparedness and capacity of individual GPs to do micro-level institutional work on all fronts. © 2015 Foundation for the Sociology of Health & Illness.

Behavioral Finances versus Technical and Fundamental Analysis

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Ion Stancu

2007-01-01

Full Text Available Although the field of modern finance has progressed impressively, it is still hard to explain on a scientific basis why people behave nonrationally when dealing with money. The classic finance assumes people rationalize and optimize their financial decisions. Behavioral Finance adds the importance of what investors should do and complements the mantra of classic finance with what people actually do, in terms of economic decisions. The new field of Neuroeconomy investigates the subtle and profound interactions within the human brain when faced with uncertainties of an economic decision. The most basic psychological traits of human being (fear, anger, greed and altruism stamp an indelible mark on our decisions about money. The intellect (understanding a situation, reason (long term consequences of the contemplated action and emotion (the judge of the course of action are all intercorrelated resorts behind human decision making.

An Evaluation of Teachers’ Opinions about the Servant Leadership Behaviours of School Principals

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Robert Insley

2016-08-01

Full Text Available The aim of this study was to determine the servant leadership behaviors that were displayed, or expected to be displayed, by principals towards the teaching staff at their schools, from the teachers’ perspectives. The data was collected during focus group discussion with 12 teachers who were in service in primary and secondary schools. The teachers were chosen using the snowball sampling method. The data obtained from the participants was analyzed using content analysis. When the findings were evaluated, it was determined that the principals were not qualified enough to display servant leadership behaviors. Moreover, the teachers stated that principals should display servant leadership behaviors that are oriented towards community building, sharing, empathy, active listening, humility, and altruism. In this respect, it can be suggested that principals should receive servant leadership education through instructional programs that should be developed.

Pemberdayaan Perempuan Miskin Kota melalui Pendidikan

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Leila Mona Ganiem

2017-05-01

Full Text Available This study examines how an empowerment of urban poor women has been done through non-formal education by utilizing existing social forces in society. The study wants to explore underlying reasons of individuals or volunteer as a part of women’s empowerment. The study uses qualitative approach by conducting observation, interviews and collecting secondary data. The result shows that the empowerment has positive impact because it is relevant to the needs of local communities and optimizes the resources owned by local community. Right curriculum that fits with the conditions of society needs is an important issue. The reasons of altruism of the volunteers involved in empowerment are 1 social conditions of the parties empowered, 2 personal value (compassion, 3 having an obligation to help others, 4 Motivation of enrichment and increase self-understanding of social life.