not all is lost
Human infants as young as 14 to 18 months of age help others attain their goals, for example, by helping them to fetch out-of-reach objects or opening cabinets for them. They do this irrespective of any reward from adults (indeed external rewards undermine the tendency), and very likely with no concern for such things as reciprocation and reputation, which serve to maintain altruism in older children and adults. Humans' nearest primate relatives, chimpanzees, also help others instrumentally without concrete rewards.
These results suggest that human infants are naturally altruistic, and as ontogeny proceeds and they must deal more independently with a wider range of social contexts, socialization and feedback from social interactions with others become important mediators of these initial altruistic tendencies.
from: Felix Warneken and Michael Tomasello, The roots of Human Altruism, British Journal of Psychology, Vol. 100, Issue 3, pages 455-471, 2009
Loved watching this video. It is wonderful to be reminded of the intrinsic goodness.
ReplyDeleteYou've given me much to think about this morning. After watching the baby boy and the chimp, I wonder if altruism might begin because it offers rewards, but as it deepens no outer reward is required. So, where does altruism come from in the first place? Many years ago I watched a Jane Goodall video (So Like Us) where she observed how selfless a mother chimpanzee is in taking care of her baby chimps. Watching, I found myself teary and wishing that I had a chimpanzee mother. I have learned since that not all chimps are good mothers. What could that be about? I don't know. Instincts gone wrong? Learned behavior? Trauma? Something else?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmcNWJpIXp8
So true. Not all is lost.
So nice to see this. Remarkable, really.
ReplyDeleteIf babies ran the world....
ReplyDelete'Altruism' seems to me to be an emotionally loaded word for what's going on here. Perhaps it's more the practical application of an innate sense of community - mutual help to mutual advantage. And none the worse for that!
ReplyDeleteIn fact, neuroscience is working hard on removing much of that load. It's all due to the fancy new brain imaging methods (FMRIB, Functional MRI of the Brain) which was famously used in the Stanford meditation study. Now that specific locations in the human brain have been identified (and repeatedly verified) as relating to compassion, altruism and even sharing, these terms have become awfully scientific.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sabine, for the clarification regarding rewards. When I watched the video, I thought I saw the chimpanzee being rewarded with food, and I was puzzled, thinking that the implication was something about the connection between altruism and rewards. It is heartening to know that chimpanzees are helpful to human beings and each other without any specific reward. What Nick wrote about an innate sense of community rings true to me. A few days ago when I was crying, my cat came to me and licked my face and curled up next to me. That isn't the first time a cat has been a comfort to me. Domestic cats aren't known for their broad sense of community, but there is an innate something they do that feels like kindness and wanting to help and comfort. And I think of the apparent kindness and willingness to help that characterizes therapy dogs. I also remember how my childhood kindnesses to my mother were met with rage on occasion and that as an adult I had to reestablish that it was safe to offer help to anyone.
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