Altruism in HumansWe send money to help famine victims halfway around the world. We campaign to save whales and oceans. We stay up all night to comfort a friend with a broken relationship. People will at times risk - even lose - their lives for others, including strangers. Why do we do these things? What motivates such behavior? Altruism in Humans takes a hard-science look at the possibility that we humans have the capacity to care for others for their sakes rather than simply for our own. Based on an extensive series of theory-testing laboratory experiments conducted over the past 35 years, this book details a theory of altruistic motivation, offers a comprehensive summary of the research designed to test the empathy-altruism hypothesis, and considers the theoretical and practical implications of this conclusion. Authored by the world's preeminent scholar on altruism, this landmark work is an authoritative scholarly resource on the theory surrounding altruism and its potential contribution to better interpersonal relations and a better society. |
Contents
Introduction | 3 |
A Theory of Altruistic Motivation | 9 |
Empirical Evidence | 81 |
Altruism in Action | 161 |
Summary and Conclusion | 228 |
References | 235 |
Crosscutting Independent Variables Dependent Variables and Competing Predictions that Can Test the EmpathyAltruism Hypothesis Against Each Eg... | 269 |
Tests of the AversiveArousalReduction Hypothesis | 275 |
Tests of the SocialEvaluation Version of the EmpathySpecificPunishment Hypothesis | 281 |
Tests of the SelfEvaluation Version of the EmpathySpecificPunishment Hypothesis | 285 |
Tests of the General EmpathySpecificReward Hypothesis | 289 |
Tests of the EmpathicJoy Version of the EmpathySpecificReward Hypothesis | 293 |
Tests of the NegativeStateRelief Version of the EmpathySpecificReward Hypothesis | 297 |
| 303 | |
| 317 | |
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Common terms and phrases
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