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Published on: May 5, 2015
Varieties of altruism in children and chimpanzees
Felix Warneken1, Michael Tomasello
1Harvard University, Department of Psychology, 33 Kirkland St., Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. warneken@wjh.harvard.edu
Abstract:
Recent empirical research has shed new light on the perennial question of human altruism. A number of recent studies suggest that from very early in ontogeny young children have a biological predisposition to help others achieve their goals, to share resources with others and to inform others of things helpfully. Humans' nearest primate relatives, such as chimpanzees, engage in some but not all of these behaviors: they help others instrumentally, but they are not so inclined to share resources altruistically and they do not inform others of things helpfully. The evolutionary roots of human altruism thus appear to be much more complex than previously supposed.
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