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Altruism

Altruism

Altruistic behaviors are “unselfish” behaviors—those that help another individual at the expense of the individual carrying out the behavior. Despite the negative consequences for the altruistic animal, these behaviors are thought to have evolved for several reasons.

Egoism and Altruism

Egoism and Altruism

Voluntary behavior with the intent to help other people is called prosocial behavior. Why do people help other people? Is personal benefit such as feeling good about oneself the only reason people help one another?

Persuasion Strategies

Persuasion Strategies

Researchers have tested many persuasion strategies, including the foot-in-the door and the door-in-the-face techniques, in a variety of contexts. Ultimately, the principles are effective in selling products and changing people’s attitude, ideas, and behaviors (Cialdini & Goldstein, 2004).

Punishment

Punishment

Negative reinforcement and punishment are often confused but serve distinct functions in behavior modification. Reinforcement, whether positive or negative, increases the likelihood of a desired behavior, while punishment decreases it.
Punishment can be positive or negative. Positive punishment involves adding an undesirable stimulus, such as scolding, to decrease a behavior. Negative punishment involves removing a desirable stimulus, such as taking away a favorite toy, to decrease behavior.

Empathy

Empathy

Some researchers suggest that altruism operates on empathy. Empathy is the capacity to understand another person’s perspective, to feel what he or she feels. An empathetic person makes an emotional connection with others and feels compelled to help (Batson, 1991). Empathy can be expressed in several ways, including cognitive, affective, and motor.

Inclusive Fitness

Inclusive Fitness

Most altruistic behavior—in which one animal helps another at a cost to themselves—occurs between relatives. Scientists think these altruistic behaviors evolved because they increase the inclusive fitness of the animal providing help.

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Related Experiment Video

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Training Laboratory Rabbits to Refine Routine Husbandry Procedures

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Indirect punishment and generosity toward strangers.

Aljaz Ule¹, Arthur Schram, Arno Riedl

¹Center for Research in Experimental Economics and Political Decision-Making (CREED), University of Amsterdam, Roetersstraat 11, 1018 WB Amsterdam, Netherlands. a.ule@uva.nl

Science (New York, N.Y.)

|December 19, 2009

Summary

Indirect rewarding and punishment sustain cooperation. Rewarding strangers

Area of Science:

Behavioral Economics
Social Psychology
Evolutionary Game Theory

Background:

Cooperation between unrelated humans is a complex phenomenon.
Indirect rewarding, where individuals reward strangers for kindness to others, is theorized to sustain cooperation.
The emergence of indirect rewarding is puzzling due to the costs incurred by rewarders without immediate personal benefit.

Purpose of the Study:

To experimentally investigate the payoffs associated with different cooperation strategies.
To determine the conditions under which indirect rewarding prevails over defection.
To assess the role of indirect punishment in maintaining cooperation.

Main Methods:

Experimental design involving participants playing strategic games.

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Observation of individual payoffs based on implemented strategies.

Analysis of outcomes under conditions with and without the possibility of punishment.

Main Results:

In the absence of punishment for unkindness, defection yields the highest payoffs.
When indirect punishment is possible, indirect rewarding becomes the most profitable strategy.
Indirect punishment is crucial for sustaining cooperation, even when rarely employed or yielding low individual payoffs.

Conclusions:

Indirect punishment is a key mechanism for the long-term success of indirect rewarding and cooperation.
The possibility of punishment, rather than its frequent implementation, drives cooperative behavior.
Understanding these dynamics is vital for explaining the evolution of human cooperation.