Scientists say we are programmed to be altruistic, but do we really need to think about others all the time?
Every time I find myself on board an aeroplane, my attention is drawn to the safety instructions, specifically the part where they say to put on your oxygen mask first before helping others.
This is basically the official advice to be “selfish”. Obviously, this is wise advice because if you faint from lack of oxygen, you won’t be able to help others.
At the same time, in a world that often seems to reward narcissism, this line from the manual can symbolise a somewhat disturbing life philosophy. The idea that you should always put yourself first – and that selfishness outweighs altruism.
In many parts of the world, especially in the West, individualism is becoming increasingly fashionable. It’s a question of working hard and helping if someone else is around.
This theory arose after the outrage over the 1964 murder in New York of Kitty Genovese, a 28-year-old bartender who was reportedly raped and murdered in front of nearly 40 witnesses, none of whom helped.
But it seems that the story behind the concept of the “witness effect” is inaccurate. The investigation found no evidence that 38 people were actually passively watching the crime.
Instead, the research shows that people are actually more than willing to put the safety of others first in many situations.
In 2020, scientists analysed surveillance footage of violent attacks in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and South Africa.
Researchers found that in nine out of ten cases, witnesses tried to intervene the Carnegie Medal, awarded to civilians who risked their lives to help others, showed different results.
People who performed heroic acts mostly described their actions as intuitive rather than deliberate, suggesting that their altruism was an automatic response. That is, we find ourselves when we don’t have time to think about the situation.
“There is a surface level where we can act selfishly, but people also have the ability to be impulsively altruistic,” says Taylor, who has written a book on altruism, DisConnected.
In May 2017, a suicide bomber attacked the audience at an Ariana Grande concert in Taylor’s hometown of Manchester. 22 people were killed and more than a thousand were injured. Yet the event report describes “hundreds, if not thousands, of acts of individual courage and selflessness”. work halfway towards a common goal. For example, pass on items that others couldn’t get.
And young children will do it, even if they offer no reward for doing so. For example, a 2013 review of such research concluded that young children’s pro-social behaviour is “intrinsically motivated by concern for the well-being of others”.
Good deeds also make us feel better about ourselves. For example, volunteering has been linked to improved mental health, self-esteem and self-efficacy, as well as reduced feelings of loneliness.
There are even physical health benefits. People who volunteered regularly were 40 per cent less likely to develop high blood pressure than those who didn’t. Altruism was even linked to a reduced risk of mortality, although why this is so, organs, the right amygdala (areas of the brain associated with emotion) was larger than the control group who did not donate.
Donors also showed increased activity in this area when viewing images with frightened facial expressions, which may have made them more sensitive to the feelings of others.
Science shows that most of us have the potential for selfless acts, often extremely high. But that doesn’t mean we can – or should – be selfless all the time.
Whether we put ourselves first depends in part on our circumstances, our previous experiences, and our culture.
Tony Milligan, a researcher in the philosophy of ethics at King’s College London, believes that in matters of morality, the vast majority of us are ‘in the middle’. But this is not as sad as it seems.
For serenity Strull/ BBC
Some countries, such as the UK and the US, are more individualistic than many Asian countries, for example. Eastern societies tend to be seen as more collectivist, where people put the welfare of the group above their own.
This affects not only behaviour but also the extent to which selfless actions are seen as a choice or responsibility.
For example, during the Covid-19 pandemic, researchers found that people in collectivist cultures were more likely to wear masks than people living in individualistic cultures