Does Altruism Really Exist Discussion

In the readings and text there is a section on helping behavior and altruism. As noted people are not inclined to help in a lot of situations. There is at least a delay as people look to each other to determine if help is needed and then wait to see who will jump in and help. Those aspects of assessing the situation were referred to as pluralistic ignorance and diffusion of responsibility. And even when help is offered there may be something to be gained. Altruism is a selfless act of helping others with nothing to be gained by doing so. If you take a tax deduction for a charitable donation there’s something gained, it’s not true altruism. If you work in a kitchen to help feed the homeless, but then constantly mention to your friends that you do so for social recognition and approval it’s not true altruism. Granted people are getting help. And that’s good. But it’s not really altruistic. 

So in this discussion let’s see if we can find some cases of altruistic behavior. Try to think of at least one case were you witnessed, or were a part of, a selfless act that helped someone without any gain to the person helping. Briefly describe the situation, what help was needed, how that help was given and all the principle participants. And analyze the event to try to determine for sure that the person providing the help didn’t seek some sort of gain in some way. Seeking gain is the important aspect. If they ended up on the local TV news for their good deed, but never imagined that would happen then they weren’t seeking that recognition.