Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T03:41:23.814Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Experimental Tests for the Existence of Altruism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 June 2023

C. Daniel Batson*
Affiliation:
University of Kansas
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

I wish to describe a program of research designed to provide experimental evidence for or against the existence of altruisrn in humans (also see, Batson 1991). Whether such an enterprise is at all newsworthy—or at all worth doing—depends, of course, on what one means by altruism.

I have worked with the following definition: Altruism is a motivational state with the ultimate goal of increasing another's welfare. I have juxtaposed altruism to egoism, defined as a motivational state with the ultimate goal of increasing one's own welfare. Altruism and egoism, thus defined, have much in common. Each refers to goal-directed motivation; each is concemed with the ultimate goal of this motivation; and for each, the ultimate goal is to increase someone's welfare.

Type
Part III: Altruism: Evolutionary and Psychological
Copyright
Copyright © 1993 by the Philosophy of Science Association

References

Batson, C. D. (1991), The Altruism Question: Toward a Social-Psychological Answer. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Batson, C. D., Batson, J. G., Griffitt, C. A., Barrientos, S., Brandt, J. R., Sprengelmeyer, P., and Bayly, M. J. (1989), “Negative-State Relief and the Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 56: 922-933.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Batson, C. D., Batson, J. G., Slingsby, J. K., Harrell, K. L., Peekna, H. M., and Todd, R. M. (1991), “Empathic Joy and the Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 61: 413-426.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Batson, C. D., Dyck, J. L., Brandt, J. R., Batson, J. G., Powell, A. L., McMaster, M. R., and Griffitt, C. (1988), “Five Studies Testing Two New Egoistic Alternatives to the Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis”, Journal of Personality and Social Psyclwlogy 55: 52-77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cialdini, R. B., Schaller, M., Houlihan, D., Arps, K., Fultz, J., and Beaman, A. L. (1987), “Empathy-Based Helping: Is lt Selflessly or Selfishly Motivated?”, Journal of Personality and Social Psyclwlogy 52: 749-758.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dawkins, R. (1976), The Selftsh Gene. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hoffman, M. L. (1981), “The Development of Empathy”, in Altruism and Helping Behavior: Social, Personality, and Developmental Perspectives, J.P. Rushton and R.M. Sorrentino (eds.). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, pp. 41-63.Google Scholar
Hume, D. (1978), A Treatise of Human Nature (L.A. Selby-Bigge, Ed., 2nd ed. revised by P. H. Nidditch). New York: Oxford University Press. (Original work published 1739-1740).Google Scholar
Schalter, M., and Cialdini, R. B. (1988), “The Economics of Empathic Helping: Support for a Mood Management Motive”, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 24: 163-181.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, K. D., Keating, J. P., and Stotland, E. (1989), “Altruism Reconsidered: The Effect of Denying Feedback on a Victim's Status to Empathic Witnesses”, Journal of Personality and Social Psyclwlogy 57: 641-650.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, E. O. (1975), Sociobiology: The New Synthesis. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar