Definition
Extraordinary altruists are people who have engaged in rare risky or costly behaviors to benefit another person. Such behaviors include living organ or stem cell donation or acting to save another person in a life-threatening emergency.
Altruism refers to behaviors that benefit another person without any foreseeable extrinsic benefit—and often a cost—to the actor and without an expectation of any concrete personal benefit (Batson and Powell 2003; de Waal 2008). Altruistic behaviors can vary in terms of how costly or risky they are to the altruist. In general, costlier and riskier acts of altruism are rarer. For example, holding a door open for someone or giving directions is a relatively low-cost and common form of altruism. Volunteering at a homeless shelter for a day is relatively costlier (in terms of time and effort) and also less common. Extraordinary...
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Rhoads, S.A., Marsh, A.A. (2024). Traits of Extraordinary Altruists. In: Encyclopedia of Heroism Studies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17125-3_501-1
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