Definition
Altruism refers to behavior that benefits others but is not beneficial or may be harmful to the individual.
What compels someone to do something as extreme as run into a burning building to retrieve a child? Or to do something similarly heroic but less dangerous such as donate blood? Humans are a social species. We rely on one another to survive and carry on our genes. We often exhibit prosocial behavior where we carry out acts to benefit another person. At times, these behaviors can come at a personal cost. Psychologists refer to the desire to help another person even if it involves a cost to the helper as altruism. Altruistic acts can range from inconvenient, such as breastfeeding a child, to life-threatening, such as jumping onto a railroad to save someone from an oncoming train. Unlike the broader concept of...
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Tait, V.R. (2024). Altruism. In: Encyclopedia of Heroism Studies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17125-3_502-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17125-3_502-1
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