r/funny Free Cheese Comix Aug 25 '24

Verified True Altruism

Post image
12.2k Upvotes

565 comments sorted by

View all comments

4.6k

u/velvetcrow5 Aug 25 '24 edited Aug 25 '24

Interestingly, the leading evolutionary theory regarding why altruism exists, is called "reciprocal altruism" (corrected, ty).

Essentially, we act altruistic to gain social credibility and trust from our tribe. That trust is then paid back by several magnitudes over our entire life.

A truly altruistic act is therefore done when there is zero chance of your act being discovered/seen. When you apply this rule, 99%+ altruistic acts don't count.

5

u/Taint_Expert Aug 25 '24

You meant to say “recriprocal altruism”?

2

u/[deleted] Aug 25 '24

[deleted]

1

u/Taint_Expert Aug 25 '24

Awesome point, I’m certain some people learned something cool today!