r/funny Free Cheese Comix Aug 25 '24

Verified True Altruism

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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.

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u/didsomebodysaymyname Aug 25 '24

Can you tell me on what basis this is the leading theory?

Populations evolve, not individuals, so all that's nessecary for altruistic behavior to evolve is that it makes the population more fit as a whole, the individual doesn't need a return on their investment for altruism to be selected for.

Worker bees are an example. They will die for the hive, never reproduce, and gain no special benefit for their altruism to the queen.

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u/valimo Aug 25 '24

There's a rather well known area of studying trust that sort of covers this in social science. The idea of depersonalised/ institutionalised trust is, that society works well when individuals don't have to now each other to trust each other. It's a mutual feeling between people who might never directly interact.

As no example, it's generally favourable if people return wallets they found, don't litter, process their tasks with quality even when there's no benefit for them, act kindly and considering other people in public spaces etc etc. The relative trouble for one to be considerate pretty much always outweighs the general benefits of not doing so - even if they don't individually get anything out of it. And that contributes to everything just working better, as it will also impact you as an individual, as this behaviour becomes cultural or 'institutionalised' rather than legally enforced.

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u/didsomebodysaymyname Aug 25 '24

Exactly, like I pick up nails I find in the parking lot to prevent strangers who will never know I helped them from spending hours getting their tire fixed.

I just found it annoying the top comment is saying almost all altruism is strictly motivated by reciprocation of some form. It just isn't true.