Altruism and Helping Behavior

This Samaritan helped the wounded man and cared for his wounds without expecting any reward from the wounded traveler he assisted. In the world, we can say that there have been some individuals who have been found to be altruistic such as martin Luther King Jr. who put his life in danger fighting for the things he believed in such as civil rights for the people. Mother Teresa, she engaged in charitable works in countries that were under-developed and even Nelson Mandela. They were driven by desire to help people and had no expectations whatsoever. The society socializes people to have a sense of social responsibility which includes helping those in need (Mackie, Devos, & Smith, 2000). For example, a donation given to charity and homes for the old is seen as socially appropriate behavior.

The society pressures individuals to help others and this is done through societal expectations. It is very common to see influential people on televisions being interviewed on what they have done for other people or philanthropic activities they do in society. The society also expects women to be more helpful than the men. The people aim to have a continuation of their genes in the world. Arguments made by neurologists also support that altruism acts makes the brain activate pleasure thus becoming more active. Neuroscience has shown that whenever a person sees the other in pain, the tactile and emotional region of the human brain is activated (De Waal, 2008). Therefore, the study showed the tactile cortices which help in perceiving touch, and pain in the body, is responsible for pro-social behavior.

This is because it transforms sight of bodily harm to the degree of pain a victim is experiencing and this is what triggers the decision to either offer help or not (De Waal, 2008). Therefore, people get motivated to help another so that they can relieve unpleasant emotions experienced at the sight of another person who needs help. The person offering assistance in the end will have relieved anxiety or unpleasant feelings as well as get a sense of pride and satisfaction for having engaged in altruistic acts. Batson argues that people engage in helping acts for four reasons. The first reason is for one’s own sole benefit, second is to benefit another person, third, to benefit a group and lastly for collectivism so that the moral principle is fulfilled (Batson, et al, 2016).

People usually have an objective they want to fulfill when helping others, it may either be one goal or all of the reasons Batson puts forward. A child might have grown up seeing the parents being altruistic and offering assistance to other people and learned to be altruistic. This behavior may be internalized by the child and carried forward into adulthood. Therefore according to this theory, people engage in altruistic acts because of the internalized values they learned from their social environment. Abraham Maslow came up with the theory of motivation. According to him, human beings are motivated by needs (Maslow, 2013). The footage did not provide any reason or cause for electrocuting the woman. The audience was then asked what they felt and their opinion concerning the footage.

Most of them accused the woman and talked negatively about her. The reason behind their reaction towards this footage was that they needed to justify their beliefs, that one receives that which is deserved. They felt that this footage was threatening their beliefs because the woman could not just be suffering without a particular reason. A positive mood may just be that which is required for one to help another. People will most likely engage in pro-social behavior when they are in their good mood to maintain the joy and positive feelings. Another group of people will help the other when they find themselves in a bad mood for the purpose of improving their mood so that they can feel better.

Altruism often comes with some intrinsic rewards and these rewards may be a motivating factor and help people cope with their mood as well as improve bad moods (Carey, 2014). A study conducted by two researchers to determine whether the presence of others affected altruism showed that by stander effect and the presence of other people in situations that need help will reduce helping behavior (Simpson, & Willer, 2008). People need each other and in most occasions people are faced with situations which require them to ask for assistance or offer help to other. These actions are judged depending on the motive underlying beneath or the ultimate goal for engaging in the act. That is what makes it either altruism or egoism. However, human behavior in helping is mostly intentional and aimed to serve a specific goal such as self-benefiting goals which makes it impossible for a person to act purely for the benefit of another person’s welfare without putting one’s own interest.