Altruism

As I have learned more about altruism, I’ve thought a lot about some of the competing theories of human motivation. The nihilist in me often does fall into the ego motivation theory camp. When you see how people react to a pandemic, it is hard to not see the extent to which people are individualist and selfish. To convince many people to do what benefits the common good, that common good must overlap with the individuals greatest benefit. That is why it is much more effective to tell people to wear masks to protect themselves and their family members, even if it probably has a greater effect for preventing you from infecting others if you happen to be sick. There are obviously ethical questions to deceiving people even if it is to persuade people to do the right thing, but I won’t get too deep into that. So the question is, will people only act pro-socially if it has a benefit to themselves, even if that benefit is abstract and indirect (such as feeling guilty if they do not do the right thing), or is it possible for people to truly act selflessly. Well, many western cultures rely heavily on the ideals of capitalism, which is inherently ego driven. With that said, we would all prefer to live in a capitalistic society that encourages altruism than one that does not. So, despite my most pessimistic efforts, it is hard to not romanticize the empathy motivated model. Part of me almost feels that there is less harm in falsely believing the empathy-model to be true than falsely believing in the ego motivated model. Al least for myself, I would rather be made a fool by giving someone the benefit of the doubt that they have good intentions and take advantage of that, rather than wrongly accuse someone with the best intentions of acting selfishly. This falls in line with the idea of innocent until proven guilty. As it turns out, there are three regions of the prefrontal cortex that play a large role in forming our behavior. The vmPFC is responsible for emotions, and risk reward behavior. When this region is active, you are likely to act in ways that are beneficial to yourself, and avoid any potential risks or harm to yourself. The trolley problem is a great example of a philosophical question that can examine the merits of ego versus empathy motivation.Studies have shown that this region is active if you choose to save one family member over 5 strangers from an oncoming trait. Thus, it can be thought of as more ego driven. Alternatively the dmPFC is responsible for making moral judgements. It is thought that if this region is active, you are more likely to act in ways that benefits humanity. Those that choose to save 5 strangers over one family member tend to utilize this region. Ultimately, the dlPFC is the decision maker, taking input from all the other active brain regions. There are not necessarily ‘right’ answers, as these are very subjective questions. However, I think that it is possible for both the ego-motivation and empathy-motivation theory to be true simultaneously. There can be examples of people being truly selfless to benefit the common good, for example there is no personal benefit to a soldier dying for what they believe to be moral. However, many people act truly selfishly. Sometimes people know what the moral thing to do is, and choose to go against it. So, I hope that the silver lining of Covid-19 is that we might learn something about human nature, and what motivates people to do the right thing, so that prosocial behavior can become more commonplace.