Reciprocal altruism

Kindness, positive acts, and behaviors should not just be for family and friends, but everyone in society as well. How I see it is the reciprocal altruism theory – “a view that suggests that we may be willing to help people unrelated to us because helping is usually reciprocated.” I believe that helping someone, even a stranger, would not hurt me in any ways. Everyone has their bad days and we should not just help our relatives, but also “help people who are unrelated to us” (Social Psychology, 302). This happened unexpectedly when I was in a supermarket with my mom. We were in line to pay for our grocery and the person, an elderly woman, in front of us did not have enough money. The woman was short a dollar and coincidentally, I had an extra dollar. So, I offered the…

Reciprocal altruism; simply the idea that we offer assistance and expect it returned, is undeniably practiced with the motivation of one’s personal wellbeing in mind. Similarly, the concept of motivation also provides a logical understanding of kin selection whereby we are inclined to help our genetic related, as aiding one’s family will ultimate better one’s self. A cost rewards analysis, as well as social exclusion can also be depicted as highly motivated by a person’s needs and survival;…

Having demolished group selection arguments there is still a need for mechanisms to show how actual observed cases of altruism, for example the female coalitions in the Langur case, or seeming altruism (nepotism) can emerge from methodological individualism (Dawkins 1976, ). In order to do so socio-biologists redefined what exactly an “altruist” is and therefore what an altruistic act is (Trivers 1971), and drew distinctions between such an act and nepotism directed at ones kin (Hamilton 1964).…

When one performs an altruistic act, one expects that act to be repaid in full later one. They expect to receive an equal act of altruism such that it balances out any risks, or costs, cancel out almost. Once again, why is reciprocal altruism valued in society? What happens if the second party reneges? What if you will never see them again? How will your altruism be repaid? What is the driving force that causes you to act altruistically? Clearly a parallel can be drawn with cooperation as…

interactions and proceedings. Some looking to gain insight into why social interactions take place, and why relationships exist. Others seeking to explain that only certain types of interactions have value and what those values are. However, no single discipline focuses solely on cooperation, relationships, or their innerworkings. There are some that try to explain how cooperation and reciprocal relationships reduce the likelihood of risk in certain situations, and different researchers have…

that species help each other, however they do it even if it puts their own lives at risk. A question frequently asked is whether they perform these selfless acts with the intention of being rewarded back or if they perform them with no aim of reward or gain. This is the question of altruism. Altruism is defined as an act that an individual engages in, that presents a benefit to the recipient but comes at a cost to the individual presenting the act. In evolutionary terms the costs and rewards are…

Altruism in non-human primates has been characterized by many researchers to be uniquely human. Although humans exhibit great levels of altruism, even as infants, this behavior does not directly translate to some of our closet related primates. Humans show more motivation when asked to help rather than chimpanzees. Although there is some evidence to argue that chimpanzees behave in a reciprocal manner, many conclusions have been made throughout the last decade that chimpanzees are much more…

When I bake something sweet or make something different for dinner, I always give some to my neighbor. She does not give anything back to me right away. However, I know that when she bakes or cooks something, she is also going to share it with me. The value spent on ingredients, the amount, or the taste varies each time. This is an example of generalized reciprocity. My favorite Professor and I go out to lunch all the time. We take turns paying the bill, which is always between $25-$30. This is…

reciprocity is regulated by certain parts of the brain that would have been selected as a result of its success in allowing humans to survive (“Human altruism” 786-787). For the experiment, subjects were first told to respond to fair and unfair offers in a bargaining game while functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to examine their brain as they answered. It was found that less fair offers activated the bilateral insula, which has been shown to regulate negative emotional states…

judgments. Stereotypes can impair the performance and affect the identity of members of a stereotyped or devalued group. Slight changes in a setting can reduce stereotype threat and its negative effects significantly. Some research has shown a growing list of groups whose members show underperformance and performance impairing behaviours when a negative stereotype about their abilities is made relevant. There are a lot of Syrian refugees that speak English proficiently and have post secondary…