NOV. 28, 2005

SCIENCE
Exploring altruism: What makes people help others?

Rescuers during Hurricane Katrina. Passengers on Flight 93 who crashed a plane into a Pennsylvania field on Sept. 11, 2001. Neighbors who hid Jews during the Holocaust. A recent flurry of scientific studies, articles, books and conferences have explored altruism - the quality that inspires people to act selflessly to help others.

Experts from a broad range of disciplines - sociobiology, psychology, theology, philosophy, genetics and biology - are studying questions such as: Why are some people willing to help others even at their own expense? If the urge to help others is universal, as some believe, then why do some feel its pull more strongly than others? Can altruism be promoted or learned, or is it innate? Is there some degree of self-interest involved in any altruistic act?

The findings can help journalists report on the altruistic actions of individuals, whether they take place because of natural disasters, terrorism, crime or in the course everyday life:
• A team of Israeli psychologists recently said that it discovered an "altruism gene." The psychologists found that two-thirds of a group of individuals who displayed selfless behavior had a certain variant of the dopamine receptor gene, which is associated with feelings of pleasure. This corresponds to earlier U.S. studies that found that people who help others often experience a "helper's high."
• A number of studies have found a correlation between helping others and good health, a sense of well-being and longevity.
• Evolutionary biologists are debating how to explain altruistic behavior in animals and humans. Does acting to benefit others at one's own expense contradict the theory of natural selection? Some say no, explaining that acting to benefit the group, rather than one's self, helps the group survive, even though it endangers the individual.
• Scientists are studying whether animals, like people, act altruistically. One study said yes by studying birds who warn the flock of an approaching hawk while drawing unwanted attention to themselves. A recent study from UCLA disagreed, showing that chimpanzees do not act altruistically.

Why it matters

Sacrificing one's own interests for the good of another is an ideal held in common by most world religions. Altruism, from the Latin "alter," or "other," describes actions performed in a selfless manner for the benefit of another.

Questions for reporters

• How do religion and spirituality shape people's attitudes about altruism?
• What do people say about how altruistic behavior impacts health and well-being?
• Talk to experts in different disciplines and compare what they say about what makes people act altruistically.
• People always admire those who act altruistically in a crisis. Do they also admire those who act altruistically in everyday life in the same way?

Jump to background

Click the map for interview sources in your state and region

• Psychology professor Richard Ebstein of the Scheinfeld Center for Genetic Studies in the Social Sciences at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel, is senior author of the altruism gene study, which showed that the dopamine gene plays a role in prosocial behavior. It was published in Molecular Psychiatry in January 2005. Contact 011 972 2 531 6855, or mobile 011 972 0523 822810, ebstein@mscc.huji.ac.il. Read a Jan. 23, 2005, Our Jerusalem story about the gene study.
• Keishin Inaba, associate professor of human development at Kobe University in Japan, has a web site on altruism. He is author of Altruism in New Religious Movements: The Jesus Army and the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order in Britain (University Education Press, 2005), which examines whether Christianity and Buddhism change people's attitudes and behavior towards altruism. He is also co-editor of the forthcoming The Practice of Altruism: Caring and Religion in a Global Perspective (Cambridge Scholars Press, 2006). Contact 81 78 803 7892, inaba007@kobe-u.ac.jp.

National sources

• Stephen Post teaches biomedical ethics and philosophy at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland and is president of the Institute for Research on Unlimited Love, which was founded at the university in 2001 to study altruism, compassion and service. His many articles and books on altruism include, as co-editor, Altruism and Altruistic Love: Science, Philosophy, and Religion in Dialogue (Oxford University Press, 2002). Contact 216-368-6205, sgp2@po.cwru.edu.

CHRISTIAN
• Jeffrey Schloss is professor of biology at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, Calif., and evolutionary research consultant for the Institute for Research on Unlimited Love at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. He is interested in the relationship between evolutionary and theological understandings of altruism. Schloss co-edited Altruism and Altruistic Love: Science, Philosophy and Religion in Dialogue (Oxford University Press, 2002) and Evolution and Ethics: Human Morality in Biological and Religious Perspective (Eerdmans, 2005). Contact 805-565-6118, schloss@westmont.edu.
• Stephen Pope is a professor of social ethics in the theology department at Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Mass., and author of The Evolution of Altruism and the Ordering of Love (Georgetown University Press, 1994). He writes about different forms of love in Christian thought and Christian ethics and evolutionary theory. Pope is working on a book titled Human Evolution and Christian Ethics. Contact 617-552-3892, popest@bc.edu.

JEWISH
• Jacob Neusner, professor of theology at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., co-edited Altruism in World Religions (Georgetown University Press, 2005). He is the author of scores of books on Rabbinic Judaism and has encyclopedic knowledge of the history of Judaism and its texts. Neusner says altruism is best studied as a religious, not a secular, impulse. Contact 845-758-7389, neusner@webjogger.net.
• Rabbi Brad Hirschfield is vice president of CLAL - the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, an interdenominational think tank and training institute in New York City. He is co-author of Embracing Life & Facing Death: A Jewish Guide to Palliative Care (CLAL, 2003) and is completing a book on the challenge of Holocaust memory in the 21st century. Contact 212-779-330 ext. 112, bhirschfield@clal.org.

MUSLIM
• Mahmoud Ayoub, professor of Islamic studies and comparative religion at Temple University in Philadelphia, can comment on issues relating to altruism in Islam, as compared to the other Abrahamic traditions. Contact 215-204-6090, mayoub@temple.edu.
• Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is founder and chairman of the Cordoba Initiative at the American Society for Muslim Advancement. The multifaith effort, based in New York City, seeks to increase intercultural communication and tolerance, stimulate new approaches to achieving peace and heal the relationship between Islam and America. Contact 917-492-8690, frauf@asmasociety.org.

BUDDHIST
• Robert Thurman, professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist studies at Columbia University in New York, wrote "Human Rights and Responsibilities: Buddhist Views on Individualism and Altruism" in Religious Diversity and Human Rights (Columbia University Press, 1996). Contact 212-851-3122, tbt7@columbia.edu.
• B. Alan Wallace, president of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies in California, trained as a monk in Buddhist monasteries. He teaches Buddhist theory and practice in Europe and the United States and has served as interpreter for numerous Tibetan scholars. His academic training is in religious studies, physics and philosophy of science. Contact alanwallace@earthlink.net.

HINDU
• V.V. Raman, emeritus professor of physics and humanities at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, N.Y., writes and speaks about Hinduism, ethics and altruism. Contact 585-586-8393, vvrsps@rit.edu.
• Subhash Kak is Donald C. & Elaine T. Delaune Distinguished Professor in the electrical and computer engineering department at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. He studies and has written extensively on Hinduism, and his research interests include computational intelligence, archaeology of the mind and the history of science. Contact 225-578-5552.

Background

• Read a 2005 article from the International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, "Altruism, Happiness, and Health: It's Good to Be Good," by Stephen Post, which reviews studies showing a correlation between well-being, happiness, health and longevity of people who are emotionally and behaviorally compassionate.
• Read an October 2004 Science & Theology News article on evolutionary theory and altruism, "Wired for Altruism." It's posted on Beliefnet.
• Read a Feb. 1, 2004, Science & Theology News story by Stephen Post about studies that show that older adults who help others by volunteering experience improved mood, better self-esteem and well-being and live longer.
• Read a 2003 Boston Globe article, "For Good Health, It is Better to Give, Science Suggests," on studies linking altruism to better health and stress reduction.
• Read a May/June 2003 Spirituality & Health article, "How Alive is the Helping Connection?" which discusses the phenomenon of volunteering and includes results from a poll in which 58 percent said volunteering makes them feel good and helps reduce stress.
• Read a May/June 2003 Spirituality & Health article by Stephen Kiesling, "The Exquisite Brain Pleasures of Cooperation," about an Emory University study showing that cooperation activates the dopamine-rich area of the brain.
• Read a 2002 Science & Spirit article "Regarding the Other: Altruistic Love as Religious Ideal and Scientific Project," which defines altruism and its religious context and examines its place in society. The author is Stephen Post.
• Read a seminal article by Allan Luks in the October 1988 Psychology Today that describes the "helper's high" - a sense of calm and enhanced self-worth - observed in a study of more than 1,700 women involved regularly in helping others. Altruism functions like exercise but has some advantages over it, Luks suggests.