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Altruism Isn’t Always Attractive

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21–30 of 48 posts

Re: Altruism Isn’t Always Attractive

#21

It comes down to trust. You trust those who are in your group, and whom you believe will consistently act in the interests of your group. Consequentialists are distrusted because they deliberately choose to disregard social group weighting and circles of loyalty in their moral decisions. That's not to say that all consequentialist actions are disliked; only those that come at significant cost to your group (of any si…

Also note how the label "do-gooder" is particularly often applied to people who care too much about foreigners or animals, but rarely to people who care too much about their friends.

Re: Altruism Isn’t Always Attractive

#23
post #2

The main study which prompted this article is available here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002210311... Abstract: > Previous work has demonstrated that people are more likely to trust “deontological” agents who reject harming one person to save many others than “consequentialist” agents who endorse such instrumental harms, which could explain the higher prevalence of non-consequentialist moral i…

Does anyone else watch The Good Place? I really like The Good Place. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c-AawAKZ14

Re: Altruism Isn’t Always Attractive

#24
post #3
post #2

The main study which prompted this article is available here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002210311... Abstract: > Previous work has demonstrated that people are more likely to trust “deontological” agents who reject harming one person to save many others than “consequentialist” agents who endorse such instrumental harms, which could explain the higher prevalence of non-consequentialist moral i…

For those who have studied Philosophical Ethics in High School or Undergrad, you'll probably be familiar with the term "deontological" (lit. 'derived from god') but are perhaps not used to the term "consequentialist" or "consequentialism". Per the study, "consequentialism" is Utilitarianism, which may be more familiar to you. > "...said to be making a “consequentialist” (or “utilitarian”) judgment in line with conseq…

Good thing that Deontology is nothing but Utilitarianism with a different name. We can think Schopenhauer for pointing out Kant's errors on this one.

Re: Altruism Isn’t Always Attractive

#25
Altruism is almost always false. It's usually selfish. People do things which are, on the surface, selfless and benevolent. But they do them because it makes them feel better in some way, or to assuage guilt, due to peer pressure, or increasingly due to pathological virtue signalling.

It's not necessarily bad when someone does something "altruistic" for these reasons, but the people who are the most visible and vocal about it are the ones who are the least honest about it. They are gaining (or at least think they are gaining) the most social credit, and they expect the most reciprocation. If you do something "kind" but expect or demand recognition, you're not altruistic; you're just taking your payment in other ways.

This manifests in myriad ways we've all seen: church bake sale tyrants, celebrity cause-o-holics, corporate misdirectors, activism tourists, etc. It's only altruism if it costs you something and you gain nothing in return. Even if you quietly and anonymously help others, but in turn sleep better at night and feel beatific, you're gaining something. If you think it'll get you into heaven or some other incorporeal reward, you're being selfish.

In almost all cases, this is a good thing, but true altruism doesn't exist.

Re: Altruism Isn’t Always Attractive

#26
post #8

People look for mates who will care for them. If you value the group over the individual then that's less likely. The ideal, surely, is someone who looks after themselves, their partner and their friends foremost and the group after that. When those two things come into conflict, however...

Exactly. I know altruists who don't take care of themselves but instead need help from others. They are sort of generous but I always wonder if they are really generous if in turn their lifestyle is not self sufficient. For example if somebody helped somebody else with a big vet bill but now I am being asked to buy a car for that person I feel that actually I am the real giver and the person that thinks she is generous is not giving anything of her own but basically is giving away my money.

I have come to believe that the first duty of an adult is to be self sufficient. Only then you can be truly generous or altruistic in a sustainable way.

Re: Altruism Isn’t Always Attractive

#27
post #2

The main study which prompted this article is available here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002210311... Abstract: > Previous work has demonstrated that people are more likely to trust “deontological” agents who reject harming one person to save many others than “consequentialist” agents who endorse such instrumental harms, which could explain the higher prevalence of non-consequentialist moral i…

No mention of culture in the article, and apparently the Mechanical Turk population isn't actually that large[0], seems like this is likely to be a pretty WEIRD[1] result. The WEIRD paper actually references evidence that altruistic behaviour is punished in some cultures (Figure 4), so to do a study of something similar without a good handle on the cultural background of the participants seems pretty trash. The do ha…

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Re: Altruism Isn’t Always Attractive

#28

Altruism is almost always false. It's usually selfish. People do things which are, on the surface, selfless and benevolent. But they do them because it makes them feel better in some way, or to assuage guilt, due to peer pressure, or increasingly due to pathological virtue signalling. It's not necessarily bad when someone does something "altruistic" for these reasons, but the people who are the most visible and vocal…

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Re: Altruism Isn’t Always Attractive

#29
Nothing that new. It's been established the attraction is rather heavily linked to the dark triad traits: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/psychology-uncove...

... one of them being narcissism and the rationale is that self-centered people have higher chances of survival, therefore they're a good "genetic match."

Re: Altruism Isn’t Always Attractive

#30

Altruism is almost always false. It's usually selfish. People do things which are, on the surface, selfless and benevolent. But they do them because it makes them feel better in some way, or to assuage guilt, due to peer pressure, or increasingly due to pathological virtue signalling. It's not necessarily bad when someone does something "altruistic" for these reasons, but the people who are the most visible and vocal…

[deleted]
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