Q

Just did my reading on ‘The Neural Bases of Altruistic Punishment’. I’ve always suspected this, but now I’m pretty convinced that in a psychological sense, there is no true altruism as we define it.

By (almost) all definitions, humans are absolutely capable of altruism – that is, acting in ways that benefit others even at the expense of incurring costs to self. This is how we conceive of altruism socially, biologically, legally.

But neuroscience has shown us that when we get to the deep of it, altruism is a goal-directed behavior to achieve expected satisfaction. It is analogous to a a person having that chocolate bar because it releases endorphins in their brain.

Personally, this doesn’t makes altruism any less beautiful. Maybe some find reducing a selfless act to activation in our dorsal striatum rather unromantic, but i for one find it fascinating; that over millennia, human interaction has shaped within our brains mechanisms that encourage the survival of other human beings – related or not.

Altruism is borne of something greater than itself: the desire for humankind as a whole to survive. An overarching desire that binds us all as a species, producing a tendency within us that binds us together too. It’s just… amazing.