Evolution and altruism: Combining psychological mediators with naturally selected tendencies

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1090-5138(02)00156-3Get rights and content

Abstract

This study integrates psychological predictors of helping intentions and naturally selected tendencies enhancing inclusive fitness for a more comprehensive understanding of altruism. Psychological mediators of helping intentions, empathic concern and oneness, and psychological processes facilitating kin selection and reciprocal altruism were combined in a structural equation model to predict participants' (N=643) intentions to perform a risky rescue behavior. The tendency for reciprocal altruism and kinship were the strongest predictors of rescue intentions. Confirming previous research, empathic concern made a significant but small contribution in predicting helping intentions. Proximate mechanisms currently in the psychological literature did not entirely account for the effect of kinship on helping intentions.

Introduction

Research on altruism attempts to illuminate fundamental characteristics of human nature. Batson et al.'s (1997) empathy–altruism hypothesis proposes that empathic concern evokes an altruistic motivation. Studies supporting this hypothesis have systematically varied whether individuals can only obtain egoistic goals by helping, or whether they can escape from the situation and obtain the egoistic goals without helping (Batson & Shaw, 1991). These studies purportedly demonstrate that at least some people have helping intentions that are not explained by egoistic motivations, such as the relief of personal distress (Batson & Shaw, 1991), escaping public shame for not helping (Batson & Shaw, 1991), the relief of sadness (Batson et al., 1989), and the desire to make oneself happy (Batson et al., 1991).

Cialdini, Brown, Lewis, Luce, and Neuberg (1997) have proposed that it is the sense of self–other overlap, or “oneness” between the helper and the individual in need, that motivates helping, rather than empathy. Helping others with whom one feels commonality would not be selfless, because it leads to a more favorable mental state. Studies examining whether the effect of empathic concern can be eliminated when the sense of oneness with the target, or “self–other overlap,” is accounted for have produced contradictory results Batson et al., 1997, Cialdini et al., 1997.

Although some claim that no clear evidence exists for the operation of inclusive fitness enhancing processes in humans (e.g., Batson, 1997), specific predictions based upon kin selection have empirical support (e.g., Essock-Vitale & McGuire, 1985). In a series of experiments, Burnstein, Crandall, and Kitayama (1997) demonstrated how the consequences to evolutionary fitness influenced target selection in life or death rescue scenarios and everyday helping behaviors. Shavit, Fischer, and Koresh (1994) have provided data revealing nepotistic actions in real-life emergency situations.

Altruism advocates define altruism as “a motivational state with the ultimate goal of increasing another's welfare” (Batson, 1991 p. 6). The distinction between self and other is confounded when one considers benefits at the genetic level. Altruist advocates admit that evolutionary theorists have been useful in revealing how self-sacrificial behavior can be consistent with the theory of natural selection, however, they are more concerned with the driving mental motivation of the helper (Batson, 1991).

Consistent with evolutionary theory, the experience of oneness or empathy could arise as a consequence of attachment-related cues (kinship, friendship, familiarity) that signaled the potential for relatively high genetic commonality in the EEA (Kenrick, 1991). The psychological states provoked by these cues could increase the chances of the needy individuals receiving assistance, enhancing the survival and replication of genes influencing the psychological capacities for oneness and empathy. This would account for the altruism advocates' example of a mother rushing to help her injured child (Kenrick, 1991). Genes promoting their own self-propagation may operate through actions that could be considered psychologically altruistic.

Empirical hypotheses for helping intentions can be generated from the integration of psychological and evolutionary theory.

Hypothesis 1

Kinship should have a significant positive impact on the mental states (oneness and empathic concern) that serve as proximate mediators of helping intentions.

Hypothesis 2

Kinship should also make a significant unique contribution to the variance explained in helping intentions. People do not need to be aware of the inclusive fitness consequences of their actions for tendencies to be naturally selected. Nonconscious processes may also be quicker than conscious processes, an advantage in critical situations where survival is determined in a matter of seconds.

Hypothesis 3

Following from reciprocal altruism theory, it is predicted that an individual's helping intentions will reflect the expected likelihood for the target to help if positions in the situation were reversed.

Hypothesis 4

Participants should have a higher expected likelihood for kin helping them than for nonkin helping them, an intuitive expression of inclusive fitness theory.

Section snippets

Participants

Students (N=643, female=456) from an ethnically diverse (52% reported non-Western European descent), urban Mid-Western American university participated. The mean age was 20.27 years (S.D.=4.19).

Materials

Three items measured oneness: a modified version of Aron, Aron, and Smollan's (1992) pictographic Inclusion of Other in Self (IOS) scale; a second task where participants traced an outline of a washer representing themselves in relation to a circle representing the target character; and an item where

Justification for interpretation of analytical results

The Cronbach alphas for the construct scales were .93 for helping intention, .93 for empathic concern, .92 for expectancy, and .85 for oneness. No items were systematically affected by socially desirable responding. The hypothesized model had a good fit to the data, as indicated by various fit indicators: Goodness-of-Fit Index (GFI)=0.93, Non-Normed Fit Index (NNFI)=0.95, Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA)=0.075, and Comparative Fit Index (CFI)=0.96. No other arrangement of the

Discussion

Integrating concepts from evolutionary theory enhances the psychological framework for understanding altruistic helping intentions. The effect of expectancy, representing the tendency for reciprocal altruism, was eight times as strong as the effect of the most powerful traditional predictor, empathic concern. Kinship had a significant unique effect that was not accounted for by the previously established psychological predictors of helping. The effect of kinship had a complex relationship to

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Fred B. Bryant, Lois Leidahl-Marsh, Robert Russell, and R. Scott Tindale for their assistance with this project and reviewers for their helpful comments.

References (23)

  • S Essock-Vitale et al.

    Women's lives viewed from an evolutionary perspective: II. Patterns of helping

    Ethology and Sociobiology

    (1985)
  • A Aron et al.

    Inclusion of other in the self scale and the structure of interpersonal closeness

    Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

    (1992)
  • C Batson

    The altruism question: towards a social-psychological answer

    (1991)
  • C.D Batson

    Self–other merging and the empathy–altruism hypothesis: reply to Neuberg et al. (1997)

    Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

    (1997)
  • C.D Batson et al.

    Negative-state relief and the empathy–altruism hypothesis

    Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

    (1989)
  • C.D Batson et al.

    Empathic joy and the empathy–altruism hypothesis

    Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

    (1991)
  • C.D Batson et al.

    Is empathy-induced helping due to self–other merging?

    Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

    (1997)
  • C.D Batson et al.

    Evidence for altruism: toward a pluralism of prosocial motives

    Psychological Inquiry

    (1991)
  • C.D Batson et al.

    Information function of empathic emotion: learning that we value the other's welfare

    Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

    (1995)
  • E Burnstein et al.

    Some neo-Darwinian decision rules for altruism: weighing cues for inclusive fitness as a function of the biological importance of the decision

    Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

    (1997)
  • R Cialdini et al.

    Reinterpreting the empathy–altruism relationship: when one into one equals oneness

    Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

    (1997)
  • Cited by (100)

    • HEXACO, Dark Triad and altruism in daily life

      2022, Personality and Individual Differences
      Citation Excerpt :

      That is, as the genetic relationship with the recipients becomes weaker, altruistic behaviors should become more selective. Indeed, there have been many studies revealing that degree of actual altruistic behavior or intention to help changed depending on the relationship with the recipients (e.g., Korchmaros & Kenny, 2001; Kruger, 2003; Fitzgerald & Whitaker, 2009; Fitzgerald, Thompson, & Whitaker, 2010). If so, the personality factors involved could also change.

    • Kinship ties and employee theft perceptions in family-owned businesses

      2018, European Management Journal
      Citation Excerpt :

      A vignette experiment comparing a family-owned business with another business would address this potential confound if the knowledge about anti-theft measures is controlled across the two organizations. Similarly, some research has shown that the effects of genetic linkages become evident at a conscious level through psychological closeness, such that shared genes leads to empathic concern, which in turn leads to outcomes (Kruger, 2003). A vignette in which psychological closeness is manipulated might demonstrate this effect.

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text