Knowledge Tree
altruism
Facts (16)
Sources
Evolutionary psychology - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org 8 facts
claimNatural selection can perpetuate altruism if an altruism gene influences an organism to be helpful and protective of relatives, thereby increasing the proportion of that gene in the population due to common descent.
claimMoral indignation evolved to prevent altruism from being exploited by cheaters, while gratitude motivated human ancestors to reciprocate appropriately after benefiting from the altruism of others.
referenceOmar Tonsi Eldakar and David Sloan Wilson published 'Selfishness as second-order altruism' in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on May 13, 2008.
claimEvolutionary psychology researchers have explored human social behaviors such as infanticide, intelligence, marriage patterns, promiscuity, perception of beauty, bride price, altruism, and the allocation of parental care by testing predictions derived from the idea that conscious and unconscious behaviors have evolved to maximize inclusive fitness.
claimThere is substantial evidence that humans are generally more altruistic toward close genetic kin compared to genetic non-kin.
claimEvolutionary social psychology has contributed findings to traditional social psychology topics such as person perception, social cognition, attitudes, altruism, emotions, group dynamics, leadership, motivation, prejudice, intergroup relations, and cross-cultural differences.
claimAltruists may support unrelated individuals if they recognize altruistic behavior in those individuals.
claimEvolutionary psychology identifies kin selection and reciprocity as key factors in the evolution of prosocial traits like altruism.
Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART) frontiersin.org 3 facts
referenceTankersley, Stowe, and Huettel (2007) found that altruism is associated with an increased neural response to agency, as published in Nature Neuroscience.
claimExpertise in compassion is linked to activation in the right posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), a finding consistent with research by Tankersley et al. (2007) which indicated that pSTS activity predicts self-reported altruism.
claimEmpathic forms of behavior, including empathy, sympathy, and altruism, are implicated in conceptual models and theories about social cognition, experience sharing, and prosocial behavior, according to Hein and Singer (2008), Eisenberg et al. (2010), and Zaki and Ochsner (2012).
Evolutionary Psychology | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy iep.utm.edu 2 facts
claimRobert Trivers concluded that for altruism to evolve, natural selection must favor more acute abilities to detect cheating, because individuals who accept the benefits of altruism without paying the cost of reciprocation would otherwise drive altruism to extinction.
claimSociobiologists in the 1970s argued that social behaviors are shaped by natural selection and sought adaptationist explanations for cognitive, cultural, and social traits such as altruism, mating preferences, and parent-offspring conflicts.
Stress, Lifestyle, and Health - Maricopa Open Digital Press open.maricopa.edu 1 fact
claimTopics studied by positive psychologists include altruism, empathy, creativity, forgiveness, compassion, the importance of positive emotions, enhancement of immune system functioning, savoring life's moments, and strengthening virtues to increase authentic happiness.
Cross-cultural similarities and variations in parent-child value ... nature.com Nov 26, 2025 1 fact
claimCommunity-building values are defined as values that emphasize consideration for broader societal expectations, including altruism, group bonding, and large social group cohesion.
Psychedelics, Sociality, and Human Evolution frontiersin.org 1 fact
claimPsilocybin instrumentalization could have favored a dopamine-dominated striatum personality style, which is associated with enhanced sensitivity to social cues that promote social conformity, empathy, and altruism, as suggested by Raghanti et al. (2018).