shel sombillo and edwin morales of tv5's reaksyon weekend hosted by luchi cruz asked me for sound bites about the psychology of altruism.
so here's what i told them:
altruism is the practice of concern for the welfare of others. from a psychological standpoint, "pure" unselfish altruism does not seem to be possible. The practice of doing good will always be done with a degree of self-interest or even selfishness, whether the doer of the good deed is aware of it or not. in short, people will do good deeds only because they get something for themselves in return.
some people, for instance, do good deeds, to get a reward from people or from heaven, or to prevent the feelings of guilt for not helping out, or to prove to oneself or to others that he or she is a good person, or to relieve oneself of the feelings of pity for the person in need of help.
so what can we conclude from this? i guess we shouldn't really concern ourselves about why people do good deeds or whether they are sincere in doing so, so long as the good deeds are done.
