People say altruism is selfish. They’re not wrong | Abigail Marsh

About the video: “If we didn't find helping other people pleasurable, we wouldn’t be altruistic.”

One of the reasons that many people argue that there is no such thing as “true altruism,” that people are never purely motivated to help other people for their own sake, is because, paradoxically, altruism is a source of enormous joy for those who help others.

Those who have made significant sacrifices for the benefit of others, such as donating a kidney, will attest to this. They’ll often say that it was one of the best decisions they made and would make it over and over if possible because of how happy it made them to help out the recipient. With this in mind, it’s easy to assume that nothing is ever truly altruistic because of the pleasure doing good can evoke.

Neuroscientist Abigail Marsh says that this perspective can be a bit puritanical. Marsh says that actually, the best part of altruism is the sense of joy it brings, because these feelings encourage people to engage with it more often. Here’s why that principal actually underscores altruism, instead of contradicting it.

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About Abigail Marsh:

Abigail Marsh is a Professor in the Department of Psychology and the Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program at Georgetown University. She received her PhD in Social Psychology from Harvard University in 2004.

[davidhartney]

Wanting to help people is the perfect gesture, because feeling good after it is just the most perfect by-product. Which also helps the cycles of helping become ongoing. Which can benefit all of humanity.

[timwoodger]

Positive selfishness. They should teach this in schools.
It’s nice to be nice.

[satyadasgumbyji]

"To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden, or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
✌️🌎❤️

[haveaniceday]

Becoming joyful by helping is in itself helpful. Not selfish. We love being around joyful people and it's contagious 😀

[hcxwbhg]

Yes it is, and there's nothing wrong with that. If you do something good, do it because you really want it.

[Sowbn]

Even if doesn't necessarily benefits others, I don't think doing things that brings you only the joy is necessarily selfish. I see Selfishness as doing things that not only brings you joy but also harms others (and you don't care about it)

[tontongasy]

Then that will open doors to grey zones of many definitions; what is selfish? And attachment ? And expectations ?

[brothermine]

Why does it matter whether altruism meets some technical definition of "selfishness?" What matters is that it also meets the common definition of selflessness.

[robertdouglas]

"All for one and one for all." Motto of "The Three Musketeers."

[ashwin]

Most cynical people calls Acts of altruism selfish. stay away from these people because they do negative comment on your altruistic deed and try to break your goodness.

[wjf]

Something to consider is the aspect of consent in altruism. When the recipient who doesn't want the assistance is ignored or not given the opportunity to consent that is ego based altruism from the giver.

[chestercopperpot]

This “new” explanation of justifying tethered selfishness to Altruism because you get a dopamine dump is a garbage explanation. I am an Altruist, and I do it purely for the sole reason of doing it cause it’s the right thing to do. I get zero high from helping people. I don’t want a pat on the back. I want people to understand that you should do it because of principle, and that the emotional buzz you may or may not get shouldn’t be a factor.

[pauldarbishire]

Anthony de Mello SJ described altruism as
1) helping others because it makes me feel good
2) helping others because it makes the recipient feel good and that makes me feel good
or
3) helping others stops me feeling bad.

A famed specialist in recovery from addiction described altruism as "enlightened self-interest".

[PH_]

Philanthropists who declare how much they donated (for tax dodge) is the most self serving Narcissism. Giving anonymously is true giving.

[heman]

Sad thing is that this can be exploited, and many influencers do it. You just need to tell a convincing story to others and they might help you even when you don't actually need it.

[talkingtochapri]

Nobody is saying altruism is selfish, i have never seen it online or offline 🤷🏻‍♀️

[kittylagrace]

It's not the altruism that is judged as selfish but the superiority many altruistic people carry.

[livephysiology]

Perhaps the problem is in looking at is as an inverse correlation when in truth it's a positive correlation. As one variable goes up, the other variable also goes up. As explained in the video, if helping others improves the lives of others while making the individual who helped happy, both the giver is better off and the receiver is better off. The relationship benefits both and does not need to be described as it must harm the giver for it to truly benefit the receiver. That would be a false correlation.

[mikitz]

Doing good deeds for others that land you a life sentence in solitary confinement.
Now *that* is true altruism.

[IRuinEvrything]

the first 47 seconds of this video take the most legalistic, nitpicky view of the balance between doing good and feeling good about it that i've ever seen. Does the joy one feels about donating an organ outweigh the joy the recipient has at being alive for longer as a result? Joy is something that increases in quantity when shared. It does not divide, it multiplies.