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Key points
- A fundamental motivating force of altruism is empathy for the suffering of another.
- Children as young as 12 months show empathy and altruism.
- Children learn from the specific types of behaviors that are encouraged or discouraged, rewarded or punished.
The word altruism is rooted in the Latin alter, which simply means “other.” The term is credited to Auguste Comte, who conceived of altruism as devotion to the welfare of others, based in selflessness. Since Comte coined the word 150 years ago the original meaning has been expanded to include behavior that is voluntary and intended to benefit others, be they animal or man, even at the risk of harming oneself. A fundamental motivating force of altruism is empathy for the suffering of another.
The difference between a broad spectrum of pro-social behaviors such as patriotism, martyrdom, heroism or philanthropy and altruism is that altruistic persons extend themselves towards others out of genuine kindness and decency without regard to their own personal safety or expectation of any external rewards.
Few scientists have studied children from the point of view of their capacity to feel empathy or to emotionally relate to others. In one interesting experiment at Berkeley, infants 18 months old were presented with a plate of raw broccoli and a plate of goldfish crackers. The experimenter indicated her preference for one dish over another by producing a particular emotional expression (disgust or pleasure). The experimenter then reached her hands out to the infant and asked the infant to give her some food.
In a control condition, the experimenter reversed her preferences. Even when the preference of the researcher differed from their own, 18-month-old infants consistently gave the experimenter the food for which she had expressed a preference. They gave her broccoli when she previously expressed a desire for the broccoli and crackers when she indicated a desire for crackers, despite their own unalterable conviction that broccoli is yucky.
In contrast, 14-month-olds did not make these adjustments. Instead, they always gave the experimenter crackers, their own preference, regardless of her desires.
Marian Rodke-Yarrow, chief of the Laboratory of Developmental Psychology at the National Institute of Mental Health, has pioneered the study of early manifestations of altruistic and aggressive behavior. She trained mothers as one would train research assistants to provide a running record on audiotape of incidents in the home likely to elicit altruism or aggression. These incidents included situations of emotion caused by the child (child hits a playmate) or noticed by the child (child's mother cries).
The researchers collected a gold mine of 1,500 incidents. They were not prepared for the warmth and attentiveness very young children repeatedly demonstrated. Some examples: When one of the mothers went to a doctor with a sore throat, while being examined she made a sound, as if she was choking. At once, her 12-month-old son tried to knock the swab out of her doctor's hand. Another mother told of her 13-month-old who was eating his cereal when his father came home and sat down next to him at the kitchen table. For a second, being tired, he rested his head in his hands. The son pulled his father's hands down and tried to feed him some of his cereal. "A noble gesture" his mother observed, "because he loves his cereal." Many children tried to comfort people who were crying or in pain. They would snuggle up to them, stroke them, or hug them.
The children who demonstrate empathy and altruism early on continue to do so as they grow older. Yarrow's research findings turn long held views (first proposed by Piaget) about children before the age of seven being so steeped in egocentricism that they cannot possibly understand someone else's point of view wrong.
Yarrow's group observed that the three most powerful predictors of altruism in children were: firstly, rational, reasoned explanations by caretakers of why certain behaviors are or are not desirable. However, neutral, calmly reasoned explanations such as "Heather is hurt" or "You should not take his toy" had little effect by themselves. The parent's message had to carry an emotional charge to have a lasting effect. The third factor that seemed related to altruism in children was the style of parenting adopted by the mother. If a mother treated her children with empathy, if she attended to their cuts and bruises and likes and dislikes with patience and kindness, her children mirrored helping behavior back to the world.
Recent research findings show that a secure first relationship (both prenatal and postnatal) which is marked by parental responsiveness to the child's needs is likely to enhance the development of altruism and decrease the accumulation of negative feelings that lead to antisocial, aggressive and violent behavior.
Children learn from the specific types of behaviors that are encouraged or discouraged, rewarded or punished. They learn from what their parents say and do. The latter is referred to as modeling. Seeing parents helping others in need and showing concern for the weak and the destitute clearly leads to the adoption or internalization of these values. Samuel and Pearl Oliver in their splendid book The Altruistic Personality examine the personality traits of rescuers of Jews in Nazi Europe. They write: ". . . rescuers' commitment to actively protect or enhance the well-being of others did not emerge suddenly under the threat of Nazi brutality. . . rescuers integrated such values into their lives well before the war began — and remained committed to them long after it ended."
Rescuers described their early family relationships in general and their relationships with their mothers in particular as more affectionate than did non-rescuers. Rescuers also felt significantly closer to their fathers than did bystanders.
We need to realize that moral behavior is learned through action, through engagement in moral conduct. To the extent to which the child is or is not guided to do or to act will determine how much he or she will internalize those values. Without an internal moral compass, we become just putty in the hands of unattached, unbonded psychopaths.
In the final analysis, our only hope for a better world lies in heightening and deepening this innate capacity to care, to nurture and to feel for others.
References
Comte, August. Bridges, J.H. (t2009). A General View of Positivism; Trubner and Co., 1865 (reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2009; ISBN 978-1-108-00064-2).
Motlusk, Allison (1997). Science : Go on then, have the broccoli if you must. New Scientist.
Hoffman, M L (1981). in Altruism and helping behavior: Social, personality, and developmental perspectives J. Philippe Rushton (Editor), Richard M. Sorrentino (Editor). L. Erlbaum Associates.
Gopnik, A., & Meltzoff, A. N. (1997). Words, thoughts, and theories. The MIT Press., p. 133.
Altruism and Aggression ed. Carolyn Zahn-Wexler, E. Mark Cummings, Ronald Lennotti. Cambridge University Press, 1986.
