Why Do We Give? Reflections on altruism in the season of giving
When my sister-in-law asked me for gift suggestions for this season, my first thought was for her to make a donation to charity in my name. I am not alone. Americans give around $300 billion a year to charity. There are, of course, many different reasons as to why people give. Some give to feel a sense of value and satisfaction, some give to give something back, some give because they believe in the cause of a charity, and so forth. Although these reasons are worth thinking about in specific cases, they do not really get at a more basic question. Why do humans give at all? Or, put slightly differently, are we humans fundamentally altruistic or selfish?
The answer from the Unified Theory (UT) is that we have deep potentials for both. That we have deep potentials for self-interested behavior probably does not come as a surprise to many. But deep propensities for altruism? Given that the UT is naturalistic and evolutionary (as opposed to supernatural/mystical) how is it that we can truly have altruistic propensities? Aren’t all naturalistic theories ultimately selfish at their core? Doesn’t Darwin’s theory say that any animal that sacrifices their interests for others would inevitably be weaker and less fit than those who focused solely on their own interests?
The answer is no. Many decades ago, evolutionary biologists worked out how altruism evolves and because it is grounded in modern evolutionary theory, the UT incorporates these explanations. From the vantage point of the UT, there are four deep explanations for altruism: 1) nepotistic altruism; 2) reciprocal altruism (mutualism); 3) group-based altruism; and 4) moral justification.
Let’s start with nepotistic altruism. Imagine two primate infants. One mother dotes on the infant, feeds it, nurtures it, protects it, and cuddles it. The other mother focuses only on her own needs, and basically neglects the infant. Now, which infant is more likely to survive and go on to reproduce? Clearly, the first one. The mother’s altruistic care helps foster the reproduction of her kin. So, is it really altruistic? Yes. The mother has internalized the interest of the child and sacrifices on its behalf, which is the definition of altruism. Granted, it is selfish at the level of the gene, but nonetheless altruistic at the level of the organism.