This paper discusses the relations between three forms of altruism:
behavioural, evolutionary and motivational. Altruism in a behavioural sense
is an act that benefits another person. It can range from volunteering to a
charity and helping a neighbour, to giving money to a non-profit
organisation or donating blood. People often dedicate their material and
nonmaterial resources for the benefit of others to gain psychological,
social and material benefits for themselves. Thus, their altruistic acts are
driven by egoistic motivation. Also, the final goal of an altruistic act may
be the increase in the welfare of a group or adherence to a certain moral
principle or a social norm. However, at least sometimes, the welfare of
others is the ultimate goal of our actions, when our altruistic acts are
performed from altruistic motivation. In evolutionary sense, altruism means
the sacrifice of reproductive success for the benefit of other organisms.
According to evolutionary theories, behaviour which promotes the
reproductive success of the receiver at the cost of the actor is favoured by
natural selection, because it is either beneficial for the altruist in the
long run, or for his genes, or for the group he belongs to. However,
altruism among people emerges as a distinctly human combination of innate
and learned behaviours. Not only do we benefit the members of our own group,
but we are capable of transcending our tribalistic instincts and putting the
benefit of strangers at our own personal expense as our ultimate goal.
The Evolutionary Theories of Aging Revisited – A Mini-Review