Is there a biological basis for helping people?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion centers around the biological basis for altruistic behavior, particularly in the context of helping others in need, as illustrated by personal anecdotes. Participants explore the implications of empathy, emotional responses, and the influence of upbringing on such behaviors.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • One participant describes a personal experience of helping someone with a dead battery, questioning how a biologist might explain the motivation behind such altruistic behavior despite negative personal consequences.
  • Another participant references an attachment discussing emotional contagion as a primitive form of empathy, raising questions about individuals who do not help others and whether this indicates a lack of innate empathy or learned behavior.
  • Some participants suggest that while feelings of empathy are innate, the reactions to those feelings may be influenced by learned behaviors from upbringing.
  • A participant shares a personal story about witnessing a lack of help for a family member in distress, suggesting that while people may feel empathy, they may prioritize their own needs over helping others.
  • There is a discussion about the role of nurture in shaping altruistic behavior, with one participant noting their own upbringing as unhealthy and contrasting it with the OP's experience of feeling good about helping others.
  • Another participant introduces the idea that helping behaviors may not be strictly human, citing examples of animals aiding their peers, which could suggest a biological basis for altruism beyond human socialization.
  • The conversation touches on the complexity of motivations behind helping or not helping others, including potential connections to broader social issues like racism.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express a range of views on the biological versus learned aspects of altruism, with no clear consensus reached. Some argue for the innate nature of empathy, while others emphasize the role of upbringing and social context.

Contextual Notes

Participants acknowledge the complexity of motivations behind helping behaviors and the potential influence of both biological and environmental factors, but do not resolve these nuances.

Newai
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A few mornings ago, I helped a young woman with her car (dead battery), which made me late for work. Which brought some negative consequences to me. Yet I would do the same thing again just to help.

With no benefit to me, but with negative consequences, I felt good for helping someone in need. How would a biologist explain this behavior?
 
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Newai said:
A few mornings ago, I helped a young woman with her car (dead battery), which made me late for work. Which brought some negative consequences to me. Yet I would do the same thing again just to help.

With no benefit to me, but with negative consequences, I felt good for helping someone in need. How would a biologist explain this behavior?

http://darwinianconservatism.blogspot.com/2009/12/evolutionary-biology-of-empathy.html
 
Thank you.
 
The attachment says: "The deepest and most primitive level of empathy is emotional contagion, the tendency to automatically resonate with other human beings by mimicking their facial expressions, vocal sounds, and bodily movements."

What does this imply for those that would not stop for the battery-deficient motorest? Are they lacking something in their deepest regions? Are they missing the 'signals' sent by other human beings that would resonate? Would the act of not stopping (poor syntax there :blushing:) be a biological, as in innate response or a learned action?

I guess this is the opposite of the question - is there a biological bases for being a jerk?
 
croghan27 said:
The attachment says: "The deepest and most primitive level of empathy is emotional contagion, the tendency to automatically resonate with other human beings by mimicking their facial expressions, vocal sounds, and bodily movements."

What does this imply for those that would not stop for the battery-deficient motorest? Are they lacking something in their deepest regions? Are they missing the 'signals' sent by other human beings that would resonate? Would the act of not stopping (poor syntax there :blushing:) be a biological, as in innate response or a learned action?

I guess this is the opposite of the question - is there a biological bases for being a jerk?

Well, this is a good question, there are people in the world who are 'psychotic' and they have no emotional connection to the world. This accounts for a very small percentage of humans (something liek 1% of total population). I think that when a person drives by and sees a person in distress they don't 'feel nothing' because they didn't decide to stop. I am certain they still 'feel' towards that person they only decided to continue because what they had to do was more important to them.

The other day my Aunts care broke down in the middle of a really busy road just at the intersection, her battery had died. So she had no 4 ways or anything, she was sstanding on the side of the road crying and no one stopped to make sure she was ok or offered her some help. Everyone just drove by, and when I say everyone I mean everyone, I had to go and push her car from the middle of the road over to a gas station. It kind of pissed me off that no one would help but I can't say that no one was empathetic towards our situation.

It's important to note that these feelings are innate to humans however the reactions to the feelings are learned behaviour at a very young age. So it's is completely possible that those who do not help just do not know that they probably should help. The OP clearly grrew up in a very respectable family who valued helping others in their times of need. I guess this because he describes the good feeling he gets regardless of the negative consequences he receives for helping a person.
 
Sorry! said:
The OP clearly grrew up in a very respectable family who valued helping others in their times of need. I guess this because he describes the good feeling he gets regardless of the negative consequences he receives for helping a person.

Eh, not really. My family has been very unhealthy for me. For example, I'm the only one here who isn't racist. So, I'm in that odd position of trying to understand good deeds. Hence my post.
 
Newai said:
Eh, not really. My family has been very unhealthy for me. For example, I'm the only one here who isn't racist. So, I'm in that odd position of trying to understand good deeds. Hence my post.

Well done to you, Newai - to overcome an irrational position that was apparently laid upon you through nurture. I guess that open another question in this thread of, is helping people (or not helping people) connect to racism? I have known people holding what I considered racist views against blacks, Muslims and Jews (gays as well - but is that racist?) that have been willing to help all manner of others.

I do not have immediate access to these reports - but I am sure most people have seen stories of animals coming to the aid of their peers: elephants helping elephants, dolphins helping dolphins, great apes - great apes and whales, whales. If these are not old wives tales or urban myths, they would indicate that these beasts share with us some sophisticated motivations.

I fear this does not forward us in the quest for an answer to your question - you seem to cast a negative light on the nurture explanation, what is left is nature. As you ask, a biological reason.
 
croghan27 said:
you seem to cast a negative light on the nurture explanation, what is left is nature. As you ask, a biological reason.
I do? I only meant that good nurturing was not present in my upbringing.
 

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