The Exploring Mechanisms of the Formation of Altruistic Behaviors

Abstract

Altruism is essential to the world. If people do something on account of caring for others more, it is altruistic. Evolution motivates kin altruism. Reciprocal altruism is essential to human society. There also exists altruism that has nothing to do with gene correlation, like vernacular altruism. Different kinds of altruism have different motivations. The glow effect exists because people want to experience again the warm glow they feel when being altruistic, though the neural base needs to be studied. A costly long-term investment is a more complex altruistic behavior in the real world. It can be explained by selective investment theory, which discusses the importance of relationships. What’s more, altruism has its neurological base. The amygdala volume of people with altruistic trait may be more significant. They may also have more excellent neural activity in regions concerning caring and empathy, like midbrain periaqueductal gray and anterior insular. These neurological findings also lay the foundation for some people to be more altruistic than others. Future research can enlarge the investigation on the practical use of altruism, like discovering how to activate people’s altruistic behaviors and what people can do to cultivate and preserve altruism.