The Altruistic Urge PDF Download
Are you looking for read ebook online? Search for your book and save it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Download The Altruistic Urge PDF full book. Access full book title The Altruistic Urge by Stephanie D. Preston. Download full books in PDF and EPUB format.
Author: Stephanie D. Preston
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231555520
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 165
Get Book Here
Book Description
Ordinary people can perform acts of astonishing selflessness, sometimes even putting their lives on the line. A pregnant woman saw a dorsal fin and blood in the water—and dove right in to pull her wounded husband to safety. Remarkably, some even leap into action to save complete strangers: one New York man jumped onto the subway tracks to rescue a boy who had fallen into the path of an oncoming train. Such behavior is not uniquely human. Researchers have found that mother rodents are highly motivated to bring newborn pups—not just their own—back to safety. What do these stories have in common, and what do they reveal about the instinct to protect others? In The Altruistic Urge, Stephanie D. Preston explores how and why we developed a surprisingly powerful drive to help the vulnerable. She argues that the neural and psychological mechanisms that evolved to safeguard offspring also motivate people to save strangers in need of immediate aid. Eye-catching dramatic rescues bear a striking similarity to how other mammals retrieve their young and help explain more mundane forms of support like donating money. Merging extensive interdisciplinary research that spans psychology, neuroscience, neurobiology, and evolutionary biology, Preston develops a groundbreaking model of altruistic responses. Her theory accounts for extraordinary feats of bravery, all-too-common apathy, and everything in between—and it can also be deployed to craft more effective appeals to assist those in need.
Author: Stephanie D. Preston
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231555520
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 165
Get Book Here
Book Description
Ordinary people can perform acts of astonishing selflessness, sometimes even putting their lives on the line. A pregnant woman saw a dorsal fin and blood in the water—and dove right in to pull her wounded husband to safety. Remarkably, some even leap into action to save complete strangers: one New York man jumped onto the subway tracks to rescue a boy who had fallen into the path of an oncoming train. Such behavior is not uniquely human. Researchers have found that mother rodents are highly motivated to bring newborn pups—not just their own—back to safety. What do these stories have in common, and what do they reveal about the instinct to protect others? In The Altruistic Urge, Stephanie D. Preston explores how and why we developed a surprisingly powerful drive to help the vulnerable. She argues that the neural and psychological mechanisms that evolved to safeguard offspring also motivate people to save strangers in need of immediate aid. Eye-catching dramatic rescues bear a striking similarity to how other mammals retrieve their young and help explain more mundane forms of support like donating money. Merging extensive interdisciplinary research that spans psychology, neuroscience, neurobiology, and evolutionary biology, Preston develops a groundbreaking model of altruistic responses. Her theory accounts for extraordinary feats of bravery, all-too-common apathy, and everything in between—and it can also be deployed to craft more effective appeals to assist those in need.
Author: Richard Dawkins
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780192860927
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 372
Get Book Here
Book Description
Science need not be dull and bogged down by jargon, as Richard Dawkins proves in this entertaining look at evolution. The themes he takes up are the concepts of altruistic and selfish behaviour; the genetical definition of selfish interest; the evolution of aggressive behaviour; kinshiptheory; sex ratio theory; reciprocal altruism; deceit; and the natural selection of sex differences. 'Should be read, can be read by almost anyone. It describes with great skill a new face of the theory of evolution.' W.D. Hamilton, Science
Author: Andrew Michael Flescher
Publisher: Templeton Foundation Press
ISBN: 1599471221
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 301
Get Book Here
Book Description
What motiviates altruism? How essential is altruism to the human experience? Is altruism readily accessible to the ordinary person? Exploring these questions through the lenses of biology, psychology, philosophy, and religion, this book argues for the existence of altruism against competing theories that view benevolence as self-interest in disguise. The authors consider the role of genetics and evolutionary biology: psychological states that induce altt behaior;phlsohcal teories of altruism in normative ethics such as Kantian, utilitarian, and Aristotelian models of moral action; and accounts of love of the neighbor in Christianity and Buddhism. Using the insights of these varying perspectives, the authors offer a new comprehensive definition of altruism that affirms humanity's benevolent nature.
Author: David Sloan Wilson
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300189494
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 190
Get Book Here
Book Description
Argues that altruism is an inherent factor of group functionality and discusses how studying group function can promote positive changes to the human condition.
Author: Donald W. Pfaff
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199377464
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 313
Get Book Here
Book Description
"Unlike any other study in its field, The Altruistic Brain synthesizes into one theory the most important research into how and why - by purely physical mechanisms - humans empathize with one another and respond altruistically."--Jacket.
Author: Robert W. Sussman
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 144199520X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 433
Get Book Here
Book Description
This book is about the evolution and nature of cooperation and altruism in social-living animals, focusing especially on non-human primates and on humans. Although cooperation and altruism are often thought of as ways to attenuate competition and aggression within groups, or are related to the action of “selfish genes”, there is increasing evidence that these behaviors are the result of biological mechanisms that have developed through natural selection in group-living species. This evidence leads to the conclusion that cooperative and altruistic behavior are not just by-products of competition but are rather the glue that underlies the ability for primates and humans to live in groups. The anthropological, primatological, paleontological, behavioral, neurobiological, and psychological evidence provided in this book gives a more optimistic view of human nature than the more popular, conventional view of humans being naturally and basically aggressive and warlike. Although competition and aggression are recognized as an important part of the non-human primate and human behavioral repertoire, the evidence from these fields indicates that cooperation and altruism may represent the more typical, “normal”, and healthy behavioral pattern. The book is intended both for the general reader and also for students at a variety of levels (graduate and undergraduate): it aims to provide a compact, accessible, and up-to-date account of the current scholarly advances and debates in this field of study, and it is designed to be used in teaching and in discussion groups. The book derived from a conference sponsored by N.S.F., the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, the Washington University Committee for Ethics and Human Values, and the Anthropedia Foundation for the study of well-being.
Author: Nigel Barber
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1615924809
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 415
Get Book Here
Book Description
What do mutual grooming, politeness, priestly celibacy, military heroism, car insurance, and overwork have in common? All are probable examples of the recently discovered evolutionary mechanism called "reciprocal altruism." Put simply, the concept means, "You scratch my back and I''ll scratch yours." Although rare in animals, reciprocal altruism colors much of human emotion and social behavior. Over the course of our evolutionary history we humans have developed a great variety of social contracts ranging from food-sharing among hunter-gatherers to observing the rules of the road in contemporary society. In a lively, fascinating discussion that explores the behaviors of bees, bats, and humans in various normal and deviant social settings evolutionary psychologist Nigel Barber explains the evolutionary basis of these wide-ranging phenomena.Beginning with Darwin''s theory, Barber shows how the original notion of a dog-eat-dog world where survival of the fittest is the only rule must now be modified by the new findings on altruism. In bees, for example, the workers evolve without reproductive ability and exist only for the good of the hive and the propagation of the queen bee''s genes. In addition, vampire bats will spontaneously share food through regurgitation, evidently so that the favor will be returned when food sources are scarce.In humans, reciprocal arrangements depend on trust, so moral emotions, like guilt, embarrassment, resentment, and pride, have evolved to guard against the temptation to cheat, which would destroy the basis of trust on which so much depends. The evolution of such emotions may also lead to exceptionally self-sacrificial behavior in some individuals, whether this takes the form of priestly celibacy, a soldier jumping on a hand grenade to save his buddies, or the donation of a kidney. Barber brings the revealing insights of evolutionary psychology to these examples and more, and delves into related issues including sex differences in kindness, new approaches to rehabilitating criminals, the connection of kindness to health, and the political manifestations of altruism in the environmental movement.Full of stimulating ideas expressed in lucid prose, Kindness in a Cruel World presents a compelling case that the desire to help others and the spirit of cooperation are fundamental to our human evolutionary inheritance.
Author: Charles Daniel Batson
Publisher:
ISBN: 0195341066
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 336
Get Book Here
Book Description
We send money to help famine victims halfway around the world. We campaign to save whales and oceans. We stay up all night to comfort a friend with a broken relationship. People will at times risk - even lose - their lives for others, including strangers. Why do we do these things? What motivates such behavior? Altruism in Humans takes a hard-science look at the possibility that we humans have the capacity to care for others for their sakes rather than simply for our own. Based on an extensive series of theory-testing laboratory experiments conducted over the past 35 years, this book details a theory of altruistic motivation, offers a comprehensive summary of the research designed to test the empathy-altruism hypothesis, and considers the theoretical and practical implications of this conclusion. Authored by the world's preeminent scholar on altruism, this landmark work is an authoritative scholarly resource on the theory surrounding altruism and its potential contribution to better interpersonal relations and a better society.
Author: Samuel Bowles
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400838835
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 275
Get Book Here
Book Description
A fascinating look at the evolutionary origins of cooperation Why do humans, uniquely among animals, cooperate in large numbers to advance projects for the common good? Contrary to the conventional wisdom in biology and economics, this generous and civic-minded behavior is widespread and cannot be explained simply by far-sighted self-interest or a desire to help close genealogical kin. In A Cooperative Species, Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis—pioneers in the new experimental and evolutionary science of human behavior—show that the central issue is not why selfish people act generously, but instead how genetic and cultural evolution has produced a species in which substantial numbers make sacrifices to uphold ethical norms and to help even total strangers. The authors describe how, for thousands of generations, cooperation with fellow group members has been essential to survival. Groups that created institutions to protect the civic-minded from exploitation by the selfish flourished and prevailed in conflicts with less cooperative groups. Key to this process was the evolution of social emotions such as shame and guilt, and our capacity to internalize social norms so that acting ethically became a personal goal rather than simply a prudent way to avoid punishment. Using experimental, archaeological, genetic, and ethnographic data to calibrate models of the coevolution of genes and culture as well as prehistoric warfare and other forms of group competition, A Cooperative Species provides a compelling and novel account of how humans came to be moral and cooperative.
Author: Scott Boorman
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 0323148859
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 480
Get Book Here
Book Description
The Genetics of Altruism covers the primary findings on social evolution, social trait, and altruism from a population genetics standpoint to establish a system of genetic boxes. It presents an evolutionary question with two faces: Why are there so many social species? Why, in all the diversity of the animal kingdom, are the social species so few? To address the evolutionary question, this book focuses on recognition of the fact that on an evolutionary time, scale genetics must underlie all changes in the capacity for social structure and other aspects of organic evolution. It presents comparative analyses framed in mathematical terms; mathematical concepts as a means of getting outside human, perhaps more generally primate and carnivore; frames of reference; and alternative network combinatorics as a natural basis for comparing social structures that are phylogenetically remote. It also discusses the comparative biology of social behavior on a purely descriptive basis through the social and evolutionary structures emergent. The book concludes by discussing major evolutionary pathways, various kinds of preadaptedness for sociality, and the use of cascade principle to suggest ways in which human evolution may have been a special case. This book is a valuable resource for biologists, social scientists, researchers, students, and all those who want to broaden their knowledge in the field of social behavior and altruism.
