Altruism is a behavior in which an individual, the donor performs an action that helps another individual, the recipient without the donor gaining any advantage. We believe that natural selection should eliminate these characteristics, but there are still numerous examples. In animals today, we can see acts of altruism being performed in honey bees, ants and "the watchman" bird. We also see a special kind of altruistic behavior in vampire bats. (1).
A honey bee society is made up of a queen bee and 30,000 - 40,000 workers. Each worker who is a diploid female begins their life as a fertilized egg which is deposited by the queen in a separate wax cell. (The males are haploid and develop from unfertilized eggs.) After the fertilized egg hatches, a white, grublike larva is produced. This larva is fed almost continuously by the nurse workers. After the larva has grown until it fills the cell, the nurses cover the cell with a wax lid. Then, within 12 days the adult bee emerges. (3).
After the adult bee begins work, she is a nurse bringing honey and pollen from storage cells to the queen. After becoming a nurse, she begins to produce wax which is secreted from the abdomen and passed forward to expand the comb. During this phase, she may remove sick and dead bees from the hive, clean up empty cells or act as a guard to the entrance of the hive. A honeybee may sting strangers if they go near its hive, thereby ending its life in an attempt to protect the colony. This can be interpreted as altruism because the donor stings strangers to protect the colony, which is the recipient. The honeybee loses it's life in order to protect it's fellow comrades. (3).
Altruism in ants has effectively worked for 100 million years. There are species of ants in which castes of individual members function as farmers, nannies, warriors, builders, even storage containers, walls, and bridges. Some of these roles require them to leave the nest at a risk of their own life on behalf of their colony.
Altruism means any behavior that is kind, generous and helpful to others. People are not likely to read about altruism in a newspaper, but they take place with great occurrence. ... Altruism is an innate trait that has been passed along through the process of evolution. ... It is believe that not only altruism lies in heredity but in learning. There are wide individual differences in tendencies toward altruism. ...
Introduction The concept of altruism is used in normal situations to refer to selflessness. ... The notion of altruism has a long historical background in ethics and philosophy. ... Even though the concept of altruism in one field of study can have impact on other fields of study, different focuses or methods used in these fields of study always lead to different perceptions on altruism. ... The concept of altruism may be considered a general behavior in the cases whereby altruism has been considered an individual's trait. ... It is a bit challenging to tell whether anyone possess the tra...
People who experience altruism are usually affected psychologically. ... In the book, "Altruism: An Accident of Nature?"... In "The Negative Side to Altruism," Jason Summers insists that altruism leads to idleness. ... Without altruism, we would not be able to perform simple tasks. ... Altruism has been known to give people a sense of happiness. ...
Discuss evolutionary explanations of altruism Altruism is a very interesting subject and is the cause for much debate throughout many academic areas as well as psychology, such as biology and economics. People are always asking "Is there such a thing as true altruism?" To begin I would like to define what I mean by altruism. ... Not all altruism is entirely selfless as it can often be directed towards kin or it can be a form of reciprocal altruism. ... So, this may also not be true altruism. ...
One may define altruism as a selfless regard for the well being of other individuals. ... This theory can only explain altruism when the donor and recipient are akin to each other. ... He then discovered reciprocal altruism among male olive baboons (Papio Anhuis). ... But for reciprocal altruism to evolve, the helper must be more fit in the long run. ... Another explanation for altruism in evolutionary perspective is sexual selection. ...
In 1971, one hundred years after Darwin's ideas on reciprocal altruism were in The Descent of Man, Trivers published a paper that was called "The Evolution of Reciprocal Altruism" In The Quarterly Review of Biology (Wright 1994). ... Mutual betrayal is like both not offering a favor in the first place, even though both my benefit from reciprocal altruism, this way neither will get hurt. With reciprocal altruism there is a delay in time between the altruism and its reciprocation, but the players in the prisoner's dilemma gave themselves up at the same time (Wright 1994). ... This ...
In some way this condition is called heroism or altruism. ... It seems that for Woods and Rusesabagina altruism is an intrinsic part of their nature. ... Woods notices that, "As humans, we worship altruism. ... He assumes that the young generation is one of the nobler spirits that knows what altruism means. ... It was how they saw themselves in relation to others, and that is the key to understand altruism....
There is no such thing as a purely altruistic act. In Frans de Waal's essay, The Ape and the Sushi Master, we learn how all acts of kindness root from some knowledge of selfish gain. Both Lani Guinier (Second Proms and Second Primaries) and Mary Kaldor (Beyond Militarism, Arms Races, and Ar...
