A Little Altruism Update

In starting this blog, my hope was to document my altruistic acts (and to hopefully inspire others). As I went about this project, I wondered how much reading comments and discussing my acts became a reward for myself (rather than a truly altruistic act). Thus, I stopped posting but continued the project.  In the past year I have had some amazing experiences (and some not so good ones). Here are a few highlights and questions that arose:

·    Do people who are homeless need organic food? -- As I started this project I found one of the easiest tasks was to bring food to people who were homeless.  It became my go to act if I had not done anything else that day (or even if I had). It began as bringing leftovers and extra food that I had in my house.  However, I found more people who needed food and I needed a new strategy. I then began buying food in bulk. One question I started to ponder was whether I could feel good about buying low-priced food.  For example, noodles and pasta were ideal foods to cook and relatively inexpensive. I wondered whether I should make the foods part of a healthy diet.  Thus, I added vegetables to the pasta I was cooking. As I continued I wondered whether I should include organic vegetables (which I try to include in my diet as much as possible). I eventually repaired my cognitive dissonance by changing my behavior to eat less organic vegetables.

·    Does my cooking stink? – I often had people question why I was bringing them food or being suspicious of some random person bringing them food.  However, as people got to know me they accepted what I was doing. What I found interesting would be that people who had eaten my food before would not take it at a later time. I will protect my self-esteem and say to myself that they must have eaten earlier.

·    Is it safe to feed the homeless? – In finding people who are homeless, I would walk to areas that people might call unsafe.  Part of me liked the adventure and I didn’t feel scared going into the situations. I never carried my phone or wallet (in part because I thought I could be robbed and in part because I did not want to get in the habit of giving out money). One day I was robbed at gunpoint.  Although I am not sure if it is robbery if I did not lose anything.  I was very anxious and tried to explain that I was just bringing food and I had no wallet. I showed my empty pockets and eventually was able to get out of the situation. Another time an altercation between two people who were homeless was started right in front of me.  Luckily, they ended it rather quickly because I did not know what I would do.

Overall, I found this project to be highly enjoyable. I don’t think my enjoyment counts as a truly altruistic act.  I did my best to avoid getting praise and to try to make it an activity that I would not feel rewarded.  However, it was often difficult to not feel good about it. Thus, rather than getting into a discussion of whether it was an altruistic act, I will call it prosocial behavior.  I enjoyed my prosocial behavior and it was often a way to get out of my own problems by focusing on others (a topic of a future blog).  

This entry is also posted at Psychology Today:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/little-altruism/201103/little-altruism-update

New ideas for altruistic acts on Psychology Today

Reposted from here:

I am trying to think of new possibilities for altruistic acts.  Feeding people who are homeless has been successful, but I also want to expand my horizons.  I want to make this project a challenge.  I am starting to get a ritual to my current acts.  I want to push myself more.  I do find it easy to find things to do if I am open to the idea.  It actually seems very easy to find kind things to do.

One idea I had for an altruistic act is talking with people and showing genuine caring for them (I was inspired by an entry on Mark Goulston's blog on Psychology Today).  While feeding people who are homeless, I would try to give them the food and escape before they noticed.  I think part of that was trying not to get gratitude about my actions.  Another part of it might have been my discomfort in meeting new people.  Maybe an altruistic act could be just sitting with someone and listening to them.  Making them feel heard and supported.  That is, in Dacher Keltner's words to increase their Jen Ratio.

Let's see what happens.  I will try to attempt this in the next few days.

Please add new ideas for altruistic acts in the comments.

New Blog at Psychology Today

I have also started documenting this project at Psychology Today.  I plan on using both sites to discuss the project and I will probably mirror those entries here (and these entries there).  This site might contain more of the everyday details of what I do and my feeling surrounding these acts.

There are already a few entries on the Psychology Today Blog, so please check those entries out as well.

Continuing the Project

I apologize for not reporting as much information here as I did previously.  I have kept the project going, but my work schedule has gotten busier and I have let the documentation portion of this project sag a bit.  I understand that this is important too because this is the means in which I hope to inspire others to do selfless acts.  I will work harder at keeping this portion going.

As for new selfless acts, I am trying to think smaller as well as larger.  For example, I picked up a postcard off the staircase the other day.  My main reason for this was that this postcard is quite slippery and I thought I might prevent someone from tripping.  I also pulled off to the side of the road to help push someone's car which had stalled in the road.  I have also been involved with finding clothes and water to send to Haiti.  It is amazing how easy it is to find altruistic acts if I look for them.

Altruism, Heroics, and Extreme-Altrusim

One common contrast to altruistic acts are acts of psychopathy.  Psychopaths are people who have little or not remorse for their actions.  They are thought to not feel empathy for others.  Thus, they act in very selfish ways to promote their own welfare.  Thus, it would seem that people who we would consider to be prototypes of altruism (e.g., Mother Teresa or Gandhi) would be considered as complete opposites to psychopaths.  However, a great article by Andrea Kuszewski points out some similarities between what she calls extreme-altruism and psychopaths.

She describes people who have extreme-altruistic personalities as someone who goes out of their way to help others, even at the expense of their own welfare.

Someone who goes out of their way to help others, even at the expense of their own welfare, is actually more likely to break rules than the average person. Think of Dr Ross from the early days of the TV show "ER". He was constantly pushing limits, breaking the rules, throwing caution to the wind, all for the sake of the child-patient, even when it ultimately meant getting fired. On 9/11, after it was apparent that the buildings were about to collapse, teams of firefighters were called back, yet they disobeyed orders and pushed on anyway, only to perish in the quest to possibly save even one more life. Those are the actions of a hero, or an X-altruistic personality type. But consider the type of rule-breaking that the X-altruist engages in- would you classify it as criminal, or even unlawful? How does motive factor in?
...

X-altruists are compelled to good, even when doing so makes no sense and brings harm upon them. The cannot tolerate injustice, and go to extreme lengths to help those who have been wronged, regardless of their personal relationship to them. Now, I am not speaking of the guy who helps an old lady cross the street. I am speaking of the guy who throws himself in front of a speeding bus to push the old lady out of the way, killing himself in the process. The average, kind, thoughtful person does not take these kinds of extreme personal risks on a regular basis. 

It is an interesting idea to point out similarities with extreme-altruism and psychopaths.  Some of the similarities include impulsivity, need for novelty, and the tendency to break rules.  However, the differences are what fundamentally define these two types of people.  People who are altruistic can empathize with others or imagine themselves in the other persons shoes.  Whereas, people who are psychopaths cannot empathize and lack remorse for their actions.

An interesting question brought up by this article is how many people are extreme altruists compared to the every day person who does altruistic acts?  Or are there many people who are extreme altruists compared to the people who give their whole lives to being altruistic?

I don't have time to answer these questions because I need to rush into this burning building to save small children.

Organ Donations

Israel has an innovative new policy on organ donation. People who are organ donors will now receive priority if they require a transplant. This program basically makes incentives for people who are agreeing to help others.  This policy may not fit the definition of pure 'altruism.  However, it is an interesting 'nudge' to get people to do altruistic acts.

Whatever You Do For The Least Among Us

I don't often quote Scripture, but I felt inspired by the line: "whatever you do for the least among us ... that you do unto me."

For those of you who are interested, you can find a local food bank provider to donate food to through the Feeding America's food-bank locator.