23
October 2003
Altruism: What's the point?
Are we selfish or altruistic? This has long been debated in politics, science and philosophy, though answers are often based more on introspection than on real evidence. But the past decade has seen rapid progress in the study of human altruism on three fronts. Lab experiments have revealed a rich pattern of altruistic behaviour; game theorists formalized the motives behind this behaviour; and evolutionary theories explained how altruism may have come about. These strands of research are combined in a review by Fehr and Fischbacher. An emerging theme is the idea that both selfish and altruistic individuals are vital to human cooperative behaviour.
The nature of human altruism
ERNST FEHR & URS FISCHBACHER
Nature 425, 785–791 (2003); doi:10.1038/nature02043
| Summary
| Full Text
(HTML / PDF) |
