Altruism may exist (I think it does), but I’m not sure I fully understand the distinction which is being made here. Does the aversive-arousal hypothesis say that people only feel bad when they see people suffer? (Not a serious suggestion, since then all blind people would be sociopaths.) Is it the immediate sensory perception of suffering that, according to this hypothesis, causes discomfort? The article talks about “escaping the situation,” so is it some aspect of the social position in which a person finds himself, the being-expected-to-help, which is understood to cause the unpleasant sensations? For me, just knowing that another person suffers is enough to upset me—I suppose that doesn’t count as aversive-arousal? Does it fit the definition of altruism that you are using here?
I often feel very intense, arational urges to help when I become aware that other people are in trouble. These feelings do seem to follow from, or in some way depend on, empathy with the needy party, but I’m not sure I would classify them as altruism; they don’t necessarily agree with what I believe to be the right thing to do, and sometimes I wish I could get rid of them more easily.
When I cannot gratify this need-to-help, I often suffer rebound depressions in which my ability to learn and do difficult work is significantly impaired. For example, I recently read about this couple, and found myself losing sleep over their predicament, and feeling the urge to dip into my emergency fund in order to send them more money than I could otherwise afford, even though I knew that I could do much more good by sending the same money to VillageReach and had already made the choice not to do so. Nor do I think this was really a case of buying fuzzies—the satisfaction that my small donation gave me was much smaller in magnitude than my distress at being unable to fix the situation; it was even less than the satisfaction I feel when I send a similar amount to VillageReach. But the article made me empathize with them, and now I was stuck with the empathy.
I could try to train myself not to feel this need-to-help so intensely, but I’m not sure I really want to. I think I like being the kind of person who will drive through the night to help a friend in trouble, or take responsibility for the well-being of an elderly neighbor—I just don’t want to have to do the same for strangers. Because of this, I have come to rely on scope insensitivity as a defense mechanism. I try to avoid empathizing excessively with random needy people, because once Helping Girl Mode is engaged, I have a tough time turning it off, or even wanting to turn it off. When dealing with statistics instead of people, I can allocate my charitable giving according to what seems most effective, rather than to address what I perceive as urgent needs.
(I hope no one interprets this comment as bragging. I’m pretty sure I’m confused somehow, and I know it’s silly to care that much about random internet people.)
Altruism may exist (I think it does), but I’m not sure I fully understand the distinction which is being made here. Does the aversive-arousal hypothesis say that people only feel bad when they see people suffer? (Not a serious suggestion, since then all blind people would be sociopaths.) Is it the immediate sensory perception of suffering that, according to this hypothesis, causes discomfort? The article talks about “escaping the situation,” so is it some aspect of the social position in which a person finds himself, the being-expected-to-help, which is understood to cause the unpleasant sensations? For me, just knowing that another person suffers is enough to upset me—I suppose that doesn’t count as aversive-arousal? Does it fit the definition of altruism that you are using here?
I often feel very intense, arational urges to help when I become aware that other people are in trouble. These feelings do seem to follow from, or in some way depend on, empathy with the needy party, but I’m not sure I would classify them as altruism; they don’t necessarily agree with what I believe to be the right thing to do, and sometimes I wish I could get rid of them more easily.
When I cannot gratify this need-to-help, I often suffer rebound depressions in which my ability to learn and do difficult work is significantly impaired. For example, I recently read about this couple, and found myself losing sleep over their predicament, and feeling the urge to dip into my emergency fund in order to send them more money than I could otherwise afford, even though I knew that I could do much more good by sending the same money to VillageReach and had already made the choice not to do so. Nor do I think this was really a case of buying fuzzies—the satisfaction that my small donation gave me was much smaller in magnitude than my distress at being unable to fix the situation; it was even less than the satisfaction I feel when I send a similar amount to VillageReach. But the article made me empathize with them, and now I was stuck with the empathy.
I could try to train myself not to feel this need-to-help so intensely, but I’m not sure I really want to. I think I like being the kind of person who will drive through the night to help a friend in trouble, or take responsibility for the well-being of an elderly neighbor—I just don’t want to have to do the same for strangers. Because of this, I have come to rely on scope insensitivity as a defense mechanism. I try to avoid empathizing excessively with random needy people, because once Helping Girl Mode is engaged, I have a tough time turning it off, or even wanting to turn it off. When dealing with statistics instead of people, I can allocate my charitable giving according to what seems most effective, rather than to address what I perceive as urgent needs.
(I hope no one interprets this comment as bragging. I’m pretty sure I’m confused somehow, and I know it’s silly to care that much about random internet people.)