THE ROUGH GUIDE TO PSYCHOLOGYview. In the same vein, the beliefs and practices of traditional cultures and
orthodox religions, such as the Jewish taboo of eating pork, or the ban on
blood transfusions among Jehovah’s Witnesses, can be seen in terms of
their placing high moral value on the Purity/sanctity dimension.
Altruism
The idea of cooperation between people makes sense in obvious, hands-
on ways. Working together enables us to achieve physical objectives that
simply wouldn’t be possible alone. Just think how our ancestors cooper-
ated as an efficient hunting unit, or consider the way we exchange skills.
Few us can be doctors, builders, cooks and artisans, all in one package.
Instead we specialize, offering our skills to society in exchange for those
offered by other people.
Cooperation also makes sense in small family groups because of the
sharing of genes between close family members. Your parents, siblings
and children share fifty percent of your genes, so by helping them you’re
helping your own genetic legacy. From this perspective, it makes sense that
the genes that influence people to help their close family have an advan-
tage when it comes to being passed on from one generation to the next.
More problematic for psychology is how to explain the human
tendency to altruism – the provision of help to others with no obvious
All-round benefit? A man gives money to a young homeless family on the streets
of New York.