Encyclopedia of Sociology

ALTRUISM

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KAREN SECCOMBE

ALTRUISM

Three terms are commonly used in the broad
research area that investigates positive interper-
sonal action: prosocial behavior, helping behavior,
and altruism. ‘‘Prosocial behavior’’ is the broadest
of the three; it refers to any behavior that can be
construed as consistent with the norms of a given
society. Thus, murder, when enacted on behalf of
one’s country on a battlefield, is as prosocial a
behavior as intervening to prevent a crime. ‘‘Help-
ing behavior’’ refers simply to any behavior that

provides some benefit to its recipient. ‘‘Altruism’’

is the narrowest of the three concepts. Altruism is

behavior that not only provides benefits to its

recipient but also provides no benefits to the actor

and even incurs some costs. If one conceives of

psychological rewards as benefits to the actor, this

definition of altruism is so narrow that it excludes

virtually all human behavior. Hence, many social

psychologists maintain simply that altruistic be-

havior need exclude only the receipt of material

benefits by the actor. Some theorists require as

part of the definition that the act be motivated

‘‘with an ultimate goal of benefiting someone

else’’ (Batson 1991, p. 2), but do not rule out the

incidental receipt of benefits by the actor.

Related terms include philanthropy, charity,

volunteering, sharing, and cooperating. Philan-

thropy and charity have largely come to mean

donation of money or material goods. Volunteer-

ing, similarly, generally refers to giving time for

the ultimate purpose of benefiting others, under

the aegis of some nonprofit organization. Sharing

and cooperating refer to coordinated actions

among members of a group or collectivity in the

service of better outcomes for the group as a

whole. All of these terms may be subsumed under

the generic term ‘‘prosocial behavior,’’ and often

under ‘‘helping behavior,’’ although they would

seldom meet the stringent criteria for altruism.

HISTORY

The origins of the contemporary study of altruism

have been traced back to August Comte, who

explored the development of altruism and ‘‘sym-

pathetic instincts.’’ The existence of an altruistic

instinct was emphasized in McDougall’s Introduc-

tion to Social Psychology (1908) but argued against

by the naturalistic observational research of Lois

Murphy (1937). Early symbolic interactionists at-

tributed altruistic behavior to the capacity to ‘‘take

the role of the other’’—to imagine oneself in

another person’s situation (Mead 1934). The de-

velopmental study of altruism has built on the

theoretical work of Piaget (1932), who explored

stages in the development of sharing behavior, as

well as on the work of Kohiberg (1969) on the

development of moral judgment. Hartshorne and

May conducted one of the earliest series of empiri-

cal studies (1928–30), focusing on honesty and