“If we didn't find helping other people pleasurable, we wouldn’t be altruistic.”.  

One of the reasons that many people argue that there is no such thing as “true altruism,” that people are never purely motivated to help other people for their own sake, is because, paradoxically, altruism is a source of enormous joy for those who help others.

Those who have made significant sacrifices for the benefit of others, such as donating a kidney, will attest to this. They’ll often say that it was one of the best decisions they made and would make it over and over if possible because of how happy it made them to help out the recipient. With this in mind, it’s easy to assume that nothing is ever truly altruistic because of the pleasure doing good can evoke.

Neuroscientist Abigail Marsh says that this perspective can be a bit puritanical. Marsh says that actually, the best part of altruism is the sense of joy it brings, because these feelings encourage people to engage with it more often. Here’s why that principal actually underscores altruism, instead of contradicting it.

About Abigail Marsh:

Abigail Marsh is a Professor in the Department of Psychology and the Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program at Georgetown University. She received her PhD in Social Psychology from Harvard University in 2004.

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