Is everything we do motivated by selfishness? Can a person
ever act only in the best interest of another person? And when
we do charitable acts -- such as giving money to a homeless person
- is that a truly selfless act? Guests in this one hour program
include Dr. C. Daniel Batson, professor of psychology at
the University of Kansas in Lawrence; Stacy Palmer, editor
of "The Chronicle of Philanthropy;" Dr. Elliot Sober and
Dr. David Sloan Wilson, authors of "Unto Others: The Evolution
and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior;" and
a panel discussion with four religious leaders. With commentary
by John
Hockenberry.
The show begins with
a visit to the New York Public Library. There, professionals,
who have their own busy work day, volunteer to teach people how
to read. One volunteer is so dedicated that he started an additional
class in his home. The teachers at the library say they offer
their time and resources because they understand the importance
of reading, but they also say there's a sense of joy they get
out of helping others. Participants are part of the New York Public
Library's Centers for Reading and Writing Adult Literacy Program.
The organization can be contacted at 455 Fifth Avenue, New York,
NY 10016 (212-576-0071) or through The Library's web site at www.nypl.org/branch/literacy.
For our first discussion,
Dr. Fred Goodwin
speaks with Dr.
C. Daniel Batson, a social psychologist and professor
of psychology at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. He talks
about studies he conducts to analyze altruism, and he discusses
how he came to study altruism and what was going on around him
that made him wonder about people's motivations. In one of his
studies, he puts people in a room where they watch others suffer,
and he notes to what extent a person will go to help another.
Some participants may want to stop the sufferer's pain, while
others will be content to simply walk out of the room. Dr. Batson
discusses what this means from an altruistic perspective - does
watching someone in misery make us uncomfortable because we don't
want another person to suffer? Or is it because we don't want
to have to deal with the guilt or the problem ourselves?
Dr. Batson also he
talks about empathy as something separate from altruism. Empathy,
he explains is the emotional reaction, while altruism is the motivation
to a reaction.
You can write to Dr. Batson at the University of Kansas, Department
of Psychology Lawrence, KS 66045 or email him at at dbatson@ukans.edu.
Next up, how and why
do people give money and time to social causes? Fifty percent
of people say they have volunteered their time in the past year,
while 75 percent say they have made a cash donation to a religious
or social group. Stacy Palmer
is the editor of "The Chronicle of Philanthropy." She talks about
what it takes to motivate people to give. Does offering a tote
bag or a mug entice potential funders? Or does it prevent them
from giving when they're offered a reward for doing something
good? You can write to Stacy Palmer at The Chronicle of Philanthropy,
1255 23rd St. NW, Suite 700, Washington DC, 20037. The publication's
website is http://www.philanthropy.com.
The Infinite Mind's
Emily Fisher moderates a
roundtable discussion on the way different religions view altruism:
Christianity, Islam, Tibetan Buddhism and Judaism. Panelist Lama
Pema Wangdak says that Tibetan Buddhism
teaches that all good comes from altruism, that a goal of the
religion is to overcome the self as a motivating factor. Imam
Feisal Abdul-Rauf discusses how the Sufi Muslim obligates
people to do good. He discusses how the self fits it to the conversation
of altruism, and then when you feel a connection with the divine,
then what you do is the divine acting through you. Reverend
Robert Wright talks about how altruism can be justice.
It is just, he says, to help people who are less fortunate. And
that God extends his hand to the poor through an altruistic person.
He says that we learn how to be altruistic from seeing God as
altruistic. Rabbi Seth Frisch
talks about how what we do matters in the next world and that
what you do and don't do can elevate you or lessen who you are,
and that you must do good things to be altruistic and charitable.
Reverend Wright can
be reached at St. John the Divine, 1047 Amsterdam Avenue, New
York New York, 10025. Lama Wangdak is at the Center for Tibetan
Buddhist Studies and Meditation at 4-10 West 101st Street, Apt
63, New York, New York 10025, and the center's e-mail address
is sangye@aol.com. You can
write to Rabbi Frisch at The Academy for Jewish Religion, 15 West
86th Street, New
York, New York,
10024. And Imam Feisal Abdul-Rauf can be contacted at the American
Sufi Muslim Association, at feisalrauf@usa.net.
Dr. Goodwin then speaks
with Dr. Elliot Sober and Dr. David
Sloan Wilson, who talk about altruism in an evolutionary
context. For them, the question of whether altruism exists or
not isn't only about whether a person's own desire to do good
takes away from altruistic tendencies. They add to the discussion
by looking at how a species can survive if it is altruistic. Does
it make a species weaker or stronger by doing good? Can being
altruistic increase the chance that your species will continue?
As examples, they talk about plants and monkeys. They say that
since plants create insecticides that help other plants, that
could be called altruistic. In addition, when monkeys find food
they put out a "food call" to let other monkeys know there is
food. And if a monkey fails to notify the others, he is punished.
So in these cases, the plant and monkey act altruistically for
survival of their species. 
The authors wrote a
book about this topic called, "Unto
Others: The Evolution and
Psychology of Unselfish
Behavior." Dr. Sober is a professor of philosophy at
the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and Dr. Wilson is a professor
of biology at Binghamton State University, State University of
New York. They also talk to Dr. Goodwin about how people tend
to act less altruistically in a group setting, relying on the
group's wishes rather than their own sense of duty as individuals.
Dr. Sober's mailing address is The University of Wisconsin, Department
of Philosophy, 5185 Helen C. White Hall, Madison, WI 53706. Or
you can e-mail him at ersober@facstaff.wisc.edu
. Dr. Sloan is at the University of SUNY Binghamton, PO Box
6000, Binghamton, NY 13902-6000, or you can e-mail him at Dwilson@binghamton.edu.
