14 DAY TRIAL // For many years, behavioral scientists and economists have been trying to figure out precisely why human tend to be generous and helpful to each other, even when there is no benefit to do so. A new study puts this issue in a new perspective.
Humans are not the only species known to engage in such acts. Monkeys do it to, experts say, also without the prospect of ever being compensated for their actions, which is what drives some people to help others.
Being generous to someone implies people incurring costs on themselves that will not be repaid in the immediate future, or by the persons they are helping. Fully aware of this, these individuals are kind and generous to others any way.
In fact, experts have shown that – even in situation where they know they will not see the person they are helping again – people still act generous or selfless. Evolutionarily, this makes no sense because putting in time and effort without getting anything in return is detrimental for survival.
Explaining these behaviors has had experts scratching their heads for decades. “Even when people believe the interaction to be one-time only, they are often generous to the person they are interacting with,” says Dr. Max M. Krasnow.
“When past researchers carefully measured people’s choices, they found that people all over the world were more generous than the reigning theories of economics and biology predicted they should be,” the expert adds.
Krasnow, who is the lead author of the new investigation, is based at the University of California in Santa Barbara (UCSB). He and his team wanted to learn whether evolution actually selects against generosity or not
The evolution of cooperation is apparently responsible for this. Generosity is a direct result of cooperation, and as such is not a response to social pressure. It is, in fact, an innate trait, that is driven by more than the desire to leave a good impression.
Details of the new research effort were published in the latest issue of the esteemed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), PsychCentral reports.