Definition
According to the evolutionist perspective, altruism refers to behaviors that increase gains in fitness for the beneficiary (i.e., it favors the reproductive success and the maintenance of the species) at a certain cost to the benefactor. However, to better understand this psychological phenomenon, it makes sense to consider both proximal and distal causes. According to De Waal (2008), proximate causes refer to situations that promote psychological, neural, and physiological mechanisms of the organism, as well as behavior. Distal causes refer to the selective processes that maintain behaviors throughout the evolution of the species due to their consequences for fitness. In this sense, the author considers that to better understand the evolutionary causes of altruism, one should focus on distal causes, particularly the effects of altruistic behaviors
Introduction
It is intriguing to contemplate how...
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de Moura, H.M., Mendes, D.M.L.F. (2020). Genuine Altruism. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3464-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3464-1
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