Born to Give?
Published December 7th, 2009 by John David Mann“Sure, it’s nice to be a giving person, but isn’t it kind of an uphill battle? I mean, isn’t it basic human nature to look out for Number One?”
Maybe not. According to a recent article in The New York Times, some biologists are starting to see evidence that being a giving person may be more an inborn trait than learned behavior.
The article cites two recently published books, Why We Cooperate, by Dr. Michael Tomasello, and The Age of Empathy, by Dr. Frans de Waal, along with other research. Here are a few tidbits from the research findings the article cites:
- When infants 18 months old see an unrelated adult whose hands are full and who needs assistance opening a door or picking up a dropped clothespin, they will immediately help.
- This seemingly spontaneous act of helping is not enhanced by rewards, suggesting that it is not influenced by training. It seems to occur across cultures that have different timetables for teaching social rules. (“Children are altruistic by nature,” says Dr. Tomasello.)
- Infants will help with information, as well as in practical ways. From the age of 12 months they will point at objects that an adult pretends to have lost. Chimpanzees, by contrast, never point at things for each other, and when they point for people, it seems to be as a command to go fetch something rather than to share information.
- An interesting bodily reflection of what Tomasello calls “shared intentionality” in humans is the sclera, or whites, of the eyes. All 200 or so species of primates have dark eyes and a barely visible sclera. All, that is, except humans, whose sclera is three times as large, a feature that makes it much easier to follow the direction of someone else’s gaze. Chimps will follow a person’s gaze, but by looking at his head, even if his eyes are closed. Babies follow a person’s eyes, even if the experimenter keeps his head still.
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Leave a comment
Comment Policy: First time comments are moderated. Please be patient.