Topic:
Altruism
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new as of April 1, 2008
Opportunities for Helping
ModestNeeds.org - Here's another one -- a site where you can "change the life of a low-income family by clicking 'Learn More or Invest Points' and authorizing Modest Needs to make the grant of your choice. If you do, we'll fund that application instantly." [added 12/16/07]
Another helping website - Idealist.org is another of the type of sites where visitors can combine with others to solve different problems around the world. [10/13/07]
Microlending opportunities through web site - I pointed you to another web site below (Donors Choose) in which individuals could review requests from teachers and choose to donate to one or more of those classrooms. This web site allows potential donors to lend money to "a specific entrepreneur in the developing world, empowering them to lift themselves out of poverty." [added 8/05/07]
Donors Choose - An innovative project in which classroom teachers, primarily in high-need schools, submit proposals for projects that need funding. Potential donors can visit the website to choose to which project(s) to help fund. Also watch the video from the story. [added 7/16/07]
Giving circles - "Giving circles come in many different forms, but usually involve a group of friends who pool their charitable donations and decide together how to use the money to benefit the causes they care most about." [added 7/16/07]
Whatgoesaround.org - Reciprocal altruism? Well, not quite. This interesting philanthropy site invites you to create "givelists" of organizations to which you want to donate. You can also donate to the organizations on others' givelists, and they, in return, can donate to organizations on your list. What goes around... [added 12/31/06]
Charity evaluator - Charity Navigator is a site that collects and rates more than 5000 charities. Charities can be searched alphabetically, by category, by region and by ratings. Site also includes a collection of related articles. [added 12/22/06]
"54 Ways You Can Help the Homeless" - hyperbook by Rabbi Charles A. Kroloff
Examples of Helping
Random acts of kindness - The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation is promoting.... yes, random acts of kindness. At this site you can see lots of grassroots efforts to do so, as well as other resources, particularly for the K-12 school or classroom. [added 3/15/05]
"To save a life: Stories of Holocaust rescue" [added 3/23/04]
"HeroicStories" - Need examples of "heroism"? The stated purpose of this site "is to use the power of the Internet and existing media to bring diverse, international voices to the world to explore the idea that people are good, that individuals and individual action matter, and that regularly showing examples of people being good to each other will inspire similar actions in others." A few examples are provided at the site. More can be obtained by subscribing to HeroicStories sent to you for free via e-mail. [added 11/11/03]
Examples of Heroism - at this Carnegie Hero Fund Commission site find thousands of biographies of "extraordinary" heroes and links to a few other similar sites
Assignment Idea from Nora Murphy using the Carnegie Hero website [added 12/2/06]
Benefits of Helping
"Volunteering produces health benefits" - report from AmeriCorps [added 7/16/07]Evolutionary benefits of social networks - a research report [added 7/6/06]
Why We Help
Social anxiety and volunteering - This report from the Penn School of Social of Social Policy and Practice discusses how social anxiety may inhibit those who would like to volunteer from stepping forward to do so. [added 11/29/07]
Why volunteer? - a research report entitled "Why volunteer? Evidence on the role of altruism, reputation, and incentives" [added 11/17/07]
Transmitting prosocial values - "Like mother like son? Experimental evidence on the transmission of values from parents to children" finds "no significant correlation between the degree of cooperation of a child and that of his or her parents." [added 7/16/07]
Why we give - a series of articles from a recent APA Monitor [added 12/31/06]
Cooperation evolved from competition? - an article describing research suggesting that altruism may have arisen from its superiority over selfishness when competing for resources with other groups [added 12/31/06]Are humans born selfish? - Dacher Keltner argues there is a compassionate side to human nature in this article from The Center for the Development of Peace and Well-being. [added 1/15/06]
Empathy
Empathy and Oxytocin - more research "connecting oxytocin to trust and generosity" [added 12/16/07]Theory of mind or curse of knowledge? - This blog provides a good account of some really interesting research. How could adults think THAT? Well, I do every time I watch TV and wonder why one character can't figure out what's coming next since I know. [added 11/17/07]
Altruism and empathy in America - interesting analysis of survey results from the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago [added 7/6/06]
Compassion - an article and annotated bibliography on compassion, from The Center for the Development of Peace and Well-being [added 1/15/06]
Helping inmates empathize with their victims - This story describes a program designed to help rehabilitate prisoners by helping them empathize with their victims. [added 1/15/06]
"Can Animals Empathize?" - a debate in Scientific American (1998) - "Yes" by Gordon Gallup, Jr. (who originally developed the Mirror Test of self-awareness) and "Maybe not" by Daniel Povinelli - in Word
"Morals, Apes, and Us" - (2000) by Marc Hauser, in Discover magazine - "Can animals learn to share, cooperate, punish, and show empathy?
"Outside of a small circle of friends" - Lyrics from the song "Outside of a small circle of friends" by Phil Ochs describing a reluctance to help, including a verse based on the Kitty Genovese case [10/13/07]"Chimps share altruistic capacity with people" - [10/13/07]
More people volunteering - "Volunteering has reached a 30-year high in the United States, as more people pitch in to help their communities, according to a study released today by the Corporation for National and Community Service." [added 12/31/06]
"Hero dog fills out hospital paperwork" - very amusing piece from the satirical online newspaper The Onion [added 12/31/06]
Altruism: Wired to be inspired? - Jonathan Haidt argues that we experience a thrill ("elevation") when we see someone act with courage or compassion in this article from The Center for the Development of Peace and Well-being. This link takes you to a more thorough discussion of elevation. [added 1/15/06]
"Volunteering in the United States, 2006" - a report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics [added 1/15/06]
"To know you is to love you" - an article on the role of compassion in marriage, from The Center for the Development of Peace and Well-being [added 1/15/06]Cooperation among the baboons - interesting article of possible cultural transmission of female baboons' attempt to induce more cooperation from male baboons [added 6/9/04]
Revisiting the case of Kitty Genovese - You have probably heard of Kitty Genovese. How about Kew Gardens? That is the name of the community in New York where the tragic murder of Kitty Genovese took place in 1964. A long-time resident provides a pictorial history of Kew Gardens. Of particular interest is his review of the case of Kitty Genovese. He includes the original New York Times article reporting about the murder. He then attempts to carefully separate fact from fiction presented in the article and elsewhere about the case. [added 4/05/04]
"Monkeys reject unequal pay" - I usually don't point you to an abstract of an article, but this was an interesting study of macaque monkey sense of fairness and aversion to inequity just published in Nature. [added 11/20/03]
The Bystander Effect? The following text and sites come from The Scout Report:
The US and the Genocide in Rwanda 1994
"Bystanders to Genocide" -- from The Atlantic
The National Security Archive last month (August, 2001) posted sixteen declassified documents relating to the US response to 1994's genocide in Rwanda. The documents reveal that the United States planned from the beginning not to get involved until peace was restored, that the US tried to persuade the UN to withdraw all forces in Rwanda in April of 1994, and that US officials knew who was responsible for the killings and even spoke with leaders to try to stop further violence. These cables, memorandums, and papers are chilling in the light of the nearly one million dead. The latest issue of The Atlantic features an article by Samantha Power which uses the declassified documents along with interviews with those involved to deliver a "narrative of self-serving caution and flaccid will.""The Evolution of Reciprocal Sharing" - article published in Ethology Sociobiology, 5: 5-14, 1984. Jim Moore.
Egoism/Altruism Test - not a validated instrument, but it still contains a number of interesting scenarios that can serve as classroom examples, activities or assignments - Update: This test/survey site has now gone commercial - so, you will have to pay to view take/view the egoism/altruism test [04/09/02]
Resources for the Teaching of Social Psychology is a part of the CROW Project, Course Resources on the Web. CROW is sponsored by the Associated Colleges of Illinois and generously supported by UPS. This site was created by Jon Mueller, Professor of Psychology at North Central College, Naperville, IL. Send comments to Jon.
