Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
The article isolates and tries to explain a phenomenon called the altruistic paradox which refers to the fact that mankind individually and collectively can be both cruel and kind at one and the same time. Altruism is operationally defined and then discussed at both the psychological and sociocultural levels. It is theorized that man is hedonistic and reward‐oriented as an organism, while cultures have evolved altruistic values as survival mechanisms. Thus altruism is in fact a superorganic phenomenon which for a number of reasons is found more often in more complex cultures that have stable family life which can produce the emotional development necessary to activate the culturally derived altruism in human behavior.
Ronald Cohen (Sat,) studied this question.