John Donne's People: Explaining Differences between Rational Actors and Altruists through Cognitive Frameworks

Most social and political theory since Hobbes is constructed on the norm of self-interest. Yet even in the most vicious of Darwinian worlds, altruism and selfless behavior continue to exist. Why? The work described below examines altruism to answer three specific questions. Are there systematic sociocultural predictors of altruism and related forms of selfless behavior? Are there corresponding systematic similarities in cognitive schema among altruists with respect to their self-perception and identity? And, finally, how can we explain differences between altruists and the self-interested rational actors of economics and rational choice theory? The research described here analyzes entrepreneurs as paradigmatic rational actors and contrasts them with philanthropists, heroes, and rescuers of Jews in Nazi-Europe. Findings from in-depth interviews suggest none of the traditional sociocultural factors predicts altruistic behavior. Explanations from social psychology work no better for selfless individuals than they do for typical rational actors. Reciprocity, clusters of altruists, and group or kin selection have no predictive power, nor does the psychic gratification hypothesis of economics. The economists' resource hypothesis has a limited explanatory power for traditional rational actors but has none for altruists. Anthropological explanations stressing birth order and stable family relations fail, but familiarity with the recipient predicts charitable activities by the entrepreneur. Both familiarity and empathy explain the philanthropist's actions but neither of these explains acts by rescuers or heroes. What does explain the actions of all our selfless individuals is a common perception of themselves as individuals strongly linked to others through a shared humanity. Their cognitive frameworks differ consistently and significantly from traditional rational actors in this regard.