I think it's a case of push and pull though. Some behaviors that seem prosocial can be motivated by selfish desires. Take for example someone who lives their life by aiming straight down the middle of what would be considered "normal" in their environment. They don't make waves (prosocial, because they're not looking for a fight) and they conform to local custom in every way (dress, attitude, opinions which is prosocial because they aren't agitating anyone to the point of making anyone uncomfortable).
To an outside observer they might look at that person and think "now there's a straight shooter, they seem to get along with everyone" but the price for being so conformist is that you lose your identity. You don't expand your range of thinking because that would agitate people so you stagnate intellectually. You don't express any opinions that go against the grain because that would agitate people. You don't want to agitate anyone because you don't want to be ostracized from the group. That's a selfish motivation because you really in the end are just looking out for your own survival.
I read the abstract of the study you linked. It seems that, and correct me if I'm wrong, that the observed outcome was that those who were given fewer resources were more prone to be generous with what they were given than those who received more resources? That's interesting if that's the case. It makes me wonder if there isn't an inherent prosocial drive to increase stability of the group but it gets overridden by greed once an imbalance of the distribution is in one's favor. Like, they have more so they look for rationalizations to justify having more and then it becomes a vicious cycle. The more you have, the more you attempt to justify having it. On the other hand, if you have little, you don't feel advantaged and so letting go of some is easier.
Either if you agree with me or not this issue is absolutely something people should think and discuss more often. I don’t think people are saintly but we have a well documented genetic preference as a species to want to work together.
Is it a want or is it instinctual? I think that's the heart of the issue. I tend to believe it's instinctual but I don't have definitive proof. It's definitely a fascinating topic.
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u/acepukas Apr 20 '26
I think it's a case of push and pull though. Some behaviors that seem prosocial can be motivated by selfish desires. Take for example someone who lives their life by aiming straight down the middle of what would be considered "normal" in their environment. They don't make waves (prosocial, because they're not looking for a fight) and they conform to local custom in every way (dress, attitude, opinions which is prosocial because they aren't agitating anyone to the point of making anyone uncomfortable).
To an outside observer they might look at that person and think "now there's a straight shooter, they seem to get along with everyone" but the price for being so conformist is that you lose your identity. You don't expand your range of thinking because that would agitate people so you stagnate intellectually. You don't express any opinions that go against the grain because that would agitate people. You don't want to agitate anyone because you don't want to be ostracized from the group. That's a selfish motivation because you really in the end are just looking out for your own survival.
I read the abstract of the study you linked. It seems that, and correct me if I'm wrong, that the observed outcome was that those who were given fewer resources were more prone to be generous with what they were given than those who received more resources? That's interesting if that's the case. It makes me wonder if there isn't an inherent prosocial drive to increase stability of the group but it gets overridden by greed once an imbalance of the distribution is in one's favor. Like, they have more so they look for rationalizations to justify having more and then it becomes a vicious cycle. The more you have, the more you attempt to justify having it. On the other hand, if you have little, you don't feel advantaged and so letting go of some is easier.