Are Children Altruistic by Nature? Biologists Say Yes

Altruism within?

According to an article By NICHOLAS WADE, published November 30, 2009 in the NY Times, children might be altrusitc by Nature.

The somewhat surprising answer at which some biologists have arrived is that babies are innately sociable and helpful to others. Of course every animal must to some extent be selfish to survive. But the biologists also see in humans a natural willingness to help.

Michael Tomasello expands upon this theory in his book “Why We Cooperate,” published in October. Dr. Tomasello, a developmental psychologist, is co-director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. Dr. Tomasello finds the 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. And helping behavior can even be seen in infant chimpanzees under the right experimental conditions.

“It’s probably safe to assume that they haven’t been explicitly and directly taught to do this,” said Elizabeth Spelke, a developmental psychologist at Harvard. “On the other hand, they’ve had lots of opportunities to experience acts of helping by others. I think the jury is out on the innateness question.”

For full article see: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/01/science/01human.html?_r=1&ref=educatio...