Altruism can be described as a form of pro-social behavior in which an individual seeks to voluntarily satisfy the welfare of others at their own costs. It is an unselfish concern of a person to achieve the good of others and this tends to be the primary motivation and the ultimate goal of an altruistic behavior. Genuine altruism is guided by the desire to improve the state and welfare of other people without expecting a reward or indicating some degree of self interest (Ricard, 2011). A number of historical figures and other individuals have been implicated in the demonstration of altruism. Below are five examples of altruistic behaviors.
Example 1- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Activism)
One example of altruistic behavior was demonstrated by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He emphasized on the need of equality and basic civil rights for all. He labored hard and was committed to ensuring that democracy and justice was practiced irrespective of an individual’s race and social status. King did not mind facing the dangers that were associated with his fight against injustice. His ultimate sacrifice was demonstrated through his death, since he was killed for trying to improve the welfare and lives of others (Myers, 2014).
Martin Luther’s altruistic behavior was a product of modeling. For instance, Kail and Cavanaugh (2015) explain that King’s pursuit of civil rights and equality for African Americans was significantly influenced by Mohandas Gandhi, a political leader, Henry David Thoreau, an American philosopher, and his father, Dr. martin Luther King Sr. For instance, Martin Luther Sr. was an anti-discrimination activist. Therefore, by observing his father fight for equality and justice for black people, Dr. Martin Jr. imitated the pro-social behavior of his father, hence felt the need to fight for people’s civil rights.
Children are more likely to engage in pro-social behaviors, if they see adults helping and caring for others. Also, parents have a powerful influence on their children due to a continuous exposure. Therefore, parents who demonstrate frequent feelings of others tend to have children who exhibit strong feelings of empathy Kail and Cavanaugh (2015). In this regard, King’s acquired altruistic behavior through observational learning, particularly modeling. In addition, Dr. Martins pro-social behavior can be explained through empathy-altruism. Empathy is an emotional response that involves feelings of sympathy and a strong urge to relieve another person’s distress. Therefore, if an individual is empathic, he or she will be motivated to reach out to a person who is under some form of distress by caring and showing empathic concern. For example, Dr. Martin sought to alleviate the social ills that affected the majority of black people by establishing a Bill of rights for the disadvantaged (Myers, 2014). Through this, he hoped to achieve equality and alleviate the ghetto misery that faced black people in America. This indicates an aspect of empathy, since King was working towards minimizing the levels of distress that faced the African American community. Therefore, empathy-altruism is reflected in Martin Luther’s pro-social behavior.
Example 2-Mother Teresa of Calcutta (Charity Work)
Mother Teresa is re-known for her efforts to work with the poor in Calcutta, in order to alleviate their conditions. She extremely cared about the less fortunate and her was driven by a deep sense of commitment and contentment. Despite having an economically stable background, Mother Teresa left her country in Macedonia, for India with the aim of improving the conditions of the poor in India. She sacrificed her her to serve the poor and vowed to be chaste and obedient. She even referred to herself as a mother and, hence the name Mother Teresa (Ćwiękała-Lewis, 2015).
Mother Teresa’s altruistic acts included working with the underprivileged children, in the slums Calcutta, where she opened a school for them. In addition, she convinced the authorities to offer her one of the buildings, where she established a center that was referred to as ‘the home for the dying’. Besides this, through the support of her colleagues and former students, she developed a congregation known as the Missionaries of Charity (Ćwiękała-Lewis, 2015).
There are various aspects that motivated Mother Teresa to work with the poor. One of them was modeling. From a tender age, Mother Teresa was socialized to help and care for the poor. Her mother had a significant influence on her pro-social behavior, since she emphasized on sharing with the less fortunate and showing compassion towards them.
According to Feigin et al. (2014), the social learning perspective suggests that altruism is acquired through learning. Observational learning plays a key role in the internalization of moral values and parental models have been shown to significantly contribute to the internalization process. Based on this aspect, Mother Teresa’s mother influenced the development of her altruistic behavior during her childhood.
The normative theory also explains Mother Teresa’s pro-social behavior. She had deep underlying moral values, mainly because of her strong religious background. Ćwiękała-Lewis (2015) explains that Mother Teresa’s Catholic background was a foundation of her charity work. In addition, her religious position as a nun significantly influenced her altruistic behavior. Therefore, religious morals played a huge role in the development of Mother Teresa’s pro-social behavior.
Example 3-Mahatma Gandhi’s Activism
Mahatma Gandhi was an Indian nationalist leader who adores religion, hence, he deeply believed in fasting, meditation and non-violence. He fought against the injustices associated with racial prejudice as well as the civil rights of the minority. Gandhi was ready to suffer hardships, as long as he would eliminate the disease of color prejudice. He and other Indians were prisoned by the South African and British governments for leading a mass movement that fought for the civil rights of the Indians (Altruistic Insights, n.d.).
This movement was one amongst the many that Gandhi led, as he fought for the rights and freedom of his people. He was imprisoned countless times for fighting against injustices. Gandhi also engaged in repeated hunger strikes, despite his old age. In the end, Gandhi was killed through assassination, for fighting for the rights of the Muslim community. His behaviors and actions portray true altruism, since he sacrificed his life while seeking to improve the welfare of others. He also underwent through torture and sacrificed luxuries and comfort, in order to alleviate the distress experienced by others (Altruistic Insights, n.d.).
Mahatma Gandhi’s altruism was significantly aligned with his religious and moral views. Since he was a staunch religious believer, he disregarded violence and oppression. This motivated him to fight against injustices and oppression of the minority. For instance, he once quoted, “ The religious spirit in me became a living force.” This reveals that his strength and will to fight injustices came from religious views.
Example 4- Holocaust (Rescuers of Jews in World War II)
The Holocaust represents great acts of altruism. The event took place back in history, whereby the Nazi leaders planned to exterminate and destroy six million Jews. The need for help was vivid, since millions of Jews were exposed to diseases, hunger, and death. The majority of the people did not take responsibility in rescuing the Jews, therefore a great number of victims perished. However, a small percentage of the Gentiles risked their lives by rescuing some of the Jews, despite the harsh and horrific conditions put forth by the Nazi leaders.
This pro-social act of rescue symbolized true altruism, since some people took it upon themselves to improve the welfare of the Jews without expecting any form of reward. In addition, they risked their lives by opposing the extermination system. In this regard, there were significant negative consequences associated with the rescue mission.
Various factors played a key role in motivating the rescuers to help the Jews, amidst the harsh conditions. One of the factors behind the acts of rescue was empathy. In this case, the perspective of empathy-altruism draws insight into the pro-social behavior demonstrated by the rescuers. For instance, one of the German rescuers known as Oscar Shindler testified that he developed a feeling of empathy when he witnessed Jews being transported using a cattle car. Hence, he could only imagine the degree of suffering exposed to Jews and as a result, this propelled him to establish a pro-social goal of helping the Jews (Jazwinski & Hill, 1990).
The rescuers were also motivated by moral value systems. As outlined by the normative theory, altruistic behavior can be motivated by moral obligations that are personal, the relevance of feelings of moral responsibility or by the way norms and values are structured in the cognitive system. There are three types of moral motives of altruistic behavior: religious, emotional and ideological. Religious moral rescuers are motivated by religious ideologies that emphasize on love and brotherhood. Ideological moral rescuers depend on the principles of ethics and justice. Lastly, emotionally based morals are based on positive emotions such as kindness and compassion (Feigin, Owens & Goodyear-Smith, 2014).
Some of the German rescuers who were pro-social towards the Jews were motivated by religious principles. For example, a rescuer by the name Corrie believed that the Jews were God’s chosen people and her attitude towards them was positive. She believed they were equal to other human beings and this motivated her to engage in a pro-social behavior (Jazwinski & Hill, 1990). In this case, Corrie was a spiritual minded and religious individual, hence, she was motivated by religious morals.
Example 5- The Armenian Genocide (World War I)
In 1915, the Ottoman Turkish government was gathering the Armeninans for mass slaughter and deportation. With regard to the deportation process, the Armenians were required to sell their property and possessions and they would only save a small percentage of this. Those that were not lucky enough would be subjected to death. Amidst these cruel and inhumane acts, some Turks risked their lives by sacrificing to help the Armenians escape mass slaughter (Akçam, 1999).
The Turks would offer safety to the Armenians by hiding them in their homes, despite being fully aware of the consequences associated with their rescue acts. For instance, those who would be caught helping an Armenian would be publicly executed. However, this did not deter some Turks from helping the Armenians flee to safer locations or keeping secrets about their safe hideouts. The Turks also provided the victims with food and other basic necessities (Akçam, 1999).
Empathy altruism largely contributed to the helping behavior of the Turks. According to Akçam (1999), human basic decency was a key element of altruism in the Armenian genocide. For instance, a huge number of the rescued Armenians were strangers to the Turks. However, the Turks were inclined to help them, since the suffering of the Armenians evoked feelings of empathy.
Akçam (1999) also explains that some Turks offered help as a result of material gains as well as other rewards. Some of the benefits included labor, bribes, sexual exploitation, and marriage to the children of those rescued. This is consistent with the social exchange theory that explains that pro-social and the helping behavior has a cost-reward component. The model suggests that an observer is motivated to reduce the distress of another person, as long as there will be rewards (Feigin et al., 2014).
In conclusion, It is clear that true altruism undoubtedly exists, as indicated by the above examples. Although some individuals may engage in altruism for self-interest and self-gain, there are people driven by genuine motives to help others and engage in pro-social behaviors. This is indicated by their willingness to sacrifice their lives to improve the welfare of others, without expecting a reward or anticipating for other forms of benefits.

References

Akçam, T. (1999) .The Genocide of the Armenians and the Silence of the Turks. In Levon Chorbajian and George Shirinian, eds. Studies in Comparative Genocide. London: Macmillan,
Altruistic Insights. (n.d.). Mahatma Gandhi. Retrieved from http://www.altruisticinsights.com/mahatma-gandhi/
Ćwiękała-Lewis, J.K. (2015). Mother Teresa – Nurse And Woman Healer. Polish Nursing, 4 (58), 430-432. Retrieved from http://www.pielegniarstwo.ump.edu.pl/uploads/2015/4/430_4_58_2015.pdf
Feigin, S., Owens, G., & Goodyear-Smith, F. (2014). Theories of human altruism: a systematic review. Annals of Neuroscience and Psychology, 1 (1), 1-9 . Retrieved from http://www.vipoa.org/neuropsychol
Jazwinski, C., & Hill, C. (1990). The Lessons of Holocaust Rescue for Teaching the Psychology of Altruism and Prosocial Behavior. Retrieved from http://www.yadvashem.org/download/education/conf/Jazwinski_Hill.pdf
Kail, R.V., & Cavanaugh, J.C. (2015). Human Development: A Life-Span View (7th ed). Belmont, California: Wadsworth Publishing.
Myers, P.C. (2014). Martin Luther King, Jr., and the American Dream. Retrieved from http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2014/03/martin-luther-king-jr-and-the-american-dream
Ricard, M. (2011, April 23). True Examples of Altruism [Web Log]. Retrieved from http://www.matthieuricard.org/en/blog/posts/true-examples-of-altruism