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 Originally Posted by Savy
Most people don't risk their lives to save a random person drowning, they drown and there is no news story. I think this is important. You're implying every time someone is in danger some hero puts there life on the line to stop a paper cut happening.
Yes giving money to help poverty in Africa is selfish because you are doing it because you get a buzz out of feeling you are helping. Like you are part of something bigger etc.
We can argue all night about it, and I'm somewhat in agreement with you to a point. There's some interesting papers out where they try to apply mathematical models to bees and ants and whatnot to show it's genetically advantageous, but they're difficult to extrapolate from to non-social-insect types. Things get a lot more complex when you're dealing with humans, e.g.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30375455
It's also debatable whether such a thing as 'pure' altruism even exists; and I think it's fair to say that the experts haven't figured it out either. Plenty of theories out there for anyone who wants to dig deeper.
https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-altruism-2794828
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