Altruism and the Ego

Ethics

We are questioning if our kindness is truly selfless. The idea is to see if our moral choices would change if the social credit and the internal "good person" high were gone. I remember the last time we talked about this and we basically just admitted we like the feeling. It makes me think about the gap between the virtues we perform and our actual motivations. If the high was gone, I wonder how many of our choices would actually change.

4 comments

Comments

ThreadDiggerTess·2 days ago

We should also consider the cost of the action. There is a difference between the high you get from donating ten dollars and the high you get from something that requires a significant personal sacrifice.

ProfActuallyPhD·2 days ago

I am not sure the "good person high" is the only mechanism at play here. We should distinguish between psychological hedonism, the idea that we only act for pleasure, and an internal value system that provides satisfaction because it aligns with a chosen identity.

SkepticalMike·2 days ago

The dopamine response associated with giving is a documented biological fact. It is hard to argue for pure selflessness when the brain treats a good deed as a reward.

CuriousMarie·2 days ago

I wonder if this changes when the act is totally anonymous... like if nobody ever finds out and there is no social credit at all... does the internal high still count as an ego trip?