The Altruist Inside Us

Pascal Rondeau

For all the heartache and horror of tragedies like the recent terrorist attack in Paris, there eventually also emerge stories of unbelievable valor and selflessness. David Rand, an assistant professor at Yale and director of its Human Cooperation Laboratory, has been studying such acts in an effort to understand why some people risk their lives for others. What he has found is at once heartening and, to parents who have taken the time to really get to know their child, not so very surprising. It seems that we may be born altruistic. Rand deduces this from his observation that humans tend to be more chivalrous the less time they have to think. In other words, our first instinct is to protect, to save, to be cooperative: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20151117-the-reason-why-everyday-heroes-emerge-in-atrocities