Psychology I / Prosocial Behavior: Altruism and the Roots of Helping
Practice question · Put in order

Rank these four acts of helping from the one LEAST likely to count as altruism in the strict sense to the one MOST likely.

Hints
  1. Rank by how much of the helper's own benefit remains once you strip away the benefit to the person helped.
  2. Reputation is a subtler reward than cash, and ending your own distress is subtler still - but all three are rewards to the helper.
Show the answer
  1. Helping in exchange for an agreed payment.
  2. Helping because it will be noticed and will improve your reputation.
  3. Helping mainly to stop your own discomfort at witnessing the suffering.
  4. Helping anonymously, at real personal cost, for a stranger you will never meet again.
Why

The sequence walks down a ladder of self-benefit: explicit payment, then social reward, then private emotional relief, and finally an act with the helper's benefit removed altogether by anonymity and cost. Only the last meets the strict definition - and the fact that the ladder is continuous is why the existence of pure altruism remains a live debate.

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