February 23, 2005 

Scientists Gather To Examine Altruism in a World of Need

Contacts:

Douglas Vakoch, Symposium Chairman, SETI Institute
altruism@seti.org

Karen Randall, Director of Special Projects, SETI Institute
650-960-4537
krandall@seti.org

“We do not yet have anything like an adequate cross-cultural inventory of where, how, and why charitable altruistic love emerges in the world,” says Stephen G. Post, Professor of Biomedical Ethics at Case Western Reserve University. “Cross-cultural analysis of the ways and power of unselfish love is woefully limited,” he notes. “This conference is therefore a real benchmark in the scientific development of the field of love studies.” Post is President of the Institute for Research on Unlimited Love – Altruism, Compassion, Service, located at Case Western Reserve University.

During the SCCR conference at the Hilton of Santa Fe, prominent cross-cultural researchers from major universities throughout the country will explore how scientific studies can help understand – and perhaps increase – acts of altruism. Among topics to be addressed by psychologists, anthropologists, sociologists, and other scholars are the following:

“Do we have to wait for another Great Depression to persuade people that we have to help those at the bottom?” asks anthropologist Melvin Ember, President of Yale University’s Human Research Area Files. “Why is giving more likely to be triggered by disastrous events like tsunami, but apparently not by the sight of homeless people in the street? Cross-cultural research that answers these and other questions may tell us how altruism, whatever its basis, could be maximized.”

Psychologist Lewis Aptekar, President of the Society for Cross-Cultural Research, will reflect on the lessons he learned while working for two years with people in Ethiopia displaced by civil war. “In the face of someone truly in need, we are made uncomfortable by our powerful need to flee,” he explains. “Only by accepting that we too are in need can we stand face to face in the presence of someone else’s begging for help.” Aptekar is Professor of Counselor Education at San Jose State University.

“Altruism appears to be part of a basic human potential, perhaps even as strong as the much more readily acknowledged and observable human penchant for destructiveness,” explains Juris Draguns, Professor Emeritus of Psychology at The Pennsylvania State University. “The description and documentation of critical incidents of altruistic behavior, so frequent during the recent tsunami catastrophe, may serve as starting points for more systematic study.” During the conference, Draguns will also chair a session on ways that researchers can address the aftermath of the Asian tsunami.

“Human evolution made our biology highly competitive. Only culture can restrict our competitive tendencies,” says Harry C. Triandis, Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. During his presentation, Triandis will show how cultures have also developed features that increase our competitiveness. “Learning which aspects of culture increase our competitiveness, and which decrease it,” Triandis says, “can help us change our cultures to ensure that we survive as a species.”

For abstracts of all papers to be presented in the SCCR Symposium on Altruism in Cross-Cultural Perspective, click here. 

The symposium arose from a 2003 workshop sponsored by the SETI Institute, which examined how scientists might encode notions of altruism in interstellar messages. “If some day humankind decides to transmit messages to other worlds, some of our highest values—like altruism—are a natural topic of conversation,” explains Douglas Vakoch, chairman of the SCCR symposium on altruism and Director of Interstellar Message Composition at the SETI Institute. “The scientific research presented at the Santa Fe conference will increase our understanding of altruism in a global context—a vital requirement for any message that is broadly representative of humankind.” Immediately after the SCCR conference, the SETI Institute will host a follow-up workshop in Santa Fe, applying insights from the conference to the design of interstellar messages about altruism.

SCCR is an organization devoted to pursuing cross-cultural research from a multidisciplinary perspective. The Society includes psychologists, anthropologists, sociologists, other social scientists, and members of other disciplines such as communications, business, and education. 

The Institute for Research on Unlimited Love , sponsor of the symposium, has awarded a total of 25 initial grants for more than $2 million to distinguished scientists, many at leading research institutions. These researchers are conducting groundbreaking investigations into the nature of unselfish and unlimited love.

• Symposium Schedule
• Speaker Abstracts
• Directions to the Hilton of Santa Fe