The pain of altruism

Barbara L Finlay; Supriya Syal

doi:10.1016/j.tics.2014.08.002

The pain of altruism

Trends Cogn Sci. 2014 Dec;18(12):615-7. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2014.08.002. Epub 2014 Sep 5.

Authors

Barbara L Finlay¹, Supriya Syal²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA. Electronic address: blf2@cornell.edu.
² Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.

PMID: 25200380
DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2014.08.002

Abstract

Sociality and cooperation are benefits to human cultures but may carry unexpected costs. We suggest that both the human experience of pain and the expression of distress may result from many causes not experienced as painful in our close primate relatives, because human ancestors motivated to ask for help survived in greater numbers than either the thick-skinned or the stoic.

MeSH terms

Altruism*
Animals
Biological Evolution
Brain / physiopathology
Communication
Cooperative Behavior
Humans
Interpersonal Relations
Models, Psychological
Pain / physiopathology
Pain / psychology*