<p>According to the empathy-altruism hypothesis, in some circumstances, people help because they genuinely care about the welfare of the other person and not because of any other personal goal i.e. avoid distress, social norm, Self-affirmation etc.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altruism#Psychology" rel="nofollow">empathy-altruism hypothesis</a> basically states that
  psychological altruism does exist and is evoked by the empathic desire
  to help someone who is suffering. Feelings of empathic concern are
  contrasted with feelings of personal distress, which compel people to
  reduce their own unpleasant emotions. People with empathic concern
  help others in distress even when exposure to the situation could be
  easily avoided, whereas those lacking in empathic concern avoid
  helping unless it is difficult or impossible to avoid exposure to
  another's suffering.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>...</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>The social exchange theory states that altruism does not exist unless
  benefits to the helper outweigh the costs. C. Daniel Batson disagrees.
  He holds that people help others in need out of genuine concern for
  the well-being of the other person. The key ingredient to helping is
  "empathic concern". According to his '<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empathy-altruism" rel="nofollow">empathy-altruism hypothesis</a>', if
  you feel empathy towards another person you will help them, regardless
  of what you can gain from it (1991).</p>
</blockquote>

<p>There is a lot of <a href="http://www.iep.utm.edu/psychego/" rel="nofollow">debate</a> about the empathy-altruism hypothesis theory, but I tend to agree with it.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-02-25T17:05:04.423Z
2016-02-25T17:05:04.423Z
DesignerAnalyst
<p>I've tried to make some searches on egocentrism and its opposite (Allocentrism).</p>

<p>The definitions from Wikipedia are: </p>

<blockquote>
  <p><strong>Egocentrism</strong> is the inability to differentiate between self and other.
  More specifically, it is the inability to untangle subjective schemas
  from objective reality; an inability to understand or assume any
  perspective other than their own.</p>
  
  <p>Although <strong>egocentrism</strong> and <strong>narcissism</strong> appear similar, they are not the
  same. A person who is egocentric believes they are the center of
  attention, like a narcissist, but does not receive gratification by
  one's own admiration. An <strong>egotist</strong> is a person whose ego is greatly
  influenced by the approval of others while a narcissist is not.</p>
  
  <p><strong>Allocentrism</strong> is a collectivistic personality attribute whereby people
  center their attention and actions on other people rather than
  themselves.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>But since the <strong>prosocial</strong> actions are often motivated by ego needs (see Polatch effect for the extreme) can we say that among extreme idealistic people (i.e. militants in extreme organizations) we can find <strong>Narcissists</strong> as well? </p>

<p>A narcissist has absence of self-compassion, he thinks to be perfect. Is there a correlation between some form of Narcissism and altruism?</p>

<p>EDIT: I found this</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>“(The) Israeli zoologist Amotz Zahavi (suggested that) (a)ltruistic
  giving may be an advertisement of dominance and superiority.
  Anthropologists know it as the Potlach Effect ...  Only a genuinely
  superior individual can afford to advertise the fact by means of a
  costly gift ... through costly demonstrations of superiority,
  including ostentatious generosity and public spirited risk taking...
  (I)f Zahavi is right ... conspicuous generosity (is) a way of buying
  unfakeably authentic (self-)advertising.”</p>
</blockquote>

<p>(any help at improving the question is very welcome)</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-02-25T15:36:06.147Z
What do you mean by _"But since the prosocial actions are motivated by a need of self-affirmation"_? The article you link to does not seem to mention a 'need' of [self-affirmation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-affirmation) at all. Considering _"Self-affirmation theory contends that if individuals reflect on values that are personally relevant to them, they are less likely to experience distress and react defensively when confronted with information that contradicts or threatens their sense of self."_, I do not understand what you mean by a 'need' of self-affirmation.
Steven Jeuris
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-02-25T15:40:55.803Z
Perhaps by saying that _"prosocial actions are motivated by a need of self-affirmation"_ you imply that people perform altruistic actions because it makes them feel better about themselves? Given your question this smells a bit like [circular reasoning](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_reasoning).
Steven Jeuris
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-02-26T16:13:02.877Z
@StevenJeuris: you are right.. I've tried to clarify my question a bit.. My question is more about: "do people which wants to fight for a cause (i.e. greenpeace activists) are actually doing it for their ego or for other coping reason.. I'm thinking of the extremists.. how can I express it in a politically correct english?
Revious
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-02-28T12:27:32.883Z
Just a note about your tags. Cognitive psychology and abnormal psychology are generally taken to be about mental information processing and psychopathologies, respectively. They don't seem relevant here, and your question is much more about social psychological constructs and personality.
splint
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-02-29T08:42:00.193Z
@splint: fixed. Do you have some suggestions about how to improve this sentence? "can we say that among extreme idealistic people (i.e. militants in extreme organizations) we can find Narcissists as well?"
Revious
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-02-29T10:27:08.347Z
@Revious If that is your question, why then do you include narcissism when framing it? The underlying question you seem to be asking is one you seem to try to answer yourself in the question (hence circular reasoning): _"Do people perform altruistic actions which do not benefit them in any way?"_ In case your research finds potential answers, you can always post those as answers instead to your own question.
Steven Jeuris
<social-psychology><abnormal-psychology><personality><social>
Can someone who is never speaking of himself and present himself as very altruistic be egocentric / narcissistic?
Revious
# Can someone who is never speaking of himself and present himself as very altruistic be egocentric / narcissistic?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2016-02-25)

I've tried to make some searches on egocentrism and its opposite (Allocentrism).

The definitions from Wikipedia are:

> **Egocentrism** is the inability to differentiate between self and other.
> More specifically, it is the inability to untangle subjective schemas
> from objective reality; an inability to understand or assume any
> perspective other than their own.
>
> Although **egocentrism** and **narcissism** appear similar, they are not the
> same. A person who is egocentric believes they are the center of
> attention, like a narcissist, but does not receive gratification by
> one's own admiration. An **egotist** is a person whose ego is greatly
> influenced by the approval of others while a narcissist is not.
>
> **Allocentrism** is a collectivistic personality attribute whereby people
> center their attention and actions on other people rather than
> themselves.

But since the **prosocial** actions are often motivated by ego needs (see Polatch effect for the extreme) can we say that among extreme idealistic people (i.e. militants in extreme organizations) we can find **Narcissists** as well?

A narcissist has absence of self-compassion, he thinks to be perfect. Is there a correlation between some form of Narcissism and altruism?

EDIT: I found this

> “(The) Israeli zoologist Amotz Zahavi (suggested that) (a)ltruistic
> giving may be an advertisement of dominance and superiority.
> Anthropologists know it as the Potlach Effect ... Only a genuinely
> superior individual can afford to advertise the fact by means of a
> costly gift ... through costly demonstrations of superiority,
> including ostentatious generosity and public spirited risk taking...
> (I)f Zahavi is right ... conspicuous generosity (is) a way of buying
> unfakeably authentic (self-)advertising.”

(any help at improving the question is very welcome)

**Tags:** social-psychology, abnormal-psychology, personality, social

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: What do you mean by _"But since the prosocial actions are motivated by a need of self-affirmation"_? The article you link to does not seem to mention a 'need' of [self-affirmation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-affirmation) at all. Considering _"Self-affirmation theory contends that if individuals reflect on values that are personally relevant to them, they are less likely to experience distress and react defensively when confronted with information that contradicts or threatens their sense of self."_, I do not understand what you mean by a 'need' of self-affirmation.  
> **username_1**: Perhaps by saying that _"prosocial actions are motivated by a need of self-affirmation"_ you imply that people perform altruistic actions because it makes them feel better about themselves? Given your question this smells a bit like [circular reasoning](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_reasoning).  
> **username_0**: @StevenJeuris: you are right.. I've tried to clarify my question a bit.. My question is more about: "do people which wants to fight for a cause (i.e. greenpeace activists) are actually doing it for their ego or for other coping reason.. I'm thinking of the extremists.. how can I express it in a politically correct english?  
> **username_2**: Just a note about your tags. Cognitive psychology and abnormal psychology are generally taken to be about mental information processing and psychopathologies, respectively. They don't seem relevant here, and your question is much more about social psychological constructs and personality.  
> **username_0**: @username_2: fixed. Do you have some suggestions about how to improve this sentence? "can we say that among extreme idealistic people (i.e. militants in extreme organizations) we can find Narcissists as well?"  
> **username_1**: @username_0 If that is your question, why then do you include narcissism when framing it? The underlying question you seem to be asking is one you seem to try to answer yourself in the question (hence circular reasoning): _"Do people perform altruistic actions which do not benefit them in any way?"_ In case your research finds potential answers, you can always post those as answers instead to your own question.  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2016-02-25. Score: 3

According to the empathy-altruism hypothesis, in some circumstances, people help because they genuinely care about the welfare of the other person and not because of any other personal goal i.e. avoid distress, social norm, Self-affirmation etc.

> The [empathy-altruism hypothesis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altruism#Psychology) basically states that
> psychological altruism does exist and is evoked by the empathic desire
> to help someone who is suffering. Feelings of empathic concern are
> contrasted with feelings of personal distress, which compel people to
> reduce their own unpleasant emotions. People with empathic concern
> help others in distress even when exposure to the situation could be
> easily avoided, whereas those lacking in empathic concern avoid
> helping unless it is difficult or impossible to avoid exposure to
> another's suffering.

...

> The social exchange theory states that altruism does not exist unless
> benefits to the helper outweigh the costs. C. Daniel Batson disagrees.
> He holds that people help others in need out of genuine concern for
> the well-being of the other person. The key ingredient to helping is
> "empathic concern". According to his '[empathy-altruism hypothesis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empathy-altruism)', if
> you feel empathy towards another person you will help them, regardless
> of what you can gain from it (1991).

There is a lot of [debate](http://www.iep.utm.edu/psychego/) about the empathy-altruism hypothesis theory, but I tend to agree with it.


---

