Abigail Marsh Summary
Abigail Marsh talks about how some people are more altruistic than others.
20 years ago, a man saved her life, by putting his own life in danger. He ran across 4 lanes of freeway traffic, to bring her to safety after being in a car accident that could have killed her. The man was a total stranger, who took off after making sure she was okay – she never even got his name. Marsh wonders why he did so and started questioning why some people have a different level of altruism than others.
Marsh became a psychologist, researching the human capacity of compassion and altruism. Other psychologists, as well as philosophers, believe that the human nature is selfish and self-centered. Nevertheless, some people are willing to help complete strangers even when there is no gain for themselves. Why is that? Why does some people have different, selfless motives than others? All …show more content…
in all, why are some people more compassioned than others?
The definition of altruism is this: “A voluntary, costly behavior motivated by the desire to help another individual”
Marsh wanted to study highly altruistic people, but to do so Marsh went in the complete opposite direction to gather some data at first: psychopaths.
By studying psychopaths Marsh got an overview of the total opposite of an altruistic person, and she found three important aspects: 1) psychopaths have poorer recognition-skills of other people’s fear. 2) The amygdala of a psychopath is under reactive to fear. 3) The amygdala of a psychopath is smaller than average. With this data, Marsh wanted to research whether or not it was different for highly altruistic people as well. Marsh tested people who showed a huge level of altruism: people who gave away their kidneys to complete strangers without any gain. What Marsh found was that these people are complete opposites of psychopaths: 1) they are better at detecting other people’s fear as well as detecting their distress. 2) The amygdala is hyperactive. 3) Their amygdala is larger than average by 8%. This led to the observation of the “Caring Continuum”, which is a scale showing that on one end psychopaths are and on the other, are extreme altruistic
people.
Lastly, Marsh asked the altruistic people how they could give complete strangers a kidney. The answer was simply, they did not know hot to respond. They did not see anything special about themselves and felt like they were like everyone else. However, a thesis that March has states that these people do not have a “center”, meaning that they do not see themselves as the center of anything. “It is not about me, I am not different from anyone else, I am not unique”, is what the altruistic people would say. There is a lack of self-centeredness, which is a sign of extreme humility.
Marsh believes that we could all become humble creatures, due to the fact that the world has an increase in wealth, and people are more likely to help others in a wealthy world. We have become more known to the outside world and we care about the distant strangers because of our increased knowledge. Marsh believes that it is within reach for almost everyone to reach out of the personal circle towards distant strangers, to help someone in need.
20 years ago, a man saved her life, by putting his own life in danger. He ran across 4 lanes of freeway traffic, to bring her to safety after being in a car accident that could have killed her. The man was a total stranger, who took off after making sure she was okay – she never even got his name. Marsh wonders why he did so and started questioning why some people have a different level of altruism than others.
Marsh became a psychologist, researching the human capacity of compassion and altruism. Other psychologists, as well as philosophers, believe that the human nature is selfish and self-centered. Nevertheless, some people are willing to help complete strangers even when there is no gain for themselves. Why is that? Why does some people have different, selfless motives than others? All …show more content…
in all, why are some people more compassioned than others?
The definition of altruism is this: “A voluntary, costly behavior motivated by the desire to help another individual”
Marsh wanted to study highly altruistic people, but to do so Marsh went in the complete opposite direction to gather some data at first: psychopaths.
By studying psychopaths Marsh got an overview of the total opposite of an altruistic person, and she found three important aspects: 1) psychopaths have poorer recognition-skills of other people’s fear. 2) The amygdala of a psychopath is under reactive to fear. 3) The amygdala of a psychopath is smaller than average. With this data, Marsh wanted to research whether or not it was different for highly altruistic people as well. Marsh tested people who showed a huge level of altruism: people who gave away their kidneys to complete strangers without any gain. What Marsh found was that these people are complete opposites of psychopaths: 1) they are better at detecting other people’s fear as well as detecting their distress. 2) The amygdala is hyperactive. 3) Their amygdala is larger than average by 8%. This led to the observation of the “Caring Continuum”, which is a scale showing that on one end psychopaths are and on the other, are extreme altruistic
people.
Lastly, Marsh asked the altruistic people how they could give complete strangers a kidney. The answer was simply, they did not know hot to respond. They did not see anything special about themselves and felt like they were like everyone else. However, a thesis that March has states that these people do not have a “center”, meaning that they do not see themselves as the center of anything. “It is not about me, I am not different from anyone else, I am not unique”, is what the altruistic people would say. There is a lack of self-centeredness, which is a sign of extreme humility.
Marsh believes that we could all become humble creatures, due to the fact that the world has an increase in wealth, and people are more likely to help others in a wealthy world. We have become more known to the outside world and we care about the distant strangers because of our increased knowledge. Marsh believes that it is within reach for almost everyone to reach out of the personal circle towards distant strangers, to help someone in need.