[FRIAM] individualism promotes altruism?

[David Eric Smith]

More like: when you feel your life is precarious and nobody gives a damn about you, you tend to be grasping, defensive, unhelpful, and after generations, belligerent and mean.  There’s a lot of editorial on this in US papers these days.

When you feel suitably protected, reasonably secure in your future, then you are higher on the Maslov hierarchy and more concerned about whether people around you don’t hate you, maybe because they too are doing okay.

I know an old Swedish development economist (old enough that he walks with a cane from having polio) — whom I have mentioned on this list before — who has told me that the decades when the Swedes created the most generous welfare state in the world (at that time) were those when they were coming off a heyday of prosperity from the 1890s to the 1950s, what this economist calls a “Silicon Valley” phase of Swedish economics.  I assume a lot of that was mining, related to the invention of dynamite so that mining could be a safer enterprise, and Sweden had enormous, highly demanded extractable wealth and very few people.  But I have read that there was one more important factor in that generation for them.  They had narrowly escaped being combatants in WWII, and they were astute about the conditions in the German depression that had made that possible.  I think they were aiming for Nietzche’s “last man” — someone who feels secure enough in his own future to not be out to eat the world.

Eric



> On May 31, 2021, at 12:41 PM, Pieter Steenekamp <pieters at randcontrols.co.za> wrote:
> 
> Does this translate to:
> When I feel good about myself I find joy in helping others
> When I feel grumpy I say: f$%# the world
> ?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Mon, 31 May 2021 at 00:26, ⛧ glen <gepropella at gmail.com <mailto:gepropella at gmail.com>> wrote:
> Global variation in subjective well-being predicts seven forms of altruism
> https://psyarxiv.com/k3y7u/ <https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2fpsyarxiv.com%2fk3y7u%2f&c=E,1,l3gX1JcYdW8d8aYlKeUgWj6SWFvRaDZcORKBEprpXTMGPsaIxER-FCy5ZeVGlH1nzuIGf_P3vU-gSOTsnOjBiWmCq59I9ERzcVV_v9Vc3Q,,&typo=1>
> 
> "Abstract
> 
> The geographic prevalence of various altruistic behaviors (non-reciprocal acts that improve others' welfare) is non-uniformly distributed. But whether this reflects variation in a superordinate construct linked to national-level outcomes or cultural values is unknown. We compiled data on seven altruistic behaviors across 48-152 nations, and found evidence that these behaviors reflect a latent construct positively associated with national-level subjective well-being (SWB) and individualist values, even controlling for national-level wealth, health, education, and shared cultural history. Consistent with prior work, we found that SWB mediates the relationship between two objective measures of well-being (wealth and health) and altruism (N=130). Moreover, these indirect effects increase as individualist values increase within the subset of countries (N=90) with available data. Together, results indicate that altruism increases when resources and cultural values provide objective and subjective means for pursuing personally meaningful goals, and that altruistic behaviors may be enhanced by societal changes that promote well-being."
> -- 
> glen ⛧
> 
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