Should the world live selfishly or altruistically? (The iteration-reciprocity hypothesis and reciprocal altruism)

In this blog post, we’ll explore whether the world should live selfishly or altruistically using the iteration-reciprocity hypothesis and reciprocal altruism.

 

There are many strange things that happen in the world. Some of them, such as murders and sexual assaults, make headlines and are documented in the news, while other small but wonderful things between people around us stay in our hearts. After experiencing such things, we often think, “The world is so selfish, and if you’re nice, you’ll be taken advantage of.” However, there are still many selfless people in the world. So, are there any advantages that altruistic people have over selfish people? And what motivates them to act altruistically?
The bottom line is that “altruistic” is really just another word for “selfish” or “rational”. Being altruistic doesn’t mean that you have to be insanely nice and stupid to be altruistic, but rather that deep down, you do a quick calculation that will ultimately benefit you, and you do things that may seem altruistic on the surface. It gets a little complicated when you start with the conclusion, so please read on.
Here’s an example. You’re on your way to buy supplies for school when you get a call from a friend. She said that she needed to buy some supplies, but hadn’t yet, and asked if I could pick up some for her while I was on my way. I said yes, because I was on my way to buy it anyway, so it wasn’t too much to ask, or because I’ve always been close to her. However, one of the most important reasons is “I wonder if he will do me a favor in the future in the same situation”.
I actually went to a coin-op yesterday and saw a wallet that someone had left behind. Immediately, I had a lot of thoughts. I’ve heard people I know say that when they lose their wallet, they’d be grateful if they could just get the bills back and not lose the rest of the wallet, and I’ve also heard that when someone finds their wallet, they think that the bills in the wallet are worth the price of admission, so I debated whether or not to take the money in the wallet. After much deliberation, I ended up leaving the wallet in the custodial office. I didn’t realize it at the time, but maybe this was partly in the hopes that if I lost my wallet in the future, someone would return it to me intact.
This kind of altruistic behavior is called reciprocal altruism, and the hypothesis that underlies reciprocal altruism is the repetition-reciprocity hypothesis. Reciprocal altruism doesn’t happen unconditionally, but is based on several premises. The most basic is that it only occurs in long-lasting, repetitive relationships. The longer and more repetitive the relationship, the easier it is to expect something in return, and the easier it is to act altruistically. Another characteristic of repetitive relationships is that they make retaliation possible. A prominent behavior in a relationship or group may not just eliminate additional benefits, but may also lead to greater losses through retaliation. This is how the repetition-reciprocity hypothesis explains reciprocal altruism. In the first two examples, we know that the friend is a long-lasting relationship, so why did the altruistic behavior occur in the case of the wallet? Theoretically, it could be because I frequent the karaoke bar and anticipate that I might leave something there, just like the person who left the wallet.
Altruistic behavior was also found in animal societies. In Wilkinson’s study of vampire bats, which was instrumental in illustrating the theory, vampire bats usually live by sucking the blood of large animals, and if they are unable to suck blood for three days, they die. In such a crisis, vampire bats make a surprising choice. They share their blood with each other. They’re considered to be very good at reciprocity, and according to the odds, the average life expectancy of a vampire bat without this behavior is around three years, but with this altruistic behavior, they can live up to 15 years.
But can we say that this hypothesis adequately explains all the behaviors of living things? In fact, as we live in society, there are many behaviors that we see between people that don’t seem to fit the hypothesis.
For example, people do good deeds out of recognition, or parents treat their children with love. It is clear that the reciprocity hypothesis or reciprocal altruism is not a good explanation for these cases, and since it is premised on the idea that human nature is selfish, it can be considered an uncertain hypothesis with a false premise. Nevertheless, it is worth discussing this hypothesis because it is a very systematic attempt to explain human behavior that would have been difficult to explain before, and it has been successful in explaining universal behavior based on careful observation and experimentation.