Christopher Niemann
Monica Hatch
Eng. 100-001
June18, 2013
Reflective Essay

Altruism: Proof that Mankind is Good

Is mankind good by nature or is it a learned behavior? My purpose is to argue that mankind is good by nature. My research source for this will be Natalie Angier’s article on altruism. The title of the article is “Of Altruism, Heroism and Nature’s Gifts in the Face of Terror” as it discusses the desire to give and to sacrifice for sake of others. Natalie Angier is noted to be one of the premier science writers in the United States. She has received awards/recognitions for her research and has published many articles related to on science writing (50).
If mankind is capable of having altruism as part of their genetic makeup, it is clear that mankind would then be good by nature. Altruism can be defined as an impulse. An impulse is a reaction to a situation, not a learned response to a situation. Pure altruism is giving without regard to reward or the benefits of recognition.

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One example of this is noted in a paragraph in the above mentioned article on altruism. Angier’ talks about this as she wrote about the last of the four hijacked planes on September 11, 2001. It reads “as the last of four hijacked planes advances toward an unknown but surely populated destination, passengers huddle together and plot resistance against their captors, an act that may explain why the plane fails to reach its target, crashing instead into an empty field outside Pittsburg” (51). The passengers on flight 93 displayed heroism and altruism as they developed a plan to try to take over the plane to stop the terrorist from crashing it into a large populated area. The passengers, while knowing that their lives would probably end, took over the plane and crashed it crashed into a field killing all on board but saved the lives of many others in the process.
Angier’s also writes an example of this when she describes the overflow of people lining up to give blood, give donation and their time to the victims of September 11th (51). Angier’s also writes how she believes that altruistic behaviors far preceded and a spirit of cooperation will arise in a nature under a wide variety of circumstances. Angier’s talks about the other side of this topic when she writes of Dr. David Sloan Wilson, a professor of biology at the State University of New York at Binghamton, who argues that moral behavior is learned within a group. Wilson writes that altruism is practiced within your group and often turned off toward members of other groups and that a group will adapt their morals but often do not apply them to the outside groups (52)(53).
Dr. Barbara Smuts, a professor of psychology and anthropology states that even in the absence of cognition or kinship you have cooperative behavior. Goodness remains together. Cooperation is necessary for mankind to compete as a species. Civilization has survived simply because we work together to move forward.54 Dr. James Moore, a professor of anthropology has researched many species including many primates and in his findings he feels humans are the nicest primates of all (54).
It is this writer’s opinion that the media adversely affects societies view thinking that people are good by nature. Negative headlines constantly plague our media sources. When you turn on the TV pick up a newspaper or even turn on your computer you hear all the bad things that took place that day.
This morning when I got home from work I turned on my TV and a story was on the news about a 19-year-old man was taken into custody the evening before at a local motel in connection to a murder of an 18 year old male. Another news story was of a corrupt Judge and probation officer involved in a drug scandal which involved a homicide occurred. This was just 2 of many stories of bad acts of humans and at the very end of the news there was a small story of a person doing an act of kindness.
One might say that the many stores like the ones I have mentioned above is evidence that mankind in not naturally good but I argue that there are many more acts of kindness but kindness does not sell as well and thus there is not time for the stories of goodness, of heroism, of altruism. In the days following the tragedies on 911, the Boston marathon bombing and the shooting of the children in the New Town school, there are good stories of people that came to the aid of the victims and their families. The latest tragedy that has occurred recently is the tornado that hit Oklahoma killing many children and adults. One of the stories after the tornado was about a teacher that threw herself on top of children to shield them from debris falling on them. The media had a short segment on a few acts like this but when you talk to people who witness the event and aftermath will share many stories like this one. As Angier quotes “ from Dr. James Moore in her article “For every 50 people making bomb threats now to mosques he said, “there are 500,000 people around the world behaving just the way we hoped they would” (54).

Work Cited
Angier, Natalie. “Of Altruism, Heroism and Nature’s Gifts in the Face of Terror” New York Times. 18 September 2011.