25-08 - Flipbook - Page 49
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Research suggests that people are actually more than willing to prioritise others' safety over their
own in many situations. A paper published in 2020, for example, investigated CCTV recordings of violent attacks in the UK, the Netherlands and South Africa. It found that one or more people had
tried to assist in nine out of 10 of the attacks 3 with bigger groups making an intervention more, not
less likely.
You might argue that even so-called "have-a-go-heroes" are on some level motivated by selfgratification, perhaps to gain group approval. But a 2014 study about recipients of the Carnegie Hero Medal, awarded to people who have risked their lives for others, found that such extreme altruists,
largely described their actions as intuitive rather than deliberative, suggesting their altruism was a
reflexive, or "automatic" response. It's something we are when we don't have time to think.
"There is a superficial level at which we can operate selfishly, and we often do," says Taylor whose
book, DisConnected, explores how certain human behaviours can cause social problems. "But that's
at the level of our ego, or socially constructed identity." Humans also have the capacity to be impulsively altruistic, he adds.
In May 2017, for example, a suicide bomber attacked an Ariana Grande concert in Taylor's home
city: Manchester. A total of 22 people were killed and more than a thousand were injured. Despite
the ongoing risk to survivors, however, the Kerslake Report, an independent review into the atrocity, highlighted "hundreds if not thousands of acts of individual bravery and selflessness". Similar cases
of heroic altruism have been documented during 9/11 and the 2015 Paris terrorist attacks.
There are evolutionary reasons for human altruism, Taylor says. For most of our history, we have lived
in tribes as hunter-gatherers 3 highly cooperative groups.
"There's no reason why early human beings should be competitive or individualistic," says Taylor.
"That would not have helped our survival at all. It would have actually endangered our survival."
Research suggests that people are actually more than willing to prioritise others' safety over their
own in many situations. A paper published in 2020, for example, investigated CCTV recordings of violent attacks in the UK, the Netherlands and South Africa. It found that one or more people had
tried to assist in nine out of 10 of the attacks 3 with bigger groups making an intervention more, not
less likely.
You might argue that even so-called "have-a-go-heroes" are on some level motivated by selfgratification, perhaps to gain group approval. But a 2014 study about recipients of the Carnegie Hero Medal, awarded to people who have risked their lives for others, found that such extreme altruists,
largely described their actions as intuitive rather than deliberative, suggesting their altruism was a
reflexive, or "automatic" response. It's something we are when we don't have time to think.
"There is a superficial level at which we can operate selfishly, and we often do," says Taylor whose
book, DisConnected, explores how certain human behaviours can cause social problems. "But that's
at the level of our ego, or socially constructed identity." Humans also have the capacity to be impulsively altruistic, he adds.
In May 2017, for example, a suicide bomber attacked an Ariana Grande concert in Taylor's home
city: Manchester. A total of 22 people were killed and more than a thousand were injured. Despite
the ongoing risk to survivors, however, the Kerslake Report, an independent review into the atrocity, highlighted "hundreds if not thousands of acts of individual bravery and selflessness". Similar cases
of heroic altruism have been documented during 9/11 and the 2015 Paris terrorist attacks.
There are evolutionary reasons for human altruism, Taylor says. For most of our history, we have lived
in tribes as hunter-gatherers 3 highly cooperative groups.
"There's no reason why early human beings should be competitive or individualistic," says Taylor.
"That would not have helped our survival at all. It would have actually endangered our survival."
