Humanity has faced countless challenges over the centuries and the last century’s global challenge of the two World Wars brought global leaders to a table to decide what to do in the future; whether to remain hostile or to replace the inner desire to rule with the rational approach of living in an equal world. However, the existing challenge of an unsustainable world is considered to be the greatest brainstorming challenge humanity has ever faced. In exploring this statement in depth, it seems that the question is about the collective human psyche. Unsustainable ways of life, as well as economic models and production systems that accelerate environmental problems are so deeply ingrained in our culture and everyday life that they demand the transformation of the collective human psyche from selfishness to global solidarity. It seems that this transformation is the only way that allows us to sustainably prosper on this planet in the future. We are expressing ourselves as prisoners of our current worldviews, cultures and our mental models with a predetermined fate of collective disaster. However, there is a power within us that can give humanity the chance for a fundamental change of mind in order to transform the inner impulse of subjugation, discrimination and conquest into the spirit of service, compassion and kindness.
My life experiences inspire me to raise a global appeal to seize this small chance which, if seized, can give us and our future generations a sustainable peaceful future.
Here you will find some important works taking place in different parts of the world to explore the human psyche and its ability to transform itself into a more humanistic and altruistic mechanism.
- As citizens and as psychologists we have an option and perhaps a responsibility to decide what sort of society we want. One possibility is to try to promote a truly civil society, one in which people have a tendency to be altruistic – to act on concerns for others’ welfare as well as their own. In such a society, everyone would benefit from giving as well as from receiving care and consideration (Post, 2005). Were such a goal adopted, psychology would have much to contribute. First, psychology has identified several mechanisms by which people can come to know and care about other people’s situations. Reviewing these helps identify what is core and what is peripheral in altruism, helping, and – most valuably – altruistic helping.
Changing the World through Arts and Kindness
2. This work from People United projects asserts that the arts have a unique range of properties, from engaging emotions and embracing failure to challenging the status quo and building connections. The key challenge, as expressed in this work, is to enable a wider range of people to benefit from this work. How can it amplify the ripple effect of the projects so that participants can share their understanding and experiences of kindness with their wider networks and communities? How can it replicate the models at scale, and over longer time periods, while continuing to develop work that is authentic and intuitive? And how can this collaborate with others in the cultural sector and beyond to develop common approaches and tell a bigger story about the power of the arts to drive social change?
3. This work ‘Altruism and selfishness’ of Howard Rachlin from Psychology Department, State University of New York asserts that altruism, like self-control, is a valuable temporally-extended pattern of behavior. Like self-control, altruism may be learned and maintained over an individual’s lifetime. It needs no special inherited mechanism. Individual acts of altruism, each of which may be of no benefit (or of possible harm) to the actor, may nevertheless be beneficial when repeated over time. However, because each selfish decision is individually preferred to each altruistic decision, people can benefit from altruistic behavior only when they are committed to an altruistic pattern of acts and refuse to make decisions on a case-by-case basis.
However, the question remains is it good to ‘learn’ altruism like ‘self-control’ or to have a transformation of psyche through an inner experience to make altruism a human spontaneous expression?
4. The outbreak of COVID-19 is a public health crisis that has had a profound impact on society. Stigma is a common phenomenon in the prevalence and spread of infectious diseases. In the crisis caused by the pandemic, widespread public stigma has influenced social groups. This study explores the negative emotions arousal effect from online public stigmatization during the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact on social cooperation. It has been constructed model based on the literature and tested on a sample of 313 participants from the group being stigmatized. The results demonstrate: (1) relevance and stigma perception promote negative emotions, including anxiety, anger, and grief; (2) the arousal of anger and grief leads to a rise in the altruistic tendency within the stigmatized group; and (3) stigmatization-induced negative emotions have a complete mediating effect between perceived relevance and altruistic tendency, as well as perceived stigma and altruistic tendency.
The Origins of Empathy and Altruism
5. ‘THE ORIGINS OF EMPATHY AND ALTRUISM’ is an interesting work by Carolyn Zahn-Waxler, Barbara Hollenbeck and Marian Radke-Yarrow which says empathy and altruism are most commonly forms of compassion that human beings express toward one another. However, emotions and behaviors reflecting apparent concern for others occur within other species and across species as well. Although not without controversy, ethologists and sociobiologists (e.g., Wilson 1975) have identified many behaviors in other animals and insects that may be viewed as prosocial or altruistic (e.g., cooperative efforts of bees, warning calls of many species, rescue behaviors of whales, certain acts of mammalian caregivers toward their young, etc.). There are fewer signs of altruism across species. Some animals can be trained to protect, defend and help others (usually humans) in distress. Animal owners sometimes indicate that their pets show emotional concern for others.
The Relationship of Altruistic Behavior and Empathetic Sense
This research work by Raziyeh Meyzari Ali 1, Zahra Dasht Bozorgi from aimed to study the relationship of altruistic behavior, department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities, Ahvaz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ahvaz, Iran connects empathetic sense, and social responsibility with happiness.
As social roles are lost in late life, opportunities to engage in prosocial, contributory activities provide a promising avenue for maintaining life satisfaction and happiness (Kahana, Bhatta, Lovegreen, Kahana, & Midlarsky, 2014). Happiness, which means being happy and having a positive attitude in life, is one of the most important psychological needs for humans that has a significant influence on the quality of human life (Seyed Joodat & Zarbakhsh, 2015). Happiness as a positive mental state is characterized by high life satisfaction, positive affect, and low levels of negative affect (Morrow-Howell, 2010). Moreover, positive relationship with others, purposefulness, personality growth, and loving others are considered as the components of happiness (Ghasempour, Jodat, Soleimani, Kiomars, & Shabanlo, 2013). Happy individuals value their skills, and therefore their lives are more intervined with positive events rather than negative events (Piqueras, Kuhne, Vera-Villarroel, van Straten, & Cuijpers, 2011).