Altruism

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Can it occur in humans or other animals. Show examples of video footage or give personal anecdotes to corroborate your claim.

You'll find MANY instances of it.

Just go on YouTube, and put in "animals rescuing people."

My cat, Zum Zum, was altruistic. I was depressed. She rubbed up against my chest. She received no payment for it. She only rubbed my chest because she was sad that I was sad. She was altruistic in a pure sense.

My opinion is "NO".

I think "Psychology egoism" motivations are behind all supposed altrusim.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_egoism

How about my cat Zum Zum? i don't believe she had "psychological egoism."

She just wanted to make me feel better.

She was really an Aspie cat.....She didn't really care about attention.

Years ago, I had a male Irish Setter. The dog was getting quite old in dog years. I thought it might give him some joy in his later life to have a companion. So I obtained a young female Irish Setter. What I didn't realize was that she was already pregnant. She gave birth to a large litter of setters. They were always afoot. And the female setter seemed disinterested probable because she was very young and overloaded. But my older setter made up for this by being extra alert and vigilant, protecting the puppies. I think in a way he felt they were his children.

So I had to make sure the puppies were not in danger whenever I drove off. So I checked under the car and all was clear. Then I got into my car and backed up. Well the older setter immediately ran around the corner believing the puppies may be under the car and did what he could to stop the car. He ran under the tires and I drove over him. He survived but his days were numbered.

I had a female boxer. I always have one cat and one dog. And my cat passed away. So I found a little kitten and brought it home. The kitten was very young and cried a lot. So the female boxer would allow the kitten to come over and nurse. Whenever I showed up, the dog was embarrassed and would quickly get up and walk away. But for several months the dog was a nursemaid for the kitten.

I have video of the kitten nursing on the dog. But it is a little beyond my time and trouble to place it on the computer.

I'm putting this in the context of Autism, and this is a jaded and cynical answer. I think that those of us on the Autism Spectrum need to be really careful about how we approach this concept of altruism. Sometimes, we want to be nice and help other people, but we go about it in the wrong way and end up angering someone who doesn't want that help, as well as potentially other people who may be involved. The ill-received beneficence draws negative consequences. The feeling of being spurned for having tried to help someone is absolutely dreadful, and is much worse than that of having merely refrained from providing the unwanted help in the first place.

I think that the flip-side is also true: We Autistics sometimes get oppressed with unwanted and unwelcome "help" from Neurotypical people, in spite of what might be good intentions by those people. The "help" can, for instance, take the form of paternalistic interventions in which people try to impose what they think is best for us, against our autonomy and self-determination.

I have a terrible memory from my youth in which I tried to be helpful to a peer, in which I went on and on giving information about something. I had thought that I was just doing the right thing and being helpful. I didn't pick up on any of the non-verbal signals from the peer and from an adult authority figure who was the other person present, that they did not want me to go on talking and giving information. In a terrifying instant, something "snapped": the peer stated a desire to be left alone, and the authority figure suddenly screamed at me full-force in a fit of rage for me to stop immediately and that I was driving the both of them crazy. I was so emotionally crushed and ashamed from this incident, and I can't forget it even to this day. I feel like that enormous scream from the authority figure burned a permanent hole in my very soul. It's a miserable memory. So much for being "altruistic".

Another example is when I helped in a didactic situation. At one time, I thought I was being helpful by giving some information to my constituents. It turned out that I incorrectly judged how much information I should have given out. The authority figure in that didactic situation was infuriated with me, asking me what the hell I was doing, and spewing all sorts of irateness at me. I apologized -- I had to. I thought of resigning from my helper role. I was afraid that I would be formally accused of misconduct. Ultimately, neither of those two things happened, but I live with guilt and shame that I tried to do something right but got it so wrong and drew so much ire.

Remember the saying, "No good deed goes un-punished." Sometimes, less is more. Sometimes, we need to refrain from attempting to be altruistic, because the backlash from doing so can be dire. And, sometimes, people need to refrain from engaging in what they perceive to be altruism towards us. As counterintuitive as it is, altruism is something to be very, very careful of.

When I was young I expected people to be altruistic and now I get suspicious when people act like it. I know animals can be altruistic, but mostly they are selfish too. Maybe it varies by individual as well as species. Would you say autistics are more or less altruistic than NTs?

Different people here accept different definitions of the word "altruism", so it's difficult to know precisely what you're talking about, but obvious instances of what I'd consider to be altruistic acts can be seen in a number of species, the most obvious being dogs and dolphins.