We can say that a general understanding of altruism is altruistic behavior intended for the benefit of others, at the personal detriment of the individual engaging in that behavior. These behaviors will bring no obvious gains to the provider and could also have obvious costs to the one performing the behavior. Taking all of this into consideration, can we say whether true altruism exists or not? It doesn't exist because no matter what you do, whether it's giving a dollar to a beggar or saving someone's life, you face a loss, but you get something in return, no matter what. which varies from fame to a feeling of satisfaction. I'll start by talking about the bystander effect and how it might influence people's altruistic behavior. The bystander effect is the phenomenon that when a person needs help from someone around them, the people around them will only look at them for several reasons, such as diffusion of responsibility and symbolic interactionism. The bystander effect was first studied by two social psychologists. Bibb Latané and John Darley. It all started after the infamous Kitty Genovese murder incident at Kew Gardens in New York. Kitty Genovese had just parked her car and was beginning to walk toward her apartment when she was attacked by her killer and repeatedly stabbed three times within a half hour. As she screamed for help as she was stabbed to death, there were a total of 38 bystanders who heard her screams and some were even watching the event unfold from their windows and none of these bystanders responded. bothered to help her or even call the police until it was too late and she was killed. The bystander effect can be triggered by many different stimuli like broadcast...... middle of paper ...... man, a relaxing feeling of happiness. This is also considered a reward and the human is not consciously aware of it, but they are aware of it unconsciously and they can do it intentionally without being aware of it. To conclude everything mentioned above, there is no such thing as altruism. and this is a misconception, people do acts of kindness and no matter what, they always receive a reward in return, whether the reward is tangible or not. People may also think that they are not receiving a reward, but they are aware of it and are unaware of it. Altruism.html http://www.everydaysociologyblog.com/2007/07/altruism-and-th.html http://www.angelfire.com/psy/dlgfischer/ http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/ hide-and-seek/201203/does-true-altruism-exist