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Benefit to Another at Cost to Self

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Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

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Synonyms

Benevolence; Niceness; Prosocial behavior; Selflessness

Definition

Altruism is defined as a voluntary costly act that benefits another organism, usually a conspecific (see Table 1).

Table 1 Altruism in a framework of effects on self and other(s)
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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chapman University, Orange, CA, USA

    Terence Burnham

Authors
  1. Terence Burnham
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Terence Burnham .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland Univ Dept of Psycholgy, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana Weekes-Shackelford

  2. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

  3. Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK

    Minna Lyons

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing AG

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Burnham, T. (2016). Benefit to Another at Cost to Self. In: Weekes-Shackelford, V., Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1476-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1476-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

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