Definition
Altruism derives from the Latin alter, that is other, and was used for the first time in the nineteenth century by Comte (Paul et al. 1993), described as a devotion to the interests of others as an action-guiding principle, implying the elimination of selfish desire and of egocentrism (Irwin 2000). In this sense, altruism can be comprehended by a behavior that benefits another organism or person (Trivers 1971). A prosocial behavior is a deliberate and voluntary behavior, which may benefit another person; therefore, if this behavior is caused by a true desire to benefit another person, without any expected benefits to oneself, then it may be considered an altruistic behavior (Feigin et al. 2014). Feign et al. (2014) defined altruism as an intentional and voluntary act performed to benefit another person as the primary motivation, and without a conscious expectation of reward...
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Niculescu, G., Barangea, M., von Humboldt, S., Silva, S. (2019). Altruism. In: Gu, D., Dupre, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69892-2_73-1
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