In this blog post, we’ll examine the reasons people engage in altruistic behavior from the perspectives of material benefits, psychological benefits, and duty, and explore how these perspectives explain human behavior.

Why Altruistic People Exist

You’ve probably heard stories at least once about people who donated their entire life savings—money they had painstakingly accumulated—to a university. We often hear news about people living altruistic lives, such as those who risk their own lives to save others or those who quit their jobs to volunteer in underprivileged areas.
Why do people who live such altruistic lives engage in altruistic behavior? Here, altruistic behavior refers to actions that yield no direct benefit to the individual but only benefit others. Why do people act altruistically even in situations where there appears to be no personal gain, and—as mentioned earlier—why do altruistic people exist at all? Humans are generally considered rational beings who pursue their own interests. From this perspective, if we limit the definition of “benefit” to visible, material gains, we can propose several reasons.

Group Projects and the Perspective of Material Gain

First, let’s consider the scenario of a group project. For many college students, group projects are often perceived as a nightmare. The reason lies in the attitudes of the group members toward the project. While some members do their best for the project, others—so-called “free riders”—do not participate actively, expecting their fellow group members to cover their share of the work. Because of this free-riding, diligent group members end up shouldering the workload of others and, ultimately, receive the same evaluation as the free-riders, putting them at a disadvantage. As this situation repeats itself, group projects have become assignments that many college students avoid.
In group projects, free-riding may seem unconditionally more advantageous than participating diligently. As mentioned earlier, if humans were rational beings who pursued self-interest, everyone would choose to free-ride. Nevertheless, why do so many people choose to participate diligently rather than free-ride? It is because they can gain benefits that outweigh the immediate losses incurred by not free-riding.
If students are close with their group members or need to maintain relationships with them after the assignment, free-riding could strain those relationships or lead to a loss of trust. Therefore, by not free-riding, they can avoid future losses. Furthermore, by participating diligently in the assignment, they contribute to their community, thereby laying the groundwork for seeking help from fellow members should they face difficulties in the future. In this way, even if it seems like you’re suffering a loss in the short term during a group project, altruistic behavior can be viewed as a way to avoid greater losses in the long run or potentially gain greater material benefits.

Altruistic Behavior from the Perspective of Psychological Benefits

However, not everyone engages in altruistic behavior with the expectation of such benefits. To explain people who act altruistically without expecting any personal gain, a different perspective is needed. Let’s now expand the scope of benefits pursued by humans—as rational beings—from material benefits to psychological benefits.
Psychological benefits are a broader concept that encompasses material benefits. For example, suppose you happen to find 10,000 won while walking down the street and donate it to help those in need. From the perspective of material benefits, the benefit lies in gaining the monetary value of 10,000 won. In contrast, from the perspective of psychological benefits, the happiness felt from obtaining the 10,000 won is also taken into account. Now, let’s examine the situation of making a donation. From the perspective of material benefit, there is only a loss—the monetary value of 10,000 won. However, from the perspective of psychological benefit, alongside the regret felt at losing the money, there is also a sense of pride in having helped someone through the donation. In this way, psychological benefit is a concept that encompasses both material gains and losses, while also addressing psychological elements—such as satisfaction or guilt—that cannot be explained by material factors alone.

Here, we will define the material aspects of psychological benefits as “material factors” and the non-material aspects as “psychological factors.”
Let’s revisit the group project from the perspective of psychological benefits. It can be argued that group members engage in free-riding because they judge that the benefits they gain from material factors outweigh the losses. Conversely, the reason people do not free-ride is that they judge the benefits derived from psychological factors to outweigh the losses from material factors, leading them to conclude that, overall, the outcome is beneficial. Since these psychological gains and losses vary greatly from person to person and situation to situation, they cannot be expressed as precise numerical values like material factors. However, it can be argued that when individuals, based on their own criteria, determine that the outcome is ultimately beneficial after considering both material and psychological factors, they will engage in altruistic behavior.

Why a Sense of Duty Drives Altruistic Behavior

However, this interpretation also fails to fully explain the reasons behind altruistic behavior. This is because people who act altruistically do not always calculate their costs and benefits before acting. So, even though humans are rational beings who pursue their own interests, why do they sometimes act altruistically without weighing the costs and benefits? The reason is that they feel a sense of duty to act altruistically. This sense of duty may stem from social norms, personal principles, or cultural context. Thus, people engage in altruistic behavior because they feel a duty to act altruistically in specific situations. When acting in accordance with this duty, material or psychological benefits follow as a result rather than being the cause of the action.
For example, imagine you’re walking down the street, find an elderly person who has collapsed, and help them—only to arrive late for an appointment as a result. From the perspective of psychological benefits, one might weigh the loss incurred by being late against the satisfaction gained from helping the elderly person. However, in reality, most people do not calculate these costs and benefits before acting. In a situation where an elderly person has collapsed, one’s personal standard—that one must help—takes precedence; one acts accordingly, and the psychological costs and benefits follow as a result.
Let’s revisit group projects from this perspective. Hardly anyone would calculate, the moment they are assigned a group project, whether a particular action would result in a gain or a loss. Rather, in the context of a group project, if a person believes—based on their own standards—that altruistic behavior is a duty, they will participate diligently; if not, they will choose to free-ride.
This applies not only to specific situations like group projects but also to society in general. At first glance, one might explain why people act altruistically by noting that humans are rational beings who pursue self-interest. However, since not all altruistic people pursue only material gain, this explanation can be supplemented by the concept of psychological benefits. Nevertheless, this explanation alone is insufficient to account for all altruistic behavior. Therefore, the perspective that offers the broadest explanation for altruistic behavior is that people act out of a sense of duty. The reason why, even in general society, there are people who act altruistically despite having no direct material benefit and without calculating the costs and benefits is that they feel a duty to act in that way.

My Thoughts on Altruistic Behavior

As such, it can generally be said that people engage in altruistic behavior out of a sense of duty. However, I believe that, up until now, I have acted altruistically not so much out of a sense of duty, but because the psychological satisfaction I derive from such actions is great enough to fully offset any other losses. In the future as well, the reason I will continue to act altruistically—just like everyone else—will not be solely out of a sense of duty, but because I can gain mental happiness and satisfaction through such actions.