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13 years ago
The dark side of altruismBlindly trying to help others can have disastrous consequences
Hutus who killed Tutsis in the Rwandan genocide often thought it would protect their own families
ONE summer night in 2006, Carole Alden, a purportedly kind-hearted artist and doting mother of five, shot and killed her husband in the remote reaches of Utah's Great Basin. Alden claimed he had been charging straight at her, aiming to kill, and that she was simply defending herself.
The autopsy revealed, however, that the first bullet had hit him not square in the chest - as Alden initially told police - but in the back. Investigators learned that a few hours after the killing, Alden slipped over to a friend's house to take a nap, later returning to drag her husband's body out of her home using a rope attached to a jeep. The next morning she spent hours digging a hole for the body.
She made only one miscalculation. She revealed to her friend - who police later determined was her lover - what she had done and asked his help in moving the corpse. Horrified, he refused and told her he was planning to call the police. Only then, some 12 hours after the killing, did Alden herself call the authorities.
As described in the book Cold-Blooded Kindness, written by one of us, the evidence is overwhelming that Alden lied about many crucial details when she spoke to police. She went to great lengths to hide the fact that she had bought the gun on the very day her husband died. Other clues indicate she had been considering killing him for a long time. Furthermore, her portrayal of herself as a helpless victim trapped in the hands of a monster does not add up, since her husband had already left her: she went to find him and bring him back to the house the evening she shot him. Yet Alden, sentenced to prison for up to 15 years after admitting manslaughter, has many vociferous supporters who continue to back her version of events. Why?
In letting their good intentions blind them to the facts, Alden's supporters are displaying what we call "pathological altruism". A pathological altruist is someone who is sincerely motivated to help others, but whose supposedly altruistic acts have harmful consequences. This is not a clinical diagnosis. Rather, it is a less stigmatising way of saying Alden's supporters are gullible: they have been duped by her claim that she is the victim, taking her assertions at face value without examining the other side of the story.
Well-intentioned activities that lead to negative outcomes are all around us. Our comprehensive review of this field - published in the book Pathological Altruism in November - shows that many of society's most pernicious troubles arise under the guise of, or as a consequence of, attempts to help others. Pathologies of altruism can result in all kinds of abuses, such as the neglect of children, and can lead to misinformed legislation and the misapplication of science. If we really want to help others, we should recognise that altruism can be dangerous.
Over the past decade, there has been an explosion in research and interest in the positive aspects of altruism. Several disciplines, in particular neuroscience and genetics, are providing useful new insights. Against this background, even to hint that altruism could have a dark shadow seems sacrilegious to many. What if it causes people to stop trying to help others?
This should not deter us from exploring the issue, given the harm it can cause if left unchallenged. For example, during the Rwandan genocide in 1994, many Hutus killed Tutsis because they thought that in doing so they would help to protect their fellow Hutus. In other words, they believed they were benefiting their society, their culture and those most dear to them. And there are many other examples of harmful behaviours that occur within the context of helping those close to us, or our in-group - ranging from suicide attacks to codependency in relationships. Even anorexia may be rooted in pathologies of altruism: some studies have suggested that dealing with the tendency of people with anorexia to sacrifice their own needs and interests can be as helpful as focusing on the eating component of the disorder.
Pathological altruists can be easily manipulated by those who are less altruistic. Hitler, for example, was a master at using people's best traits - their faith, hope, love and willingness to make sacrifices - to his own advantage as he steered his nation to war. The late historian Robert Waite, a perceptive analyst of the Nazi movement, wrote: "The effectiveness of [Hitler's] propaganda lay finally in this - he made it seem that his party's nihilism was idealism, its brutality strength, its vicious 'ideology' altruism."
Many of us imagine that we would never be duped by such an obvious con. But it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking one is doing good when that is not the case.
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