What Makes Us Help Others?

What Makes Us Help Others?

Several things make people help others based on studies. Several studies have shown that people become helpful due to the characters they develop through childhood and other environmental factors. Also, studies show that helpfulness is also driven by genetics, like people who are naturally driven to be empathetic. When explaining further the environmental factors that make people helpful, the study by Knafo-Noam and Uzefovsky (2013) shows that these are factors that a person encounters in their environment from their childhood. These factors include how the family behaves. For instance, a child can learn to be empathetic and helpful because they see their parents do the same. A person can also show empathy because they learn from the environment that when one is helpful, they get the same thing back (Knafo-Noam and Uzefovsky, 2013). This means that when one is helpful, then others will also be helpful to them. Also, from the environment, people learn helpfulness through religious texts and inspiration from others. These are also environmental factors that make people helpful (Knafo-Noam and Uzefovsky, 2013). This discussion shows that these factors can fall within the category of genetic and environmental factors. The emerging question discussed by the literature consulted here is whether environmental or genetic factors strongly influence a person’s drive to be helpful. Most studies have examined the subject of empathy, and since empathy is the ability to understand other people’s emotions, then it is related to helpfulness. One can only be helpful when one can understand another’s emotions.

Knafo-Noam et al. (2015) evaluated the first study consulted. In this study, prosocial faucets are socially acceptable behaviors, including helpfulness. In this experiment, the researchers used twins who were observed to ensure enough data was collected to show that there were instances when genetic analysis from the twins showed that there was evidence of shared environmental impacts for the desire to show kindness in the twins. This finding confirmed that empathy is influenced by genetics. This study also showed that the environment could affect the child’s ability to be helpful. However, the study may not directly show that genetics have a more substantial influence on the child’s ability to be helpful. Still, it showed that the child’s ability to be helpful could be because of genetic factors. The dominance of genetic impact on prosocial behaviors was more significant, and helpfulness is believed to be a part of these prosocial behaviors. This study also supported the hypothesis that the decision to be helpful cannot be totally delinked from genetics nor detached from the environment.

The second study by Abramson et al. (2020) showed that empathy is influenced by genetics and the environment. A review and meta-analysis of behavioral genetics showed that emotional heart is highly innate. It is easily attached to genetics. This research confirmed that empathy is strongly driven by genetics, not the environment. This study also brings out that genetic and environmental factors relating to empathy manifest differently depending on the age and as a person grows up. It is clear that the more a person grows up, their tendency to show empathy is mainly driven by genetics and less by the environment. Therefore, this directly confirmed genetics’ role in the person’s tendency to show compassion.

The third study examined was by Warrier et al. (2016), who explored the ability of helpfulness among people with schizophrenia and those with autism. The research found that it was difficult to understand why people with these disabilities are commonly considered to be less empathetic. However, one thing that emerged clearly is that genetics drives this behavior more, even though the environment can shape it further. These are indicators that it is still tricky to clearly say that the environment strongly affects one’s ability to be helpful. It is also difficult to conclude that genetics alone is the strongest drive. These two may be working concurrently or independently. However, it would be wrong to totally exclude one of them.

References

Abramson, L., Uzefovsky, F., Toccaceli, V., & Knafo-Noam, A. (2020). The genetic and environmental origins of emotional and cognitive empathy: Review and meta-analyses of twin studies. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 114, 113-133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2020.03.023

Knafo-Noam, A. & Uzefovsky, F. (2013). Origin of the Social Brain: Variation in empathy: The interplay of genetic and environmental factors. Guilford Publications, Inc.

Knafo-Noam, A., Uzefovsky, F., Israel, S., Davidov, M., & Zahn-Waxler, C. (2015). The prosocial personality and its facets: Genetic and environmental architecture of mother-reported behavior of 7-year-old twins. Frontiers in Psychology, 6. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00112

Warrier, V., Toro, R., Chakrabarti, B., Børglum, A. D., Grove, J., Hinds, D. A., Bourgeron, T., & Baron-Cohen, S. (2016). Genome-wide analyses of self-reported empathy: Correlations with autism, schizophrenia, and anorexia nervosa. https://doi.org/10.1101/050682

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TITLE: 8-2 Short Paper: Predictors of Helping Behavior

PROMPT:
What makes us help other people? Are the variables that make us more likely to help others genetic or environmental?

What Makes Us Help Others.

Using research from the Shapiro Library, explain which factor—genetics or the environment—is more powerful in regards to helping behavior. Support your perspective using research and examples. Also, consider the strongest or most valid points that may be raised against your argument and counter them.

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