The document discusses human altruism and whether mirror neurons hold the key to explaining it. It outlines theories of altruism like reciprocal altruism and kin selection. Studies show infants and children help others, even strangers, suggesting altruism may be innate rather than purely cultural. Mirror neurons may help explain how empathy and identification with others, even strangers, can drive altruistic acts. The document proposes an unified evolutionary view incorporating selection pressures, empathy, mirror neurons and culture in shaping human altruism and cooperation.

1. Do Mirror Neurons hold the key?
A Presentation by
Arvind Krishnaa Jagannathan

2. Human Altruism

“Wesley Autrey, a 50-year old
construction worker, leaps in front of a
moving subway train in New York city to
save a stranger who collapsed onto the
tracks.”
Why?

3. Key Ideas Covered


4. Outline of the Paper

Defining what is altruism and what is the
nature of an altruistic being
Review of theories about altruism
Reciprocal altruism
Mindless altruists
Kin selection
Bystander effect

5. Outline of the Paper

Is altruism developed by culture or is it a pre-
evolutionary artifact?
Is joint-learning and cooperative task
completion related to our altruistic streak?
Is altruism somehow realized within the
evolutionary framework through mirror
neurons?

6. Outline of the Paper

Is human altruism
unique? Are we the ones
who are “intentionally”
altruistic?

7. Ambitious Questions!

 Can altruism be engineered into AI?
 Should the definition of altruism be
broadened; for instance, include “online”
altruism  support for the Middle-Eastern
rebellion through Facebook, Twitter etc.,
 Is altruism a receding trait? Will future
generations of humans possess that trait? To
what extent does technology play a role in
impacting this?

8. Mirror Neurons and the
Empathy Threshold

Identification of Empathy towards
Kin via MN kin, motivated by
system MNs
Empathy
Threshold

9. Bystander Effect – Interfering
Mirror Neurons

Person #1
Person #2
Person i
Person n

10. Altruism as an outcome
of Cultural Evolution

 Culture inculcates altruistic norms
which subordinate the individual to
group welfare.
 Children are rewarded for acts of
kindness or helpfulness and punished
for selfish behavior.
 Does this reinforcement instill altruistic
behavior in children, or does it enhance
an already existing character attribute?

11. Case Studies by
Tomasello et al.

 Infants between the ages of 12-18 months voluntarily
help human “observers” in certain experiments.
 Infants were able to overcome previously unseen
obstacles to assist the “helpless” adults complete their
task.
 This willingness to go “out-of-the-way” to help a
stranger  evolves into cooperation and joint learning?
 A similar study with chimpanzees
 Willing to help in scenarios which are less “cognitively”
demanding
 Willing to help in “difficult” tasks only if they are
rewarded

12. Case Studies by
Tomasello et al.

 Observed that children who were
offered a prize for helping out actually
helped out LESS on further trials.
 The intrinsic satisfaction in
accomplishing a cooperative task is
diminished by offering a material
reward.

13. Uniqueness of Human
Altruism

 Evolved as a means to be accepted into/ gain
popularity with a society.
 Assign value to different kinds of helpful deeds:
 An action which yields a “positive” outcome is valued
“less” than an action which eliminates a “negative”
outcome.
 Weighted based on the subject at the receiving end of the
helpful act.
 Mostly reciprocal altruists

14. An Unified View

Mirror
Evolutionary Selection Empathy
Neurons
Need to be
accepted into
society
Altruism Positive and Negative
Reinforcement
Social Cultural

15. Basis of Human
Cooperation

Altruistic
Desire
Cognitive Achieve more;
Cooperation work less
Offload
Information
Dissemination