Genuine empathy can make you help even when no one's watching and nothing's in it for you

Daniel Batson ran decades of experiments testing whether people only ever help for selfish reasons — to end their own distress or avoid guilt. Across many studies, people who felt strong empathic concern kept helping even when an easy, no-cost way to escape was available, suggesting real altruism can exist alongside self-interest.

— C. Daniel Batson, The Altruism Question: Toward a Social-Psychological Answer — Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1991
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