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On the other hand, people often see themself as unselfish when in fact they are highly emotionally dependent on other people instead of being self-sufficient.
by thriftwy 9y ago
On the other hand, people often see themself as unselfish when in fact they are highly emotionally dependent on other people instead of being self-sufficient.
This path would lead directly to depression when you find out that the person you are emotionally dependent on isn't going to dedicate themself to making world look just to you.
- maxxxxx 9y agoAgreed. A lot of people who call themselves unselfish seem to just not be able to decide things on their own.
- KirinDave 9y agoThis seems to me less like an observable phenomenon and more an excuse to extend an argument that unselfish people are actually just selfish people, and therefore "selfish" people aren't real. Sorry if I'm reading too much into it, but this reads like the preamble to at least 10 articles people have handed to me in defense of Ayn Rand.
- thriftwy 9y agoActually, yes, this distinction of selfish versus unselfish is sooo pre-high school. It doesn't make terribly much sense to imagine that people can be divided into two groups, "selfish" and "unselfish".
- dan00 9y ago> Actually, yes, this distinction of selfish versus unselfish is sooo pre-high school. If your reasoning here is, that every person just does what feels good for them and therefore everyone is just "selfish", then that certainly isn't the whole picture why people do what they do. There're certainly people doing things because they feel right, but it might not be a pleasure for them doing it. Reducing everything to just being selfish doesn't make that much sense.
- thriftwy 9y agoWhat you have described is three quarters, let me fill this for you: Person wishing to do the right thing and doing it ("unselfish") Person doing the right thing against their wishes ("righteous") Person wishing to do the right thing but not doing it (akrasia, you missed this one) Person not doing the right thing and not wishing so ("selfish") It's all about image of oneself and the experience of being burned by your actions, and every person out there shows plenty of behavior from all four quarters. So dividing people doesn't makes sense. Now, dividing actions does.
- dan00 9y ago> So dividing people doesn't makes sense. It seems it's more about you thinking that someone else does this here or in the study. > Now, dividing actions does. But the study is about actions and how people feel afterwards. It isn't about unselfish people, but about unselfish actions of people. Sure, if they call the group 'unselfish people' it's not quite right, but that's not the point of the study.
- KirinDave 9y ago> So dividing people doesn't make sense. Exceeeept when you're doing it arbitrarily to make a point?
- KirinDave 9y agoActually no, even by the somewhat suspect rules laid out in evolutionary biology the concept of altruism stands out as valuable separate from any immediate gratification in many species. If your sources are pretty high school why should anyone here listen to them? Maybe not everything is an exercise in pushing an economic ideology.
- thriftwy 9y agoWe are all evolved already so we are all altruist under the hood, it's already there under the hood. Any non-psychopatic person will show altruism when in applicable context.
- maxxxxx 9y agoI didn't want to be too negative. My point is that it's really hard to distinguish between truly unselfish behavior and non-assertiveness or passive-aggressive behavior. Selfish behavior seems easier to identify.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- dan00 9y agoThe study is about people being unselfish, not about people seeing themself as unselfish.
- thriftwy 9y ago> More precisely, prosocial attitudes predict depression, which is in contrast to individualist attitudes. Individualist here basically just means selfish, or relatively selfish Do you understand what's being conveyed here? Because I have no idea. But it doesn't sound overly legitimate to me. Of course, I didn't read the original research.
- auserperson 9y agoon the other hand you're a jerk
- KirinDave 9y agoI'd love to read more literature about this phenomenon. Do you have any?
- bagacrap 9y agoI can't tell how sincere this is. Is it a polite way of saying "citation needed"?
- KirinDave 9y agoA little of column A, a little of column B.
- thriftwy 9y agoActually, I do, but it's all in Russian. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- 2g67vupsoknn 9y agoSounds interesting, where can I find it?
- thriftwy 9y agoStart with https://evo-lutio.livejournal.com/tag/%D0%90%D0%B4%D0%B4%D0%B8%D0%BA%D1%86%D0%B8%D1%8F https://evo-lutio.livejournal.com/tag/%D0%90%D0%B4%D0%B4%D0%... and the journal in general https://evo-lutio.livejournal.com/509588.html https://evo-lutio.livejournal.com/509588.html for the quick description of the dynamics that I am referring to
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]