Altruism/Heroism | scientist-site

Altruism & Heroism

Over the past twenty years or so I have been doing research on altruism, specifically on the topic of "competitive altruism" in which people do nice things for others as a way of increasing their own status in the long run. One tangent of this research has been my studies on heroism. My working hypothesis is that physically heroic behavior is a form of costly signaling that has been selected for in males. Some publications and presentations resulting from my research on altruism and heroic behavior can be found below.

McAndrew, F. T. (2024). Heroic Behavior as Costly Signaling. In Allison, S. T., Goethals, G., Beggan, J., & Kinsella, E. (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Heroism Studies, pp. 902-906, Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-48129-1_83 (available online September 20, 2023).

McAndrew, F. T. (2024, January 22). Why helping other people also helps you. Essay in Out of the Ooze: Navigating the 21st Century with a Stone-Age Mind. Psychology Today Magazine Blog.

McAndrew, F. T. (2023, September 26). Is Physically Risky Heroism a 'Guy Thing'? The Academic Minute (NPR)..

McAndrew, F. T. (2022, July 12). What makes people willing to risk their lives to save others? The Conversation, Scroll (India), Brooklyn Daily Eagle, St. George News, Asian Spectator, Big Think, Neuroscience News, Snopes.com, & more than two dozen other news outlets.

McAndrew, F., T. (2021). Costly Signaling Theory. In T. Shackelford & V. Weekes-Shackelford (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science, pp. 1525-1532, New York: Springer International Publishing.

McAndrew, F., T. (2021). Heroic Rescue in Humans. In T. Shackelford & V. Weekes-Shackelford (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science, pp. 3677-3683. New York: Springer International Publishing.

McAndrew, F. T. (2018, July 26). Are heroism, philanthropy, and religion about showing off? In Out of the Ooze: Navigating the 21st Century with a Stone-Age Mind. Psychology Today Magazine Blog.

McAndrew, F. T. (2015, September). Is Heroism a "Guy Thing?" In Out of the Ooze: Navigating the 21st Century with a Stone-Age Mind. Psychology Today Magazine Blog.

Goranson, A., & McAndrew, F. T. (2015, February). Helper or Helping? The Role of Subtle Linguistic Manipulations in Prosocial Behavior. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP), Long Beach, California.

McAndrew, F. T., & Perilloux, C. (2012). Is Self-Sacrificial Competitive Altruism Primarily a Male Activity? Evolutionary Psychology, 10, 50-65.

McAndrew, F. T., & Perilloux, C. (2012). The Selfish Hero: Study of the Individual Benefits of Self-Sacrificial Prosocial Behavior. Psychological Reports, 111, 27-43.

McAndrew, F. T. (2011, October). The Selfish hero?. Invited talk in the Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri – Columbia.

McAndrew, F. T. (2011, September). The Selfish Hero? An invited address at the University of Limerick, Ireland.

McAndrew, F. T., & Perilloux, C. (2011, June). The Gender and personality Dynamics of Self-Sacrificial "Heroic" Behavior in Mixed-Sex Groups. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society, Montpellier, France.

McAndrew, F. T., & Perilloux, C. (2010, June). Who becomes a Hero and what happens to them? A Study of Self-Sacrificial Behavior in Small Female Groups. Paper presented at the Annual meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society, Eugene, OR.

McAndrew, F. T. (2009, May). The Selfish Hero? A Study of the Individual Benefits of Self-Sacrificial Behavior in Small Groups. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society, Fullerton, CA.

McAndrew, F. T. (2003). Evolution and the problem of altruism: Current and historical perspectives. In S. Shohov (Ed.), Advances in Psychology Research, Volume 27 (pp. 277-288) Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science Publishers

McAndrew, F. T. (2002). New evolutionary perspectives on altruism: Multilevel selection and costly signaling theories. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11, 79-82.