Sometimes Altruism Needs to Be Enforced
The coronavirus pandemic has engendered lots of altruism. This is welcome but also unsurprising, since a group of people facing a threat typically relies on collective action to keep self-interest in check. Cooperation and generosity are part of our evolutionary heritage, and they usually require only light pressure to foster. Most people are happy to wear a mask in a hospital or on an airplane, for example, because they want to be seen as neighborly.
This winter, COVID-19 will continue to demand our attention, and we’ve unfortunately exhausted our store of soft-touch options to rouse those inner angels. More will be required if we are to leverage one of our greatest natural advantages as a species: the impulse to help others.
From the start of the pandemic, we have seen a mix of selfless and abhorrent behaviors. A puzzling feature of human nature is that they
