Americans are notorious for volunteering and giving money to charities. Whether it is housewifes planting gardens or dads coaching sports, or kids cooking meals for homeless, everyone does some giving. Likewise, whenever a hurricane hits or a building falls, Americans are there to donate a few bucks. Sounds like they are altruistic or generous, but are they really?

The other day I was walking back from a train station, going uphill for 20+ minutes, in a pouring rain. As I was walking, car after car drove by and disappeared and not a single person pulled over to see if I needed a ride. Why? The neighbourhood is very safe, I looked quite decent (but drenched), and there are really not that many houses around so the distance they would’ve driven me was marginally not much different from the original trip.

Some books I’ve read before alluded to the fact that altruism doesn’t exist, but here is yet another example. I actually like this quote by a German scientist: “If the attention I pay to others is valued in proportion to the amount of attention earned by me, then an accounting system is set in motion which quotes something like the social share prices of individual attention.”

What this means is that when people donate money, they get a little bumper sticker that acknowledges their contribution, when they donate time by volunteering, the community sees that contribution and presumably acknowledges the effort. When, however, one stops to give somebody a ride, there is nobody to witness the kind gesture and therefore there is no price of attention associated with it.

Giving somebody a ride is by far a lot easier than saving a kitten from the fire or rebuilding a village wiped by a tsunami, but it doesn’t come with nearly as many “cool points”.