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michael_vassar3 comments on Superhero Bias

3Eliezer_Yudkowsky01 December 2007 03:14AM

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michael_vassar301 December 2007 01:27:22PM1 point [-]

Why would we evolve to have positive feelings towards people in proportion to their altruism rather than in proportion to their value as allies? If your positive feelings towards someone are supposed to correspond to the fitness benefit you stand to gain by helping them and thus becoming a more likely target for their altruism its surely far better to help Gandhi or Superman. We probably aren't even evolved to note *how* altruistic someone is, only that they *are* altruistic. If we know that a person is an altruist they are probably a member of our tribe, and so have reason to be altruistic towards us.