Are there people that help others simply for the sake of being altruistic?

     Some of my favorite manga works are by Fujiko Fujio, a duo of artists who created Manga for many years together. Fujiko F Fujio worked with Abiko Motoo until they published "Little Ghost Q-Taro." Little Ghost Q-Taro was immediately popular upon its release across the nation. After that, the two artists started to work independently. Across their works, the protagonists are kind helpful to the point of even being meddlesome. They cannot turn a blind eye to anyone in need, even if they are complete strangers.

     In his works titled "Perman," a boy named Mitsuo is recruited to be Perman and join a group of do-gooders. Perman's mission is to maintain world peace and to save people who are in need. Perman is given devices to acquire supernatural powers, such as a transformer that translates 138 foreign languages, a Power Tube that multiplies his physical power by 6600 times (enabling him to easily crush even a steel car), and a cloak that enables him to fly freely in the sky. With the aid of these fancy devices, Perman can fly anywhere at any time to save people who are in trouble. What makes this manga even more interesting is that Perman must keep his identity a secret. Everyone knows the hero Perman, but no one knows that Perman is Mistuo in disguise.

Infants evaluated others based on their intentions, not the outcome.

     A recent study by Spelke's group showed that infants, even as early as 15 months, placed more importance on an agent's intention than on the outcome their intention produced. Infants preferred an agent who intended to help others, even if they did not consequently help, over an agent who did not intended to help but consequently produced a positive outcome (Woo and Spelke, 2023).

     Infants were presented with a scenario in which a bear preferred to open a blue box rather than a green box, while two rabbits, wearing yellow and pink respectively, observed. Inside each box was a toy of the same color as the box. The bear then left the stage, and two hands appeared on the stage, switching the contents inside the boxes. In the false belief condition, both rabbits were absent, while in the true belief condition, both were present. After the contents were switched, the characters returned to the stage (just the bear in the true believe condition, and the bear and rabbits in the false belief condition). In the true belief condition, one rabbit opened the box that no longer contained the blue toy, and the rabbit was not surprised. The other rabbit opened the box that currently contained the blue toy, and this rabbit was also not surprised.

     In this true belief condition, the first rabbit knew that the box he opened no longer contained the blue toy, and he had no intention of helping the bear get the toy he preferred. The second rabbit knew that the box he opened currently contained the preferred blue toy and intended to help the bear. In the false belief condition, the rabbit that opened the box containing the preferred blue toy believed the box contained the green toy (since the rabbit was not present for the content switch). Thus, by opening the box, he helped the bear, although this was not his original intention. The other rabbit, who opened the box now containing the green toy, believed that the box still contained the preferred blue toy. Thus, this rabbit’s intention was to help the bear, but the outcome was not helpful. Results showed that significantly more infants preferred the rabbit who intended to help, regardless of the outcome of the rabbit’s actions. Results showed that infants preferred a rabbit that had the intention to help the bear, even when the rabbit did not consequently help.

Why has Perman been a masterpiece from generation to generation?

     One research item that came to my mind is to probe whether infants evaluate agents differently depending on their intention, even when both of them helped. In one episode titled "The Holiday of Perman," Mitsuo was tired of saving people and made up his mind not to carry out his mission. Even during his holiday, he helped several people, contradictory to his decision not to fulfill his mission. For example, Mitsuo was sleeping while floating in the sky. A fugitive happened to pass by him and Mitsuo did not notice him because he was sleeping. But the fugitive tried to escape from Mitsuo and in the process, he fled in a panic and consequently was caught by the police and arrested. Mitsuo helped the police and maintained world peace even while sleeping and having no intention to help. This episode moved readers because Perman is inherently altruistic.

     I am interested in whether humans evaluate agents more positively if they help others with no ulterior motive. If so, humans may perceive such agents as more prosocial than agents that help because it benefits them to do so. The meddlesome protagonists across the series of Fujiko Fujio Manga make me ponder the question, "What motivates humans to help others even when they cannot expect something in return?"

Reference

Woo, B. M., & Spelke, E. S. (2023). Toddlers’ social evaluations of agents who act on false beliefs. Developmental Science, 26, e13314.