"On the Kindness of Strangers" by Steve Yothment

 

Congratulations to Steve Yothment for his highly informative presentation "On the Kindness of Strangers" at the December 26, 2020 meeting of Owl & Ibis - A Confluence of Minds.

A PDF of Steve's presentation is here and on the O&I website menu bar under "Links to O&I Slideshows and Docs."

Steve's talk highlighted the contents of the new book The Kindness of Strangers: How a Selfish Ape Invented a New Moral Code (2020) by psychologist Michael E. McCullough. 

The after-presentation discussion was excellent and covered topics as follows, among others:

• Is kindness towards others including strangers instinctive, learned, or a combination of both?
• Various takes and examples concerning the three recurring themes in the book - reciprocity, reputation, and reason - as prime motivators for kind and altruistic behavior toward others.
•  Donation recipient entitlement.
• The problem of corruption in nations receiving international assistance from other countries; and organizations mentioned by John Hendershot such as Charity Navigator and Give Well that monitor assistance uses and abuses.
• Doug Nichols recommended the related book Doing Good Better: How Effective Altruism Can Help Others, Do Work That Matters, and Make Smarter Choices About Giving Back (2015) by William MacAskill.

Here is something I recently wrote on nature-nurture, a matter raised in the early chapters of The Kindness of Strangers.

Well done, Steve! Thank you!