full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Abigail Marsh: Why some people are more altruistic than others

Unscramble the Blue Letters


So before I go any further, I really want to take a moment to stop and say thank you to that stranger.

(Applause)

I tell you all of this because the events of that night changed the course of my life to some degree. I became a pcoohlsgyy researcher, and I've devoted my work to understanding the human ciapcaty to care for others. Where does it come from, and how does it doevelp, and what are the extreme forms that it can take? These questions are really important to understanding biasc aspects of human saiocl nature. A lot of people, and this includes everybody from philosophers and economists to ordinary people believe that human nature is fmaenndlaulty slseifh, that we're only ever really motivated by our own welfare. But if that's true, why do some people, like the snetagrr who rescued me, do selfless things, like helping other people at enormous risk and cost to themselves? Answering this question reureqis exploring the roots of extraordinary acts of altruism, and what might make people who engage in such acts different than other pploee. But until recently, very little work on this topic had been done.

Open Cloze


So before I go any further, I really want to take a moment to stop and say thank you to that stranger.

(Applause)

I tell you all of this because the events of that night changed the course of my life to some degree. I became a __________ researcher, and I've devoted my work to understanding the human ________ to care for others. Where does it come from, and how does it _______, and what are the extreme forms that it can take? These questions are really important to understanding _____ aspects of human ______ nature. A lot of people, and this includes everybody from philosophers and economists to ordinary people believe that human nature is _____________ _______, that we're only ever really motivated by our own welfare. But if that's true, why do some people, like the ________ who rescued me, do selfless things, like helping other people at enormous risk and cost to themselves? Answering this question ________ exploring the roots of extraordinary acts of altruism, and what might make people who engage in such acts different than other ______. But until recently, very little work on this topic had been done.

Solution


  1. stranger
  2. people
  3. capacity
  4. develop
  5. selfish
  6. requires
  7. basic
  8. psychology
  9. fundamentally
  10. social

Original Text


So before I go any further, I really want to take a moment to stop and say thank you to that stranger.

(Applause)

I tell you all of this because the events of that night changed the course of my life to some degree. I became a psychology researcher, and I've devoted my work to understanding the human capacity to care for others. Where does it come from, and how does it develop, and what are the extreme forms that it can take? These questions are really important to understanding basic aspects of human social nature. A lot of people, and this includes everybody from philosophers and economists to ordinary people believe that human nature is fundamentally selfish, that we're only ever really motivated by our own welfare. But if that's true, why do some people, like the stranger who rescued me, do selfless things, like helping other people at enormous risk and cost to themselves? Answering this question requires exploring the roots of extraordinary acts of altruism, and what might make people who engage in such acts different than other people. But until recently, very little work on this topic had been done.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
extraordinary altruists 4
recognizing fearful 3
fearful expressions 3
freeway traffic 2
understanding basic 2
basic aspects 2
human nature 2
complete stranger 2
altruistic kidney 2
bone marrow 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
understanding basic aspects 2
recognizing fearful expressions 2

Important Words


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  2. altruism
  3. answering
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  5. aspects
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  24. human
  25. important
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  30. motivated
  31. nature
  32. night
  33. ordinary
  34. people
  35. philosophers
  36. psychology
  37. question
  38. questions
  39. requires
  40. rescued
  41. researcher
  42. risk
  43. roots
  44. selfish
  45. selfless
  46. social
  47. stop
  48. stranger
  49. topic
  50. true
  51. understanding
  52. welfare
  53. work