text: Daniel Batson, a psychologist, examined this question and argued against the social exchange theory.He identified four significant motives: to ultimately benefit the self (egoism), to ultimately benefit the other person (altruism), to benefit a group (collectivism), or to uphold a moral principle (principlism).Altruism that ultimately serves selfish gains is thus differentiated from selfless altruism, but the general conclusion has been that empathy-induced altruism can be genuinely selfless.The empathy-altruism hypothesis states that psychological altruism exists and is evoked by the empathic desire to help someone suffering.Feelings of empathic concern are contrasted with personal distress, which compels people to reduce their unpleasant emotions and increase their positive ones by helping someone in need.Empathy is thus not selfless since altruism works either as a way to avoid those negative, unpleasant feelings and have positive, pleasant feelings when triggered by others' need for help or as a way to gain social reward or avoid social punishment by helping.People with empathic concern help others in distress even when exposure to the situation could be easily avoided, whereas those lacking in empathic concern avoid allowing it unless it is difficult or impossible to avoid exposure to another's suffering.Helping behavior is seen in humans from about two years old when a toddler can understand subtle emotional cues.In psychological research on altruism, studies often observe altruism as demonstrated through prosocial behaviors such as helping, comforting, sharing, cooperation, philanthropy, and community service.People are most likely to help if they recognize that a person is in need and feel personal responsibility for reducing the person's distress.The number of bystanders witnessing pain or suffering affects the likelihood of helping (the Bystander effect).