Read and respond to at least two other student’s posting. Your response should be at least 50 words in length, meaningful, and substantive. Non- substantive comment might be, “yeah, that’s happened to me to!” with no elaboration.
Post 1
After reading the discussion prompt, my mind immediately jumped to Temar Boggs. Temar Boggs and his friend, are praised as heroes for rescuing a kidnapped girl, Jocelyn Rojas, in 2013. The boys took it upon themselves to search for Jocelyn after she went missing and spotted her after chasing the alleged kidnapper on their bicycles for 15 minutes! The kidnapper eventually let Jocelyn out of the car and the boys were able to save her. This story pulls my heartstrings every time. The amount of empathy these teens must have to be willing to sacrifice their safety is incredible!
I believe this real-life example serves as a powerful illustration of how altruism, which refers to the selfless concern for the well-being of others, can make a positive impact on people. Oftentimes, people just get struck by the bystander effect and don’t do anything, but that didn’t happen here. The boys’ actions reflect the essence of altruism, as they acted out of genuine concern for the girl and they didn’t expect any personal gain.
https://www.cnn.com/2013/07/15/justice/pennsylvani…
Post 2
It was refreshing to search for positive news rather than the usual doom and gloom, and in doing so I found an article (shared yesterday) that makes for a great example of prosocial behavior! The article explains how Brian Monaha, (a local town leader in Strafford New Hampshire), assisted a member of their community by locating a mistakenly thrown out stuffed toy. The resident had shared a post online about their missing toy and stressed how upsetting this was as the toy was from her childhood and meant a lot to her. Brian Monaha saw her post and the next day was out in the rain searching through trash compactors, and with the help of a few others, they would eventually find the missing toy in the trash and were able to return it to its original owner who was thrilled! I think this is a good example of mutualism as the town leader, Brian, received good publicity by helping a local member of their community, while the other party benefited of course by the return of their lost toy. It is possible that Brian had acted purely out of hopes to help the townsperson with 0 regard to his own benefit, but I highly doubt this to be the case, especially with a news article like this being publicly shared immediately after. In this sense, Brian’s actions would be an example of impure altruism. Brian acted in hopes of benefiting (most likely), by being helpful. I also think it’s possible that he was motivated by both genuinely wanting to help this person, as well as in hopes of making a good impression on his local town for election purposes. I think that is the case in many situations!
