UNCORRECTED PROOF 2 What is altruism? q 3 Elias L. Khalil 4 Department of Economics, Behavioral Research Council, American Institute for Economic Research, 5 Vassar College, PO Box 1000, Great Barrington, MA 01230, USA 6 Abstract 7 The paper defines altruism as charity. The second section of the paper criticizes three ratio- 8 nalistic (what is called ‘‘interactional’’) theories of altruism, viz., the egoistic, egocentric, and 9 altercentric perspectives. The third section criticizes three normative (what is named ‘‘self-ac- 10 tional’’) theories of altruism, viz., the Kantian, the socialization argument, and ‘‘warm glow’’ 11 story. The fourth section elaborates on three implications of altruism qua charity. First, while 12 altruism differs from self-interest, it is still within the domain of rational theory. Second, altru- 13 ism should not be confused with parental care or, what is the same thing, philanthropy. Third, 14 altruism should be distinguished from honesty. 15 Ó 2003 Published by Elsevier B.V. 16 JEL classification: D0 17 Keywords: Three rationalistic/interactional theories; Three normative/self-actional theories; Three 18 implications (sentimental foolishness, parental care, honesty) 19 1. Introduction 20 On August 5, 1991, an Amish family of 10 members was traveling on a horse- 21 drawn buggy on a north-central Ohio road. A pickup truck, driven by an intoxicated 22 driver, slammed into the back of the buggy, killing six of the 10 instantly. The rest – q A longer version has benefited from the comments of Gary Becker, Ulrich Witt, Robert Goldfarb, Mark Wilhelm, Timothy Crippen, John Davis, Thomas Nitsch, Roger Masters, Robert Frank, three anonymous referees, and participants of seminars at the University of Freiburg, the University of Chicago, and the American Economic Association meeting. This work was made possible by a research fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Germany). The usual disclaimer applies. E-mail address: elk@aier.org (E.L. Khalil). URL: http://www.brc-aier.org. 0167-4870/$ - see front matter Ó 2003 Published by Elsevier B.V. doi:10.1016/S0167-4870(03)00075-8 Journal of Economic Psychology xxx (2003) xxx–xxx www.elsevier.com/locate/joep JOEP 951 No. of Pages 27, DTD = 4.3.1 23 July 2003 Disk used ARTICLE IN PRESS