Lynn Underwood has taught philosophy at Western Michigan University and is former vice president for health research at the Fetzer Institute in Kalamazoo, Mich., where she led research initiatives in altruism and compassionate love. She co-edited Altruism and Altruistic Love: Science, Philosophy, and Religion in Dialogue (Oxford University Press, 2002). She has done research on compassionate love, and works […]

Stephen Jacobs is professor of religious studies and chairman of Judaic studies at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. He can comment on altruism as a scholar of modern Jewish thought and from a post-Holocaust perspective.

David Schroeder is a professor of psychology at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock who has explored whether the motivations for helping other are egoistic or altruistic. He co-wrote The Psychology of Helping and Altruism: Problems and Puzzles (McGraw Hill, 1995).

Gregory Berns, Distinguished Professor of Neuroeconomics and Director of the Center for Neuropolicy Professor in Economics Department at Emory University, published results of a brain imaging study that indicated that altruistic behavior has a biological basis. Published in the journal Neuron in July 2002, the study shows that social cooperation activates parts of the brain related to […]

Timothy Jackson, professor of Christian ethics at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology in Atlanta, focuses on moral philosophy and theology, especially the relationship between secular and Christian conceptions of goodness, justice and mercy. He has written about altruism.

Allan Luks is former executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters in New York City and former director of the Institute for the Advancement of Health. He is an author of The Healing Power of Doing Good (Fawcett Columbine, 1992) and coined the phrase “helper’s high” in Psychology Today to describe feelings of well-being reported by individuals […]

Eva Fogelman is a social psychologist, psychotherapist and author of Conscience and Courage: Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust (Anchor Doubleday, 1994), a Pulitzer Prize nominee. The book is based on the Rescuer Project, commissioned by the American Jewish Committee to determine whether altruism is the opposite of the authoritarian personality. Fogelman approaches altruism as a behavior […]

William Scott Green is a professor of religious studies and holds the Fain Family Endowed Chair in Judaic Studies at the University of Miami. Beyond Judaic studies, Scott Green has taught and written on philanthropy, altruism and the ethics of technologies in the late modern age.

David Sloan Wilson is an evolutionary biologist at Binghamton University of the State University of New York who has written and spoken extensively about evolution and human behaviors, including altruism, gossip and decision-making in groups. He co-wrote Unto Others: The Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior. He has written several books on evolution, including Evolution for […]