Altruistic Love Resources

The Altruism Reader: Selections from Writings on Love, Religion, and Science

edited by Tom Oord

This book is a series of chapters covering the central topics related to altruism. The invited authors represent a variety of disciplines including theology, biology and social science with unique perspectives.

Altruism & Altruistic Love: Science, Philosophy & Religion in Dialogue

by Post, Underwood, Schloss, and Hurlbut

This book is not for the casual reader. It is an extremely dense but well-written manuscript that will challenge the way you think about altruistic behavior.

Downloadable Bibliography of Articles on Altruistic Love

This PDF file provides a list of research-based articles that either provide a theoretical framework to understand the construct of hope or they present the latest findings of the effect of altruistic love on college students.

Measurements

Compassionate Love Scale   

This scale measures your tendency to support, help, and understand other people.  Click here to go to the inventory.

Source: Sprecher, S. & Fehr, B. (2005). Compassionate love for close others and humanity. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 22, 629-652. To gain permission to use, please contact: Susan Sprecher.

Websites and Videos

Robert Wright - TED talk on The Evolution of Compassion

Robert Wright uses evolutionary biology and game theory to explain why we appreciate the Golden Rule ("Do unto others..."), why we sometimes ignore it and why there’s hope that, in the near future, we might all have the compassion to follow it.TED talk on The Evolution of Compassion

Volunteering Website

This website links people to service opportunities around the world. It puts feet on compassion.  volunteermatch.org.