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Racial and Ethnic Differences in Altruism Assessed by Blood Donation

Richard Lynn

10.46469/mq.2020.60.4.6

Published: 2020/06/01

Abstract

Blood donation is considered a prototypically altruistic act. This paper reviews the results of studies comparing blood donation rates among different ethnic and racial groups as a possible indication for differences in the level of dispositional altruism. The results show that whites have the highest donation rates and blacks have lower rates. This suggests that whites are more altruistic than blacks, although other interpretations of the observed results are possible.

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