The Meme Machine

THE ALTRUISM TRICK 165
the process of meme-driven altruism. These are all versions of what I shall call
the ‘altruism trick’.
The altruism trick depends on the simple idea that a meme that gets into an
altruistic or likeable person (like Kevin) is more likely to be copied than one that
gets into a meany (like Gavin). So what kinds of meme (other than memes for
altruism) can get into the altruist?
First, some memes look like altruism even if they are not, and so they can fit
easily in an already altruistic person, and second, memes can group together into
memeplexes that use various tricks to get into altruists.
Looking like altruism
The first is an obvious trick, to look like altruism. A meme that makes a person
appear to be kinder and more generous will increase the chances of that person
being imitated and so of that meme being spread, without incurring great costs.
There are many examples of this kind of behaviour. We smile at people a lot,
and we smile back at people who smile at us first. We say kind and polite things
to them – ‘How are you?’ ‘I do hope your parents are well’ ‘Have a nice time at
the party’ ‘How may I help you?’ ‘Have a good day’ ‘Happy New Year’. With
all these common memes we give the impression of caring about the other
person, even if we do not. That is why they are successful memes. Our ordinary
everyday conversation is full of such memes.
Closely related to this is the sort of meme that sneaks easily into an altruist.
Memes do not exist in isolation. All memes, at least at some phases of their
lives, are stored in human brains, and humans are complicated creatures who
strive to maintain some kind of consistency to their ideas. This ‘consistency
principle’ is crucial in understanding a lot of human thought and action. If a
given person tends to be altruistic, whether because of a genetic tendency to act
that way, or because he has picked up lots of altruistic memes during his lifetime
(or most likely because of both), then other altruism memes are more likely to
gain a foothold there.
Let us suppose a new meme comes along in the lives of Kevin and Gavin;
suppose they both hear a plea to save their used stamps and send them to some
charity. This new meme is far more likely to be accepted and acted on by Kevin
than Gavin. It fits well with his other behaviour. He thinks of himself as a
caring person and so on. If he refused to take part he would suffer ‘cognitive
dissonance’, the unpleasant consequence of holding two incompatible views – in
this case, his idea of himself as a caring person and his refusal to help with the