Helping someone in need or having the feeling of wanting to help someone in need is something that happens in everyone's life. It is common belief that animals help each other expecting to get something in return. But in some cases, the help is not linked to immediate benefits or these are non-existent. This type of behavior has attracted the attention of psychologists interested in understanding the ideas and thoughts behind it. Can this be considered true altruism? Psychologists have studied this problem, suggesting several ideas to explain altruistic behavior. This essay will talk about altruism and some of the real ideas about thinking that altruistic behavior comes from real altruistic ideas, helping with the goal of benefiting others, without any personal benefit. The discussion of real thoughts about altruistic behavior is not a new idea and has been in print for a long time, from Aristotle to Freud (Batson and Shaw, 1991). The view of most psychologists, philosophers, and biologists was that egoistic ideas mostly concerned human behaviors. Pro-social behavior is viewed and studied differently from other human behaviors because it is the only thing that is sought as a benefit or punishment. Altruism is considered a part of pro-social behavior (Hogg and Vaughan, 2008). Auguste Comte invents the word altruism when he writes about the two different ideas, selfishness versus altruism, that are always in a person's thoughts and that make up the person's behavior. Altruism refers to those social acts that are “an expression of a selfless desire to live for others” (Comte, cited in Batson and Shaw, 1991, p108). Despite the pro-social meaning, most psychologists over the years have considered... half of the paper... (2006) Social Psychology Alive. Belmont: Thomson Wadsworth Cialdini RB (1991) Altruism or selfishness? That's still the question. Psychological Inquiry, 2(2), 124 – 125De Waal, FBM (2008) Putting altruism back into altruism: the evolution of empathy. Anna. Rev. Psychologist. 2008(59), 279 – 300.Dovidio JF (1991) The empathy-altruism hypothesis: paradigm and promises. Psychological Inquiry, 2(2), 126 – 128Hogg MA & Vaughan GM (2008) Social psychology (5th edition) Essex: Pearson Education LimitedRushton JP (1991) Is altruism innate? Psychological Inquiry, 2(2), 141 - 143Wallach L. & Wallach MA (1991) Why altruism, even if it exists, cannot be demonstrated using social psychology experiments. Psychological Inquiry, 2(2), 153 – 155Warkeneken F. & Tomasello M. (2006) Altruistic helping in human infants and young chimpanzees. ScienceMag, 311.