Others as our own interests

Abstract This paper shows the consequences of altruism in terms of individual utilities in a society populated by heterogeneous rational optimizers. Our main result shows that, in the altruistic equilibrium, the utility level reached by each agent is greater than in the selfish equilibrium, thus proving that taking care of conditions of others is strictly preferable in terms of personal satisfaction and appreciable from a moral point of view. This evidence is confirmed over different types of societal engagement, by considering three complex networks’ topologies.