From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishaltruismal‧tru‧is‧m /ˈæltru-ɪzəm/ noun [uncountable] SELFISHwhen you care about or help other people, even though this brings no advantage to yourself Many choose to work in developing countries out of altruism. —altruist noun [countable]
Examples from the Corpus
altruism• It requires an altruism not commonly associated with the nature of big time politics.• While charity and altruism are great, they do not show up often enough to sustain a society.• But pervasive as this behavior may be, we do have moments of generosity and altruism.• Love, altruism - just pretty words.• Some have therefore concluded that behaviour in this category can not be termed altruism at all.• But there is another way to ensure that altruism pays: reciprocity.Origin altruism (1800-1900) French altruisme, from autrui “other people” 