[jdmichal]

What's your definition of altruism? I let a guy behind me at the grocery check-out in front. He had one item and I had an entire belt full, and the express lines (for low item counts) were all closed. Why? Because I know that situation sucks, and it's what I would have wanted to happen for myself. Does that make it egoist? I don't know. I never expect to see that person again; I never expect anything to result from that transaction other than my leaving the store a minute later than I could have.

[nostrebored]

The gp will find some way to construe your actions as selfish because doing selfless things is harder to understand for them than the mental gymnastics of figuring out what you're trying to get from the situation. People who are selfish assholes are usually unable to empathize with people who do selfless things, probably because they're bad at empathizing in general.

[jdmichal]

GP might possibly be what I've heard referred to as a "transactional" personality -- every interaction is a transaction and the goal is to extract value from the transaction. These are the people you see on caller ID and mutter, "What do they want now?", because they only contact you when they want something. And, of course, people do have a tendency to attribute to others the same motivations as themselves.

[idanoeman]

gp might claim that you did it so you could talk about it later :)

[webXL]

And we're more likely to talk about the things we're proud of. Just sayin'