[2] The theory, initially proposed as an explanation of the so-called "empathy-helping relationship", implies that pure altruism is possible and that psychological egoism is false.
Aronson, Wilson and Akert have described Batson as "the strongest proponent that people often help others purely out of the goodness of their hearts".
Critics who believe that all apparently altruistic actions are actually egoistic have attacked the theory (see, for example, the competing negative state relief model).
In one such study, Batson and colleagues investigated the affective consequences of different perspective-taking instructions when participants listened to a story about Katie Banks, a young college student struggling after the death of her parents.
Batson recently collaborated with University of Chicago neuroscientist Jean Decety on a study using functional neuroimaging to investigate the neural underpinnings of empathy and personal distress.
[6] While being scanned, participants watched a series of video clips of patients undergoing painful medical treatment.
Batson's most famous[citation needed] contribution to psychology of religion is his argument that the traditional distinction made by Gordon Allport[7] between intrinsic and extrinsic religious orientations does not exhaust all possible religious orientations; rather, he believes it is important to refer to what he calls quest, a form of religiosity that views questions and their answers as of equal importance.