"I think the help is triggered by seeing victims, imagining oneself in the situation, so basic identification and empathy," said Frans de Waal, a psychologist at Emory University and the Yerkes Primate Center, where he studies the evolution of human behaviors through primate research.

He added, "I doubt that we would be willing to help if we didn't have images, didn't have anything to hang our human response system to, which is geared towards emotionally loaded images."

Research has shown that helping others, either through donating money or time, makes a person feel good.

German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche pointed this out a long time ago: decisions based upon morality are often times simply justifications to experience a sensation of feeling good. This is one reason to why many westerners are crazy about charity: they probably know that the state in Africa won't change noticably because of their donation, but they feel good inside by giving something away to people who are worse off than themselves. Altruism is egoism in disguise.

We should help people when it fits a positive ideal and if the help is effective. Charity is not effective. Third world aid is not effective. Creating a religion around helping people is not a good idea, especially since it's rarely helpful at all to those who actually need the help.