Intent determines altruism in humans. If the sole purpose that a person did a particular thing was so he could say "See, I did *this*," then the thing is not altruistic. If the person did it for selfless reasons and then bragged about it as an afterthought, the deed is no less altruistic, imo.

I - and perhaps others - write as if altruism and selfishness were binary choices. But there are gradations between these extremes and a single bit is insufficient to convey the myriad possibilities.

I qualify the above with the phrase "in humans," because it's not clear to me that bees, for example, have intent, though their behavior is commonly recognized as altruistic.

k