When the cows come home

Can having a purpose which benefits someone/something beyond ourselves dramatically change our behaviour?

I learnt something from watching the behaviour of cows yesterday. Some cows have have recently been moved to the field at the end of my garden and I can see them from the window. Yesterday, a new calf was born! I had witnessed a calf being born when I was a child visiting a farm in the south of England – this taught me something different.

For the past two weeks, the cows have been rather timid and one of my dogs loves to tantalise them and her bark and leaping about sends them running in all directions. She tried to alarm them post the birth of the calf! This time they behaved completely differently. They formed a wall between the barking dog and the mother and new calf! They were firm footed, seemingly adamant that my dog was not going to move them. What did this teach me?

What I saw was that these cows, when operating in isolation and presumably without purpose (my assumption?), can easily be influenced to act in random ways. With purpose and a collective protective (in this case) stance, their behaviour became focused and strong.

Likewise, how does our behaviour change when we have a purpose and it offers a benefit beyond the individual?