Psy 102 Morality and Altruism

moral judgement

judgements about what we consider to be universally right or wrong about human action and character and what is worthy of punishment of reward

social intuitionist model of moral judgement

the idea that people first have fast, emotional reactions to morally relevant events that in turn influence their process of reasoning toward a judgement of right or wrong

trolley dilemma

likely to engage impersonal, rational calculations

participants imagine a runaway trolley headed for five people who will be killed and the only way to save them is to hit a switch that will turn the trolley onto another set of tracks and kill one person

is it appropriate to hit the switch?

activate brain regions associated with working memory and deliberate reasoning

footbridge dilemma

likely to evoke an emotional response

participants imagine they are standing on a footbridge next to a very large stranger; a runaway trolley headed for five people who will be killed and the only way to save them is to push the stranger off the bridge and onto the track, diverting the trolley

is it appropriate to push the stranger?

activate brain regions associated with emotional processing

moral foundations theory

a theory proposing that there are five evolved, universal moral domains in which specific emotions guide moral judgements:

• care/harm (most common type of everyday morality)

• fairness/reciprocity

• ingroup loyalty

• authority/respect

• purity/sanctity

whereas social intuitionist theory offers an account of how we make moral judgement, this explains the specific bases of our moral intuitions

moral foundations theory can also help explain some of the current political divisions on important issues

fairness is more common in the everyday lives of liberals

loyalty, purity, and authority are more common for conservatives

altruism

prosocial behavior that benefits others without regard to consequences for oneself

arises from feelings of sympathy and compassion

many of us experience these feelings but we don’t often act on them

COVID pandemic gave rise to many acts of altruism, such as restaurant owners who donated food to first responders

altruistic motive: social reward

selfish

a benefit, such as praise, positive attention, something tangible, or gratitude, that may be gained from helping others, thus serving as a motive for altruistic behavior

altruistic motive: personal distress

selfish

a motive for helping others in distress that may arise from a need to reduce one’s own distress

altruistic motive: empathic concern

unselfish

identifying with someone in need, including feelings and understanding what that person is experiencing, accompanied by the intention to help the person

study of empathy and altruism

manipulated the level of empathy people felt (“be objective as possible” vs. “vividly imagine how Janet feels”) and whether or not the experimenter read the notes/confessions Janet wrote

participants were then asked how many hours they’d be willing to spend with Janet in a future study

participants in the high empathy condition volunteered to spend more time, even when no one would know their actions

volunteerism

assistance a person regularly provides to another person or group with no expectation of compensation

has many motives, but feelings of empathic concern predict the likelihood that an individual will engage in volunteerism

volunteering has many positive benefits, including a sense of purpose, a sense of community, and is associated with better health outcomes

kitty genovese

in 1964, kitty genovese was murdered in front of her apartment building

as she was being attacked, she screamed for help and several of her neighbors witnessed the crime

however, no one intervened to help her or even call the police

moved several social psychologists to attempt to understand the processes that dampen our empathic concern, inhibit altruistic action, and make people reluctant to intervene during emergencies

bystander intervention

giving assistance to someone in need on the part of those who have witnessed an emergency; bystander intervention usually decreases as the number of observers increases because each person feels someone else will help

diffusion of responsiblity

a reduction of the sense of urgency to help someone involved in an emergency or dangerous situation, based on the assumption that others who are present will help

when participants believed that someone was having a seizure, 85% helped if they were the only other person present; only 62% helped if another person was present; and if multiple people were present, only 31% helped

victim characteristics

some people are more likely to receive help than others: bystanders help victims who scream and make their needs known 75-100% of the time, but they help silent victims only 20-40% of the time

we are more likely to help people who are similar to us, such as from a similar race or socioeconomic background

occurs in other species as well, who may help members of their own species but not others

pluralistic ignorance

occurs when people are unsure about what is happening and assume that nothing is wrong because no one else is responding or appears concerned

results from informational social influence

in ambiguous situations, we look to others to decide how we should act

when left in a room that began to fill of smoke, 75% of participants left to alert an authority, but if other people were present, only 38% left to tell someone

bystanders are less likely to fall prey to pluralistic ignorance when they can clearly see one another’s initial expressions of concern

altruism in urban and rural settings

people are more likely to receive help in a rural area than an urban area

people are more likely to engage in a variety of helpful acts in rural as opposed to urban settings

social class and altruism

when it comes to altruism, it turns out that those who have less give more, at least in terms of the proportion of their income they donate to charity

religion and altruism

study shows being primed with religious concepts leads to greater generosity

the world’s major religions emphasize compassion, altruism, and treating others (even strangers and adversaries) with kindness

being watched and altruism

participants were asked to write down how much money they would give to a strangers

25% of participants kept all the money if shown the 3 dots like . (like a human face), whereas 40% of participants kept all the money if shown three dots like .*.

kin selection

an evolutionary strategy that favors the reproductive success of one’s genetic relatives, even at a cost to one’s own survival and reproduction

although individuals die, genes can be passed on forever as long as genetic relatives can reproduce

we are evolutionarily inclined to help people more if they are more genetically related to ourselves

reciprocal altruism

helping others with the expectation that they will probably return the favor in the future

reduces the likelihood of conflict and can help overcome scarce resources

cooperation

essential to human functioning; however, individuals must balance the desire to cooperate with the desire to not be taken advantage of

the inclination to cooperate for common goals is almost a defining attribute of humans

the prisoner’s dilemma

A situation involving payoffs to two people, who must decide whether to cooperate or defect; in the end, trust and cooperation lead to higher joint payoffs than do mistrust and defection

Consider the classic story of two prisoners who have to choose between sticking to their story or betraying their partner, without knowing what their partner will do

• If they booth cooperate, both win

• If they both defect, both lose

• If one defects when the other cooperates, one wins big and the other loses big

People who are more competitive are more likely to assume that others are competitive

People become more competitive after being primed with words related to hostility

There was greater competition when the prisoner’s dilemma was played in a business context (for example, Wall Street) than when played as a community game

reputation

the collective beliefs, evaluations, and impressions people hold about an individual within a social network

the uiltimatum game

Situation where one participant is given a sum of money (or other resource) to allocate between himself and another person

Can choose to allocate the resource in any way

Can keep it all or divide it evenly

The ultimatum game is commonly used in psychology experiments to test cooperative and altruistic behavior

One study of 15 different cultures found that how much the individuals in a particular culture depended on one another to survive was an important predictor of their generosity in the ultimatum game

• Interdependence fosters cooperation

tit-for-tat strategy

a strategy in the prisoner’s dilemma game in which the player’s first move is cooperative; thereafter, the player mimics the other person’s behavior, whether cooperative or competitive

this strategy is known to encourage cooperation

based on a set of valuable principles that can apply in a variety of situations

five principles: cooperative, not envious, not exploitable, forgiving, easy to read

tit-for-tat: cooperative

this encourages mutually supportive action toward a shared goal

tit-for-tat: not envious

a partner using this strategy can do extremely well without resorting to competitive behavior

tit-for-tat: not exploitable

not blindly prosocial; if you defect on the tit for tat, it will defect on you

tit-for-tat: forgiving

willing to cooperate at the first cooperative action of the partner, even after long runs of defection and competition

tit-for-tat: easy to read

it shouldn’t take long for others to know that the tit-for-tat strategy is being played