PSY220 - Altruism: Helping Others

altrusim

a motive to increase another’s welfare without conscious regard for one’s own self-interests

social exchange theory

the theory that human interactions are transactions that aim to maximize one’s rewards and minimize one’s costs

egoism

a motive (supposedly underlying all behaviour) to increase your own welfare; the opposite of altruism, which aims to increase someone else’s welfare

reciprocity norm

• an expectation that people will help, not hurt, those who have helped them

• helps define the “social capital”

• the exchanges should balance out over time

• when people cannot reciprocate, they may feel threatened and demeaned by accepting aid

social responsibility norm

• an expectation that people will help those dependent upon them

• people should help those who need help, without regard to future exchanges

• responses are closely tied to attributions

• gender and receiving help

  • more willing to help a woman than a man

kin selection

the idea that evolution has selected altruism toward one’s close relatives to enhance the survival of mutually shared genes

direct reciprocity

you scratch my back, ill scratch yours

indirect reciprocity

ill scratch your back, you scratch someone’s, and someone will scratch mine

group selection

• sacrificing to support “us” against “them”

• back scratching groups survive

empathy

the vicarious experience of someone else’s feeling; putting yourself in someone else’s shoes

illusion of transparency

a tendency to overestimate others’ ability to “read” our internal states

bystander effect

the finding that a person is less likely to provide help when there are other bystanders

moral inclusion

regarding others as within your circle of moral concern

moral exclusion

the perception of certain individuals or groups as outside the boundary within which you apply moral values and rules of fairness

why do we help?

1. social exchange

2. social norms

3. evolutionary psychology

rewards

• internal or external

• increasing self-worth, reclaiming a positive public image, reducing distress, guilt etc

• feel bad do good vs feel good do good

Isen et al (1976)

• happy people are helpful people

• had a confederate call people who had 0 to 20 minutes earlier received free stationary

• the confederate asked the person to call someone and relay a message for them

• the individual’s willingness to relay the phone message rose during the 5 min afterward

• as the good mood wore off, helplessness dropped

• out of those who never received anything free, only 10% helped

social norms

reciprocity vs social responsibility norm

Whatley et al. (1999)

• people are more willing to make a pledge to a confederate’s charity when the confederate had done a small favour for them earlier

• eg. bought them candy

• especially when their reciprocation was made known to the confederate

• more willing to help when asked in public

3 mechanisms of evolutionary psychology

kin protection, reciprocity, group selection

reciprocity

• either direct or indirect

• helping others because of the expectation that the favour will be returned

• stronger among small isolated groups

genuine altruism

empathy

• we feel empathy for a real person than a statistic

• we feel more empathy for those we identify with

• empathy comes naturally to humans and we are hard-wired for it

when do we help?

• number of bystanders

• helping when someone else does

• time pressures

• similarity to victim

number of bystanders

• noticing

  • if we notice we are more likely to help

• interpreting

  • do we interpret what happened as an emergency?

• assuming responsibility

  • how many others around us can help?

  • bystander effect

• responsibility diffusion

  • bystander effect, feel a diffusion of responsibility

helping when someone else does

• helpful models

• prosocial models promote prosocial behaviours

• dont just say “help”, give a specific person a specific task like “you in the red shirt, call 911”

time pressures

if someone is in a rush, they might not fully grasp the situation and will not likely stop and offer help

similarity to victim

• we are more empathic and helpful to those similar to us

• even just sharing a fact (name, birthday, fingerprint pattern) leads people to respond more to a request for help

who is helping?

• personality

• gender, depends on the situation

personality

• predisposing traits such as emotionality, empathy and self-efficacy

• attitudes and traits rarely predict a specific act, but these measures more accurately predict average behaviour across many situations

• eg. high self-monitoring people when they think helpfulness will be socially awarded

Lantane and Darley (1968)

• had men fill out a questionnaire in a room

• either alone or with 2 others

• there was a staged emergency and smoke filled the room

• if the participant was alone, they noticed the smoke almost immediately as they glanced idly around the room

• those in groups kept their eyes on their work, it usually took them about 20 seconds to notice

increasing helping

undoing restraints on helping

• reduce ambiguity, increase responsibility

• enable guilt and concern for self image

socializing altruism

• teach moral inclusion

• model altruism

• attribute helping behaviour to altruism

• learn about altruism