Social Psych: Helping

Helping behavior

Any action intended to benefit another person

Altruism

A motive to increase another’s welfare without conscious regard for one’s own self-interest

Social-exchange theory

The idea that helping behavior is driven by maximizing rewards and minimizing costs

External vs internal rewards of helping

Social approval, praise, recognition; Increased self-worth, positive emotions

Do-good feel-good effect

Helping others boosts mood and self-esteem

Negative-state relief model

Helping reduces negative emotions like guilt or distress

Guilt and helping

People help to relieve guilt and restore self-image

Mood and helping

Happy people are more likely to help

Reciprocity norm

Expectation that people will help those who have helped them

Social-responsibility norm

Expectation that people should help those in need

Social capital

Mutual support and cooperation within a social network

Attribution and helping

People are more likely to help others when they attribute a need to uncontrollable external causes (like misfortune) rather than controllable internal causes (like lack of effort)

External vs internal attribution (helping)

Leads to sympathy and helping; Leads to less sympathy and less helping

Kin selection

Helping relatives to increase survival of shared genes

Group selection

Helping group members increases group survival

Types of prosocial behavior

Reciprocal helping and unconditional helping

Empathy

Experiencing another person’s feelings

Empathy-altruism hypothesis

Empathy produces genuine altruism

Egoistic vs Altruistic helping

Driven by self-interest, such as gaining praise or reducing personal distress vs helping is aimed solely at increasing another's welfare

Bystander intervention

Helping behavior in the presence of others

Kitty Genovese case (bystander effect)

A young woman was killed outside of her apartment and her murder was said to have 38 witnesses, none of which intervened. This sparked the study of the bystander effect.

Bystander effect

People are less likely to help when others are present

Decision-tree model of helping (5-step process for helping behavior)

1) Notice the event

2) Interpret the event as an emergency

3) Assume the responsibility

4) Know what to do

5) Make the decision to help

Pluralistic ignorance

People misinterpret others’ lack of reaction as absence of emergency

Normative influence (helping)

Fear of embarrassment prevents action

Informational influence (helping)

Looking to others to define situation

Diffusion of responsibility

Reduced personal responsibility in groups

Assuming responsibility study (how does a direct request influence helping likelihood?)

Direct request increases helping dramatically

Cost of helping

Higher perceived risk reduces helping

Time pressure effect

People in a hurry are less likely to help

Prosocial modeling

Seeing others help increases helping

Similarity and helping

People are more likely to help similar others

Internal and external influences on helping

Mood, guilt, personality; Social norms, bystanders, and time pressure

Gender and helping

Men help more in dangerous situations; women help more in nurturing situations

Religiosity and helping

Religious individuals show more prosocial behavior

Good Samaritan study (how time pressure affects helping likelihood)

Time pressure strongly affects helping behavior

How to increase helping

Reduce ambiguity, increase responsibility, model helping

Labeling effect

Calling someone “helpful” increases future helping

Moral exclusion

Viewing some groups as outside moral concern

Modeling altruism

Observing helping increases helping behavior

Learning by doing

Performing helpful acts increases self-perception as helpful

Overjustification effect

External rewards reduce intrinsic motivation to help