Helping Behavior

Altruism

Concern and helpfulness without offered or expected benefits in return.

Social exchange theory

Interactions involve maximizing social rewards and minimizing personal costs.

External rewards for helping

Benefits received from others in return for helping.

Internal rewards for helping

Feelings of self-worth and satisfaction.

Spending on others

Increases happiness more than spending on oneself.

Egoism

The idea that self-interest motivates all behavior.

Distress and helping

Others' distress can create arousal that motivates helping.

Guilt and helping

Doing good after doing bad can reduce guilt and restore self-image.

Self-preoccupation and helping

Bad feelings can reduce helping when they cause self-preoccupation.

Feel good-do good effect

Happy people tend to be more helpful.

Reciprocity norm

The expectation that we return help rather than harm to those who help us.

Social capital

Mutual support and cooperation enabled by a social network.

Unsolicited aid and self-esteem

Receiving unsolicited help may decrease self-esteem.

Social responsibility norm

The expectation to help people in need without regard to future exchanges.

Attributions and helping

People are more likely to help when need is attributed to uncontrollable circumstances.

Gender and seeking help

Women are more likely to seek help.

Kin selection

Helping individuals who share copies of one's genes.

Hamilton's rule

Altruism can evolve when c < rb: cost is less than relatedness times benefit.

Ground squirrel alarm calls

Calls warn others of predators but significantly risk the caller.

Inclusive fitness and alarm calls

Sacrificing oneself may enhance the survival of many genetic relatives.

Reciprocal altruism

Helping nonrelatives can benefit both parties when returns exceed helping costs.

Vampire bat food sharing

Bats share regurgitated blood, especially with bats that previously helped them.

Empathy

The vicarious experience of another person's feelings.

Empathy and helping

Inducing empathy increases the likelihood of helping.

Secure attachment and empathy

Secure attachment makes empathy for another's suffering more likely.

Bystander effect

As bystander numbers increase, any one witness becomes less likely to help.

Noticing in groups

People tend to notice less when they are in groups.

Pluralistic ignorance

People may mistakenly assume others do not share their concerns about an emergency.

Diffusion of responsibility

More bystanders reduce any one person's sense of responsibility to help.

Time pressure and helping

Time pressure is a situational factor that influences helping.

Race and the bystander effect

The effect is more pronounced when the person needing help is another race.

Personality and altruism

No strong, reliable personality predictors have emerged for single helping instances.

Gender and helping situations

Men more often help in danger; women more often help in safer situations.