Notes Set 11/Ch. 14 Morality and Altruism

moral judgment

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

moral psychology

branch of social psychology that focuses on how people actually make moral judgments, which is often guided by feeling

social intuitionist model

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

Trolley dilemma/impersonal dilemmas

participants engage in impersonal, rational calculations; activate brain regions associated with working memory and deliberative reasoning

Footbridge dilemma/personal dilemmas

participants engage in emotional responses; 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 judgments: care/harm, fairness/reciprocity, loyalty, authority, purity

moral foundations and political divisions

fairness is more important to liberals while loyalty, purity, and authority are more important for conservatives

altruism

prosocial behavior that benefits others without regard to consequences for oneself, arises from feelings of sympathy and compassion

social reward

selfish motive; a benefit such as praise, positive attention, or something tangible that may be gained from helping others

personal distress

selfish motive for helping others that might arise from wanting to reduce one’s own distress

empathic concern

unselfish motive; identifying with someone in need, including feeling and understanding what the person is experiencing, accompanied by the intention to help the person

empathy and altruism

people were told to either be as objective as possible or to vividly imagine how Janet feels and whether or not the experimenter would know about the note; people in the high empathy condition volunteered to spend more time regardless of whether or not someone knew about their actions

volunteerism

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

bystander intervention

usually decreases as the number of observers increases because each person feels someone else will probably help

diffusion of responsibility

a reduction in 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

victim characteristics

victims who scream and people who are similar to us are most likely to get help

construal processes and altruism

decision to help means that potential helper has to first believe that assistance is actually needed

pluralistic ignorance

occurs when people are unsure about what is happening and assume that nothing is wrong because no one else is responding or concerned; results from informational social influence

combating pluralistic ignorance

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

culture and altruism

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

social class and altruism

those who have less money tend to give more in proportion to their income

religion and altruism

major religions emphasize compassion and altruism, being primed with religious concepts leads to greater generosity

being watched and altruism

participants who viewed three dots arranged like a human face were more likely to donate

evolution and altruism

behave altruistically toward those who promote our survival and reproduction

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

reciprocal altruism

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

cooperation

the inclination to cooperate for common goals

Prisoner’s Dilemma

an experimental paradigm that helps explain how and why humans cooperate

reputation

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

construal processes and cooperation

people who are competitive are more likely to assume others are competitive; people become more competitive when primed with words related to hostility; greater competition when played in a business context than when played as a community game

culture and cooperation

interdependence fosters cooperation

ultimatum game

situation where one participant is given a sum of money to allocate between themself and another person; can keep all the money to themself or divide it evenly

tit-for-tat

strategy where player’s first move is cooperative and afterwards mimics the other player’s behavior

five principles of tit-for-tat

cooperative, not envious, not exploitable, forgiving, and easy to read