Prosocial behaviour

16 - 20

What is prosocial behaviour

positive social consequences, voluntary

• helping behaviour: intentional

• altruism: selfless, no reward

What is empathy and its role

empathy is an emotional response to someone else’s distress

• helping involves identifying what someone else is going through

Describe the bystander calculus model (Piliavin et al, 1981)

• Physiological response + cognitive processes = helping behaviour

• Physiological arousal

  • High arousal = more likely to help

• Labelling the arousal

  • Empathy? Distress?

• Evaluating the consequences

  • Time & effort

How to use the Bystander calculus model for the Kitty Genovese story

• think about:

  • physiological arousal level

  • label the arousal

  • evaluate potential consequences

  • costs of not helping?

Describe Latane & Darley’s (1970) Decision model of helping

1. Notice the emergency,

   • No? Do not help, if yes then move on to number 2

2. Define it as an emergency

   • No? Do not help, if yes then move on to number 3

3. Take responsibility

   • No? Do not help, if yes then move on to number 4

4. Decide how to help

   • No? Do not help, if yes then move on to number 5

5. Implement way to help

   • No? Do not help, if yes then help

What are the 3 key processes that contribute to bystander apathy

• diffusion of responsibility - if alone we accept responsibility

• audience inhibition - don’t want to over-react and look silly

• social influence - if others are passive our assessment is ‘this is not an emergency’

Women are more empathetic than men but:

• social role theory = women are less likely to initiate interactions with (male) strangers

• GRIP theory = Croft et al. (2021), gender roles inhibit prosocial behaviour

How can helping be increased?

• raise awareness of barriers to helping

  • saw a lecture about bystander effect: ~45% helped later

  • sae an unrelated lecture: <25% helped later