Prosocial Behavior

prosocial/helping behavior

behavior that benefits other individuals or groups of people

altruism

a form of helping behavior in which the person’s intent is to benefit someone else at some cost to themself

Darley and Latané study on social influence

situation: smoke filling a room with one subject and two confederates.

findings: judgment is influenced by past experiences, desires, what the person actually sees, and influence of other people present; two nonresponsive confederates inhibited the response of the subject, and subject defined the smoke as a nonemergency.

Darley and Latané study on diffusion of responsibility

situation: subject put in a “discussion” with one, two, or five confederates; one participant pretends to have a seizure, and subject is unable to tell what other bystanders are reacting.

findings: when subjects thought they were the only ones listening, they reported the seizure 100% of the time; seizure was reported only 62% of the time if subjects thought four others were listening.

social influence

the influence of other people; a situational factor that influences bystander intervention

diffusion of responsibility

wherein the more people present, the less likely that any individual will offer to help; a situational factor that influences bystander intervention

pluralistic ignorance

phenomenon in which people mistakenly believe that others predominantly hold an opinion different from their own, and go along with it because they mistakenly assume that it is the majority opinion

empathy

the ability to vicariously experience the emotions of another

Batson’s empathy-altruism model

holds that when faced with situations in which others may need help, people might feel distress and/or empathy, which determines helping behavior; generally, greater empathy than distress is likelier to lead to helping behavior