Ch 15. Altruism

Altruism

• Concern for the well-being of others, no concern for your own interests​

  • selflessness​

  • prosocial behavior

Why do we help others?

1. Social Reward

2. Personal Distress

3. Empathic Concern

Social Reward

a benefit (i.e. praise, positive attention, something tangible), that may be gained from helping others​

Personal distress

Motivation to help others in distress that may arise from a need to reduce one’s own distress​

• Ex: Cleaning the house before Thanksgiving to help my mom​

• Generally expressed via feelings of guilt​

Empathic Concern

Helping someone because you either (a) relate to or identify with them (b) recognize they are less fortunate than you

• includes feeling and understanding what that person is experiencing​

• accompanied by the intention to help the person

What inhibits altruistic action?​

• What makes people reluctant to intervene during emergencies?​

1. Bystander intervention

2. Diffusion of responsibility

Bystander Intervention

• studies on why people help (or don't) in emergencies

  • Bystander effect

    • Diffusion of responsibility

• decreases as the # of observers increases because diffusion of responsibility

Bystander Effect

When you feel less inclined to help when others are present (due to diffusion of responsibility)

Diffusion of Responsibility

feeling less personally accountable based on the assumption that others will help​

• Presence of others influences the interpretation of events → (ex: is action warranted in this situation?)​

What are the characteristics of people who are more likely to receive help?

• Victims who scream and make their needs known are helped by bystanders (75–100% of the time) more than silent victims (20–40% of the time).​

• Attractive people​

• People who are like you

• People in rural settings

Characteristics of who are more likely to help?

Women

• Women are more likely to be the helper because of fulfilling that gender role​

People of lower socioeconomic status

Religious people

Helping in ambiguous situations

we have to believe that help is actually needed based on cues from the victim.

• Pluralistic ignorance​

Pluralistic Ignorance

People assume nothing is wrong when others are calm or don’t respond

What causes Pluralistic Ignorance?

ambiguous situations

• In ambiguous situations, we look to others to interpret ​two things:

  • urgency

  • how we should act

How does Social Class influence your level of Altruism?

• People of lower socioeconomic status give more

Evolutionary perspective on Altruism

Kin Selection

• An evolutionary theory explaining altruistic acts towards relatives

Kin Selection

where an organism sacrifices its own fitness to help kin survive and reproduce, passing on shared genes

Reciprocal altruism ​

helping others with the expectation that they will reciprocate the energy in the future​ (return the favor)

The Prisoner’s Dilemma

A situation in which two individuals must choose whether to cooperate or defect

• mutual trust and cooperation produce the highest combined payoff

• mistrust and defection result in poorer outcomes for both.