Ch 11. - Prosocial Behavior

Prosocial behavior

any act performed with the goal of benefiting another person

Altruism

helping is selfless, the desire to help another person even if it involves a cost to the helper, end state is increasing welfare of another

Kin selection

helping those genetically close to you, behaviors that help a genetic relative are favored by natural selection

norm of reciprocity

The expectation that helping others will increase the likelihood that they will help us in the future

group selection

groups that value altruism are more likely to survive

Social Exchange Theory

desire to maximize reward and minimize cost, people will help when cost/benefit equation allows it and benefits outweigh the cost

Empathy

the ability to put oneself in the shoes of another person and to experience emotions/events the way that person experiences them

the more similar we are to a person == the more ___ we give them

empathy-altruism hypothesis

the idea that when we feel empathy for a person, we will help that person with purely altruistic reasons, regardless of what we have to gain

If NO empathy is felt, we will only help the person if there is something to gain(social exchange)

altruistic help

very similar, high empathy

egoistic help

very dissimilar, low empathy

Egoism

people will help because they're self-interested, end goal is to increase one's welfare

Baston et al(1981)

IV1: similarity(high/low match on survey)

IV2: difficulty of escape:

- watching 2 trials(easy to escape)

- watching 10 trials(hard escape)

DV: willingness to switch places confederate who was experiencing "pain"

Found that high similarity/empathy led to 91% of ptts. helping, even when they had the option to escape(supports the theory that true altruism is present when empathy is present)

Only 18% of ppts. with low similarity/empathy switched, proving that empathy is required; otherwise, no help

Those in the difficult escape likely helped to relieve the stress of watching the confederate suffer. Those who were also similar to the confederate were more likely to help compared to those who werent similar(when empathy is high it doesnt matter if there is benefit or not).

altruistic personality

the qualities that cause an individual to help others in a wide variety of situations

In-group

the group with which an individual identifies as a member, favored and more likely to feel empathy

Out group

any group with which an individual does not identify, including other races, cultures, genders, and sexual orientations

Urban Overload Hypothesis

the theory that people living in cities are constantly bombarded with stimulation and that they keep to themselves to avoid being overwhelmed by it

bystander effect

The finding that the greater the number of bystanders who witness an emergency, the less likely any one of them is to help (explained by diffusion of responsibility)

Good Samaritan Study (Darley & Batson)

Seminary students asked to walk across campus to record speech

Results: religious ppl are no more likely to help, ppl in a hurry were still less likely to help

empathy and compassion

main drivers of prosocial behavior

perspective taking

influences empathic concern, drives prosocial behavior/is common in guys, encourages empathy that drives prosocial behavior

empathic concern

drives prosocial behavior/is more common in girls, predicted when ppl engage in prosocial behavior

The Smoke Study (Latane & Darley)

ps in a small room when smoke machine goes off

IV: alone, 2 confeds, 2 naive ps

DV: time it takes to notice and seek help

Results: took more time to report/no report with confeds, ppl alone more likely to report faster and before end

1. noticing an event

• urban overload hypothesis

• distraction

2. interpreting an event as an emergency

• audience inhibition/evaluation apprehension

• pluralistic ignorance

notice, interpret, assume, know, decide, help

situational determinants of prosocial behavior - a no at any step leads to no help

audience inhibition

withholding help for fear of embarrassment/negative evaluation (aka evaluation apprehension)

pluralistic ignorance

people think that everyone else is interpreting a situation in a certain way, when in fact they are not

3. assume responsibility

we have to decide it is our responsibility to act on the situation

- the more witnesses, the sense of responsibility decreases(diffusion of responsibility)

experiment regarding sezuire over the speakerphone and the number of people who also heard the speaker

diffusion of responsibility

the phenomenon wherein each bystander's sense of responsibility to help decreases as the number of witnesses increases

4. knowing how to help

we must decide what kind of help is appropriate-- CPR? call an ambulance?

if what kind of help to give is unknown, help is unable to be given

5. deciding to implement the help

NOT helping due to:

- feeling not qualified to help

- fear of embarrassment

- fear of doing the wrong thing

- fear of putting yourself in danger

** we have to weigh the costs of trying to help

more

found that people who had just played a prosocial video game or listened to songs with prosocial lyrics were ___ likely to engage in prosocial behavior

WORKS BC: increases ppls empathy towards someone in need and increases accessibility of thoughts about helping others