Prosocial Behavior Notes

  • Prosocial behavior: Acts positively valued by society, contributing to another person's well-being (Hogg & Vaughan, 2014).

  • Encompasses a wide range of actions intended to benefit others, such as helping, sharing, and comforting.

  • Examples include volunteering time, donating to charity, or simply offering assistance to someone in need.

  • Helping behavior: Intentional actions that benefit another person.

    • Focuses on actions specifically intended to provide assistance or support to someone else.

    • Can be motivated by various factors, including empathy, personal gain, or social pressure.

  • Altruism: Acts performed to benefit others rather than oneself, without expectation of personal gain, and potentially at a personal cost.

    • Motivated purely by the desire to help others, without any expectation of receiving something in return.

    • Often involves self-sacrifice or risk-taking on behalf of others.

Why People Help

  • Evolutionary Perspective

  • Learning

  • Social Norms

  • Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis

Evolutionary Perspective

  • Contemporary neo-Darwinian models emphasize evolutionary success through the survival of one's genes in subsequent generations.

    • Prosocial tendencies exist in humans due to genetically based predispositions and the evolutionary success of individuals who displayed such tendencies.

    • Genetic predispositions towards prosocial behavior may have evolved because they promote the survival and reproduction of individuals and their kin.

  • Kin Selection:

    • Helping relatives provides an evolutionary benefit by increasing inclusive fitness.

    • Inclusive fitness refers to the survival and reproduction of an individual's genes, both directly (through their own offspring) and indirectly (through the offspring of their relatives).

    • Humans are more inclined to help relatives than unrelated individuals (Barrett et al., 2002).

    • Burnstein et al. (1994) study:

    • Examined the tendency to help people varying in kinship in healthy vs. sick and everyday vs. life-or-death situations.

    • Results indicated greater willingness to help closer kin than distant kin.

    • People were more likely to help healthy individuals in life-or-death situations and sick individuals in everyday situations.

      • This suggests that individuals are more likely to help those who are most likely to contribute to their inclusive fitness, depending on the situation.

  • Reciprocal Altruism:

    • Helping others increases the likelihood of receiving help in return.

    • This form of altruism is based on the expectation that individuals will reciprocate helpful behavior in the future.

    • Reciprocity provides benefits that contribute to evolutionary success by increasing status and reputation within the community.

    • Individuals who are known to be helpful and cooperative are more likely to receive assistance and support from others, which can enhance their survival and reproductive prospects.

Learning to Be Helpful

  • Observational learning / modelling

    • Individuals learn prosocial behaviors by observing and imitating the actions of others, especially those who are perceived as role models or authority figures.

    • Exposure to prosocial models can increase the likelihood that individuals will engage in similar behaviors themselves.

  • Reinforcement: Acts that are rewarded are more likely to be repeated.

    • When individuals are rewarded for engaging in prosocial behavior, they are more likely to repeat those behaviors in the future.

    • Rewards can be tangible (e.g., praise, recognition) or intangible (e.g., feeling good about oneself).

Social Norms

  • Reciprocity principle: We should help those who help us.

    • This norm dictates that individuals should reciprocate the help and assistance they receive from others.

    • Failure to reciprocate can lead to social disapproval and exclusion.

  • Social Responsibility: We should help people who are dependent and in need, without regard to future exchanges (Hogg & Vaughan, 2014).

    • This norm dictates that individuals have a responsibility to help those who are less fortunate or unable to help themselves.

    • This responsibility is often seen as a moral obligation, regardless of whether or not the helper expects to receive anything in return.

Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis (Batson et al.)

  • Perception that someone needs help.

  • Perspective taking:

    • Imagine how that person feels (PT - other).

    • Empathic concern.

    • Altruistic motive – ultimate goal of increasing other’s welfare.

  • Imagining how you would feel à personal distress à egoistic motivation to reduce personal distress.

The Bystander Effect

  • The Kitty Genovese murder (Hogg & Vaughan, 2014):

    • Kitty Genovese was attacked and killed late at night.

    • None of her neighbors helped during the half-hour attack.

    • One anonymous phone call to the police was made 30 minutes later.

    • 38 people admitted to hearing the screaming.

  • Bystander effect: People are less likely to help in an emergency when they are with others than when alone (Hogg & Vaughan, 2014).

  • Bystander intervention: An individual breaks out of the role of a bystander and helps another.

Cognitive Model of Bystander Intervention (Latané & Darley, 1970)

  1. Notice the incident.

  2. Interpret the incident.

  3. Accept personal responsibility for helping.

  4. Decide what can be done.

Processes contributing to bystander apathy:

  • Diffusion of responsibility.

  • Audience inhibition.

  • Social influence.

Person Factors

  • Competence.

  • Mood states:

    • Good mood - more likely to help.

    • Guilt – more likely to help.

Readings

  • Hogg & Vaughan: Chapter 13 (Prosocial behaviour).

  • Penner, L. A., Dovidio, J. F., Piliavin, J. A., & Schroeder, D. A. (2005).