11. Helping

Introduction

Concepts Defined

  • Altruism: A motive to increase another’s welfare without regard for self-interests.

  • An altruistic person is concerned and helpful with no expectation of benefits in return.

Why Do We Help?

Key factors influencing helping behavior:

  • Social Exchange

  • Social Norms

  • Evolutionary Perspective

Why Do We Help? - Social Exchange

  • Social-Exchange Theory: Interactions are transactions aiming to maximize rewards and minimize costs.

Rewards of Helping:

  • External Rewards:

    • Material: Sponsoring social actions for visibility.

    • Non-material: Offering a ride to foster friendship.

  • Internal Rewards:

    • Example: Blood donation increases self-satisfaction.

Costs of Not Helping

  • Internal Cost: Guilt from not helping.

  • Helping reduces guilt and enhances public image.

    • Example: A teacher raises grades due to a miscalculation.

  • Exceptions: Anger and grief can decrease the tendency to help.

  • Feel Good - Do Good: Happy individuals tend to help others.

Conclusion on Helping Behavior

  • Helping can improve mood and soften negative emotions.

Why Do We Help? - Social Norms

  • Norms: Prescriptions for behavior, indicating we "ought to" help.

  • Reciprocity Norm: Expectation to help those who have helped us.

  • Social Responsibility Norm: We should help those in need, perceived selectively based on personal accountability.

Attribution in Helping Behavior

  • External Help: Sympathy is expected when the need is uncontrollable.

  • Internal Help: Typically results in no sympathy when the need is controllable.

Why Do We Help? - Evolutionary Psychology

  • Kin Selection: Altruism towards close relatives enhances the survivability of shared genes.

  • Reciprocity: Helping others with the expectation of help in return maintains shared genes.

Theoretical Perspectives on Helping

  • Social-Exchange Theory: Psychological view on helping for external rewards.

  • Social Norms: Sociological perspective on helping behaviors.

  • Evolutionary Psychology: Biological perspective linking altruism to survival.

Genuine Altruism

  • Our willingness to help is a blend of self-serving and selfless motives.

  • Empathy: Vicarious experience of others' feelings focuses on the sufferer, not the helper.

  • Does real altruism exist? No, because there is a sense of satisfaction that comes from helping. However, what defines it is the lack of conscious regard.

Empathy-Induced Altruism

Positive Aspects:

  • Sensitive helping

  • Reduces aggression

  • Increases cooperation

  • Improves attitudes towards marginalized groups

Negative Aspects:

  • Potential harm to oneself

  • Ineffective for systemic issues

  • Emotional burden and favoritism risks.

When Will We Help?

Factors influencing helping:

  • Bystander Effect

  • Influence of Others

  • Time Pressure

  • Similarity

When Will We Help? - Bystander Effect

  • Bystander Effect: The decreased likelihood of help when others are present.

    • Observations in online platforms show similar effects.

    • Reference: Darley Decision Tree (1968).

Practical Example of Bystander Effect

  • A request for assistance with a lost elderly woman showcases community responsibility.

Bystander Effect Continued

  • The effect arises from the diffusion of responsibility; real emergencies may prompt immediate actions.

  • Larger urban areas generally see less helping behavior.

Influence of Others on Helping Behavior

  • Research shows drivers are more likely to help if they see others helping first.

  • Influence of role modeling in social context.

Time Pressures

  • Individuals in a hurry are less likely to help.

  • Study by Darley and Batson illustrates this phenomenon.

Similarity in Helping Behavior

  • People are more inclined to help those they perceive as similar to them.

  • Shared characteristics enhance the likelihood of help.

Who Will We Help?

Factors influencing who we choose to help:

  • Personality Traits

  • Religious Faith

Who Will We Help? - Personality Traits

  • Certain traits correlate with helpfulness:

    • high emotionality,

    • empathy, and

    • self-efficacy.

  • Individuals with high self-monitoring are attuned to societal expectations of helping.

Who Will We Help? - Religious Faith

  • Religious Faith: Long-term altruism reflected in volunteerism and charitable actions.

How to Increase Helping

Strategies to enhance helping include:

  • Reducing ambiguity

  • Socializing altruism

  • Using personalized appeals

  • Fostering guilt and self-image concerns.