Prosocial Behavior

Prosocial behavior: behavior that benefits one or more other people

Altruism: prosocial behavior that benefits others without regard to consequences for oneself

• Usually incurs some cost to the individual performing it

Pure altruism or selfish moves at play?

People may help others to look good or to make themselves feel better

Social rewards: A benefit such as praise, positive attention, something tangible, or gratitude that is gained from helping others

Competitive altruism: social rewards can be so motivating that people will compete to outdo each other’s helping

Personal distress: a motive for helping others in distress that arises from a need to reduce one’s distress

• When we witness another person in pain, the pain regions in our own brains activate

Empathic concern: “An emotional response of compassion and concern caused by witnessing someone else in need:

• The empathetic concern involves identifying with the person in need by taking their perspective, imagining what they must be experiencing

• Psychological research demonstrates that people are generally less selfish than they need to be

• People in high agreeableness are more likely to help others—even strangers and expect that others will be more helpful to them

• Prosocial personality orientation: Other traits that predict helping

Bystander effect

• The effect is driven by hesitation, rather than apathy

• Even people who didn’t help expressed distress and concern for the participant who was experiencing a medical emergency

• Rather than actively deciding not to help, participants reported having few coherent thoughts in the emergency situation