Prosocial Behavior & Evolutionary Psychology

Prosocial Behavior

• Prosocial behavior is any action done to benefit another person.
• Altruism is helping another person even at a cost to oneself.
• A fundamental question explores if people help when there is nothing to gain, or only when there is a benefit.

Evolutionary Psychology: Instincts and Genes

• Evolutionary Psychology explains social behavior through genetic factors evolving via natural selection.
• Darwin saw altruistic behavior as a problem for his theory, as it can reduce an organism's reproductive fitness.
• Kin selection is the concept where behaviors that aid genetic relatives are favored by natural selection.
• The norm of reciprocity is the expectation that helping others increases the chance they will help us in the future.
• Simon (1990) suggests people who learn societal norms best have an advantage, with altruism being one key societal norm.

Social Exchange: Costs and Rewards of Helping

• Social exchange theory posits that actions stem from maximizing outcomes and minimizing costs which is a self-interest theory.
• Unlike evolutionary psychology, social exchange theory doesn't assume self-interest has a genetic basis.
• Helping can be rewarding by increasing the probability of reciprocal help, relieving bystander distress and gaining social approval, and raising self-worth.
• Helping decreases when costs are high.

Empathy and Altruism: The Pure Motive for Helping

• Batson (1991) argues people often help out of pure goodness.
• Pure altruism is most likely to occur when experiencing empathy for someone in need.
• The empathy-altruism hypothesis is that empathy for a person leads to helping for altruistic reasons, regardless of personal gain.

Personal Determinants of Prosocial Behavior: Individual Differences

• Altruistic personality is the aspects of someone's makeup that lead them to help others in various situations.
• Research reveals that being helpful in one instance doesn't highly correlate with being prosocial in another.
• Personality is not the sole determinant of helping behavior across situations.
• Different people are likely to help in different situations.

Gender Differences in Prosocial Behavior

• Eagly and Crowly (1986) found that men tend to help in chivalrous, heroic ways, while women help in nurturing ways with long-term commitment.

Cultural Differences in Prosocial Behavior

• People across cultures are more likely to assist members of their in-group.
• The in-group is the group with which someone identifies as a member.
• The out-group is the group with which someone does not identify.
• People from collectivist cultures tend to help in-group members more.
• People from collectivist culture are less likely to help out-group members compared to people from individualist cultures.

The Effects of Mood on Prosocial Behavior

• People in a good mood are more inclined to help.
• Good moods increase helping because they make one interpret events sympathetically, prolong the good mood, increase self-attention promoting behavior according to values and beliefs.
• The negative-state relief hypothesis is that people help to relieve their own sadness and distress, fitting into a social exchange approach.

Situational Determinants of Prosocial Behavior: Rural vs. Urban Environments

• People in rural areas are generally more helpful and this occurs across many countries.
• People from rural settings are often raised to be more neighborly and trust strangers more.
• Milgram (1970) hypothesized that the urban overload hypothesis leads city dwellers to keep to themselves in order to avoid being overloaded by stimulation.

The Number of Bystanders: The Bystander Effect

• The bystander effect is the idea that the more bystanders present in an emergency, the less likely any one bystander is to offer help.
• Latané and Darley (1970) outlined a step-by-step process in deciding to help in an emergency:
  • Noticing an event
  • Interpreting the event as an emergency
  • Assuming responsibility
  • Knowing how to help
  • Deciding to implement the help
• Pluralistic ignorance is assuming nothing is wrong in an emergency because no one else seems concerned, interfering with interpreting the event as an emergency and reducing helping.
• Diffusion of responsibility is that each bystander's sense of responsibility decreases as the number of witnesses rise, reducing helping behavior.

The Nature of the Relationship: Communal vs. Exchange Relationships

• Communal relationships are based on concern for the welfare of the other person.
• Exchange relationships are governed by equity concerns.
• People are generally more helpful towards friends than strangers.
• The exception to this is when the other is beating one in a domain that threatens self-esteem.

Exceptionally Altruistic People

• Marsh found that those higher in altruism have larger amygdalas than others.
• They also showed important distinctions in sense of self.

Increasing Helping Behavior

• People may not want help if it makes them look incompetent.
• The goal of helping should be supportive, highlighting concern for the recipient.
• Be cautious of administering aid that threats another person's self-esteem.
• Being aware of the barriers to helping can increase the likelihood of overcoming them and intervening.
• People who heard a lecture on bystander intervention were more likely to help someone than those who did not.