Altruism & Prosocial Behaviour PDF

CH.12 Altruism & Prosocial Behaviour Dr. Twinkle Arora Prosocial behaviour Prosocial behaviour – any behaviour that has the goal of helping another person cooperating, sharing, and comforting In some cases, such behaviour is motivated by a desire to improve one's own circumstances....

CH.12 Altruism & Prosocial Behaviour Dr. Twinkle Arora Prosocial behaviour Prosocial behaviour – any behaviour that has the goal of helping another person cooperating, sharing, and comforting In some cases, such behaviour is motivated by a desire to improve one's own circumstances. Altruistic behaviour– helping without expectation of personal gain. HOW DO PERSONAL FACTORS INFLUENCE HELPING? Evolutionary factors Personality Religion EVOLUTIONARY FACTORS Altruistic behavior involves helping others at personal cost. Evolutionary perspective suggests altruistic actions are driven by the desire to ensure the survival of one's genes. Individuals may engage in costly behavior if it benefits the welfare of someone who shares their genes. Kinship selection? EVIDENCE FOR KINSHIP SELECTION Evidence suggests people are more altruistic toward those closely related and who could potentially reproduce. Kin selection principle: People are more likely to help close relatives (with whom they share more genes) than distant relatives. Research supports the idea that, in life-or-death situations, people prioritize help for close relatives, the young, the healthy, and pre-menopausal women. EVIDENCE FOR RECIPROCAL PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOUR But people do show prosocial behaviour even to non‐ relatives!  Men are more likely than women to help in situations that call for brave, Are Men heroic behaviour (e.g., rescuing someone from a burning building). or Women Why? More Men experience fewer costs for helping Helpful? than women do. Gender roles PERSONALITY High in empathy - meaning they tend to understand other people's perspectives and respond emotionally to other people's experiences. Empathy vs. sympathy Personality – Moral Reasoning moral reasoning – a personality factor that describes the extent to which a person's willingness to help depends on larger moral standards rather than the person's needs and the expected consequences for helping.  Parents’ direct teaching of prosocial The role of behaviour can influence children's parents? moral reasoning. RELIGION Religious teachings emphasize the importance of engaging in cooperative and prosocial behaviour. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” Not always true? HOW DO SITUATIONAL FACTORS INFLUENCE HELPING? Decision‐making Arousal/cost‐ process model reward model DECISION‐MAKING PROCESS MODEL A number of features of emergencies make it difficult to get help. Emergencies are rare Emergencies themselves differ widely Emergencies are unforeseen DECISION‐MAKING PROCESS MODEL STEP 1: NOTICE SOMETHING IS HAPPENING: People are more likely to give help when they witness a clear and vivid emergency DECISION‐ STEP 2: INTERPRET IT AS AN MAKING EMERGENCY. PROCESS MODEL  STEP 3: TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR PROVIDING HELP. DECISION‐ MAKING Diffusion of responsibility – the PROCESS belief that other people present in a MODEL situation will assume responsibility, which contributes to the bystander effect. DECISION‐MAKING PROCESS MODEL STEP 4: DECIDE HOW TO HELP. DECISION‐MAKING PROCESS MODEL STEP 5: PROVIDE HELP. STRATEGIES FOR GETTING HELP. First, identify one person in the crowd and call out to that person directly (e.g., “Hey, the woman in the red dress—I need help”). Second, clearly label the situation as an emergency (e.g., “I'm having trouble breathing”). Finally, give instructions on how exactly the person should help Arousal/cost‐ reward model The arousal/cost‐reward model uses rational, cost‐ benefit analysis to predict prosocial behaviour. Potential rewards to yourself and the victim Potential costs to yourself and the victim  Although the costs of prosocial Impact of behaviour decrease the likelihood of helping, the benefits or rewards of benefits prosocial behaviour increase helping. Factors that influence prosocial behaviour Mood Modelling Environmental factors  Good mood effect - refers to the finding that helping behaviour increases when people are in a Mood good mood. Why? Bad mood effect Although good moods can increase the likelihood of prosocial behaviour, so can bad moods! Guilt Are there exceptions? Modelling People can increase their altruistic behaviour when such behaviour is modelled for them by their parents, peers, or even media figures. Two main motivators for prosocial behavior: personal pleasure and external pressure. Environmental Factors Generally people are friendlier in rural towns than in large cities. Common stereotype people in country settings as more helpful and cooperative, and think of those who live in urban environments as more aloof and egocentric. People in large cities were less helpful than people in small cities or rural communities in a variety of ways, including giving change or telling someone they had dropped a pen Why do people in cities help less? Urban overload hypothesis (Milgram, 1970) Factors: Similarity Anonymity DOES Two distinct hypotheses: PURE the empathy‐altruism hypothesis ALTRUISM the negative‐state relief hypothesis EXIST? EMPATHY‐ALTRUISM HYPOTHESIS According to the empathy‐altruism hypothesis, some helpful actions are genuinely motivated by a desire to do good for others. NEGATIVE‐STATE RELIEF HYPOTHESIS Negative‐state relief hypothesis - a hypothesis that people are motivated to help others in order to relieve their own negative feelings Differences? Empathy-Altruism Negative-State Relief Hypothesis: Hypothesis: Main motivation is empathy This hypothesis suggests that Empathy involves understanding the main motivation for helping others is to alleviate and sharing the feelings of one's own negative emotional another person. state. Altruism refers to selfless concern In other words, people help for the well-being of others. others because it makes them The key point here is that any feel better about themselves. self-benefits that result from The relief of one's own helping are seen as unintended negative emotions is consequences, meaning that the considered the primary primary motivation is the well- motivation for helping, rather being of the person being helped. than a byproduct. What are these benefits to the self? Fear of Reduction of punishment Desire for aversive for not reward arousal helping Reduction of aversive arousal The most common egoistic explanation for helping is that people want to reduce the unpleasant arousal they experience when hearing or seeing someone who is in distress. Fear of punishment “The right thing to do!” Guilt? Desire for reward People may behave altruistically only when they believe that others will notice—and think less of them if they don't help— Long term? Although helping may be motivated by either empathic or egoistic factors, helping that is motivated by empathy is most likely to lead to long‐term helping. It has also been found that volunteering is related to better health outcomes, including both mental and physical health and social well‐being PERSON FACTORS Some people are much more likely to receive help than others. Gender Age Attractiveness Personality Gender Women are more likely than men to receive help (Bhogal, Galbraith, & Manktelow, 2016). More value is placed on women than men in moral utilitarian situations, and that preserving women (and children) is more moral. Further studies have shown that men may have a less positive attitude toward asking for help than women and may therefore ask for help less frequently (Nam et al., 2010). Age Another demographic factor that influences how much help we want as well as how much help we get is age. Attractiveness Attractive people get more help and are more likely to get lost belongings returned to them. Attractive people are more likely to receive leadership positions in comparison to unattractive people Personality Personality factors such as shyness, anxiety, and level of extraversion also tend to influence the likelihood of receiving help. Social Norms Norm of reciprocity People usually give back to people who have given to them Servers often use the norm of reciprocity to encourage better tipping: customers who received compliments from their servers tipped more than those who did not receive compliments Social Norms Norm of social responsibility - the idea that we have an obligation to help those who are in need of assistance RELATIONSHIP FACTORS Relationship factors can impact who we help including: Similarity Friendship Exchange relationship BUT NOT ALWAYS. Self‐evaluation maintenance model – the theory that our self-concept can be threatened if someone performs better than us on a task that is relevant to our sense of esteem How does culture influence helping? Studies show that in all cultures, helping behaviour is more likely to be given to an in‐group member than an out‐group member Collectivistic culture Members of in‐groups are even more likely to be helped than out‐group members, compared to the rates of helping in individualistic cultures. Economic productivity