Ch. 11 Prosocial Behavior

Question 1

Altruism

Answer 1

PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR – Any act performed with the goal of benefiting another person

ALTRUISM – The desire to help another person even if it involves a cost to the helper

• Altruism is helping purely out of the desire to benefit someone else.

Question 2

Evolutionary Perspective on Prosocial Behavior

Answer 2

EVOLUTIONARY PERSPECTIVE – Explaining why Evolution would favor Altruism, which seems, at first, to go against the survival mechanism.

• KIN SELECTION – The idea that behaviors that help a genetic relative are favored by natural selection.
  
  • This explains why EVOLUTION might favor ALTRUISM: People can increase the chances that their genes will be passed along not only by having their own children, but also by ensuring that their genetic relatives have children. Thus, natural selection should favor altruistic acts directed toward genetic relatives.
  • Studies show Kin Selection cross-culturally and with both genders.
• NORM OF RECIPROCITY – The expectation that helping others will increase the likelihood that they will help us in the future.
  
  • The idea is that as humans were evolving, selfish individuals, each living in his own cave, would have found it more difficult to survive than a group that had learned to cooperate.
  • GRATITUDE – the positive feelings that are caused by the perception that one has been helped by others (gratitude) evolved in order to regulate reciprocity . That is, if someone helps us, we feel gratitude, which motivates us to return the favor in the future.
• GROUP SELECTION – Each INDIVIDUAL of a group that values ALTRUISM may be at greater risk of death due to their selfless altruism, but the GROUP as a whole is much more likely to survive than a group whose members do NOT value altruism.
  
  • So natural selection actually FAVORS ALTRUISTIC GROUPS, which are then more able to pass on their genes to later generations.

Question 3

Social Exchange Theory

Answer 3

SOCIAL EXCHANGE THEORY – argues that much of what we do (including Altruistic behavior) stems from the desire to maximize our rewards and minimize our costs.

• Altruistic behavior can be based on self-interest – rewards from such behavior can come in the form of good feelings, satisfaction, pride, joy in the preservation of a loved one, the sense of helping, increased likelihood that someone will help us in return, etc.
• Social exchange theory argues that true altruism, in which people help even when doing so is costly to them, does not exist. People help when the benefits outweigh the costs.
• Prosocial acts are doubly rewarding in that they help both the giver and the recipient of the aid.
• GOOD FEELINGS – are the reward for altruistic behavior, whether you think you’re acting that way for “purely” altruistic reasons or not.
  
  • Consistent with this view, recent research shows that when people help others, the same parts of their brain are activated as when they receive such tangible rewards as food, water, and sex.
• ALTRUISM IS SELFISH – If we define “self-interest” more broadly, to include the glow people experience when they help others, and the relief they feel when they can alleviate another person’s suffering, then yes, this kind of altruism is “selfish” as well.

Question 4

Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis

Answer 4

EMPATHY-ALTRUISM HYPOTHESIS – The idea that when we feel EMPATHY for a person, we will attempt to help that person for PURELY altruistic reasons, regardless of what we have to gain.

• EMPATHY – The ability to put oneself in the shoes of another person and to experience events and emotions (e.g., joy and sadness) the way that person experiences them.
  
  • (Batson) You are more likely to relieve someone else’s distress when you feel empathy for them.
    
    • If you do NOT feel empathy, Batson says, social exchange (rewards out-weighing costs) concerns come into play. What’s in it for you? If there is something to be gained, you will help.
• In the HIGH-empathy condition, people help regardless of the costs and rewards.
• In the LOW-empathy condition social exchange concerns came into play, in that people based their decision to help on the costs and benefits to themselves. They helped when it was in their interests to do so.

SUMMARY – There are 3 basic motives underlying prosocial behavior:

1. EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY – Helping is an instinctive reaction to promote the welfare of those genetically similar to us.
2. SOCIAL EXCHANGE THEORY – The rewards of helping often outweigh the costs, so helping is in our self-interest.
3. EMPATHY-ALTRUISM HYPOTHESIS – Under some conditions, powerful feelings of empathy and compassion for the victim prompt selfless giving.

Question 5

Gender, Culture, Religion and Prosocial Behavior

Answer 5

• GENDER DIFFERENCES – Whereas men are more likely to perform chivalrous and heroic acts, women are more likely to be helpful in long-term relationships that involve greater commitment.
  
  • Cross-Cultural evidence suggests the same pattern. more girls than boys reported doing volunteer work in their communities.
• CULTURAL DIFFERENCES –
• In-Group – The group with which an individual identifies as a member.
  
  • Discriminate against members of out-groups.
• Out-Group – Any group with which an individual does not identify.
• People often help both in-group and out-group members, but for different reasons.
  
  • For IN-GROUP members, We are more likely to feel EMPATHY toward members of our in-groups who are in need. More EMPATHY means you’re more likely to help.
  • For OUT-GROUP members, We help out-group members when there is something to be gained, such as making us feel good about ourselves or making a good impression on others.
    
    • This follows Batson’s empathy-altruism theory precisely.
    • • SIMPATIA – There are differences in cultural values that make people in one culture more likely to help than people in another culture? One such value in Spanish-speaking countries is SIMPATIA, which refers to a range of social and emotional traits, including being friendly, polite, good-natured, pleasant, and helpful toward others.

RELIGION AND PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR

• A very important feature of religion is that it binds people together and creates strong social bonds. As a result, religious people are more likely to help than other people are IF the person in need of help shares their religious beliefs (IN-GROUP).
  
  • This in-group solidarity also helps homogeneous religious communities stay together longer.
  • Religious people are NOT more likely to help OUT-GROUP people in need any more than anyone else. In fact, there is evidence that religious beliefs increase hostilities toward outgroup members.

Question 6

Mood and Prosocial Behavior

Answer 6

MOOD AND PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR

• GOOD MOOD – More likely to do good.
• BAD MOOD – depends:
  
  • SAD – More likely to do good. (Why? Because ‘helping’ is a reward that makes us feel better.)
  • GUILTY – More likely to do good. (to undo the guilt)
  • ANGRY – ?? guess it depends what you’re angry at.
• EXPERIMENT: Only 4% of the people who did not find a dime (neutral mood) helped the man pick up his papers, whereas a whopping 84% of the people who found a dime (good mood) stopped to help. This “feel good, do good” effect has been replicated many times with different ways of boosting people’s moods.

Question 7

Situation and Prosocial Behavior

Answer 7

SITUATION AND PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR

• RURAL Vs. URBAN:
  
  • URBAN OVERLOAD HYPOTHESIS – The theory that people living in cities are constantly bombarded with stimulation and that they keep to themselves to avoid being overwhelmed by it.
    
    • if you put urban dwellers in a calmer, less stimulating environment, they would be as likely as anyone else to reach out to others.
    • Thus, to predict whether people will help, it’s more important to know whether they are currently in a rural or urban setting than where they happened to grow up.
• RESIDENTIAL MOBILITY – People who have lived for a long time in one place are more likely to engage in prosocial behaviors that help their community.
  
  • The longer you’ve been somewhere, the bigger the stake you have in preserving that place.
  • This increase in helping can arise quite quickly, even in a one-time laboratory setting.
  • NOTE: That Residential Mobility is usually much higher in cities.
• BYSTANDER EFFECT – The greater the number of bystanders who observe an emergency, the less likely any one of them is to help.
  
  • DECISION TREE – (Latané and Darley (1970)) developed a five-step tree that describes how people decide whether to intervene in an emergency:

1. NOTICING AN EVENT – Did the person notice the event?
2. INTERPRETING THE EVENT AS AN EMERGENCY – Once the event was noticed, was it interpreted as an emergency.
   
   • Often, the situation is ambiguous.
   • The greater the number of people who witness an emergency, the less likely they are to know that it is an emergency.
   • PLURALISTIC IGNORANCE – When people think that everyone else is interpreting a situation in a certain way, when in fact they are not. Everyone assumes everyone else is correct.
3. ASSUMING RESPONSIBILITY – Is that emergency our responsibility?
   
   • Here again the number of bystanders is a crucial variable.
     
     • DIFFUSION OF RESPONSIBILITY – Each bystander’s sense of responsibility to help decreases as the number of witnesses increases.
       
       • CALL BY NAME – A large group makes people feel that they do not have much responsibility to respond. When addressed by name, though, people are more likely to feel a responsibility to help, even when many others are present (even online).
4. KNOWING HOW TO HELP – If people don’t know what to do, they will be unable to help.
5. DECIDING TO IMPLEMENT THE HELP – Is there a danger to helping? Legal concerns? Embarrassment?
   
   • If you get past these hurdles, then you will INTERVENE AND GIVE HELP.

Question 8

Media and Prosocial Behavior

Answer 8

MEDIA AND PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR

• People who had just played a PROSOCIAL VIDEO GAME were more likely to help in all of these ways than were people who had just played a neutral video game.
• Songs with PROSOCIAL LYRICS also increased the likelihood of helping.
  
  • Why do these have this effect?
    
    • Increases people’s EMPATHY toward someone in need.
    • increasing the accessibility of thoughts about helping.

Question 9

Increasing Volunteerism

Answer 9

INCREASING HELPFULNESS

• Increasing the Likelihood That Bystanders Will Intervene
  
  • Simply being aware of the barriers to helping in an emergency can increase people’s chances of overcoming those barriers.
• Reminding ourselves of times in the past when we overcame our inhibitions can make us more likely to help.
• Increasing Volunteerism