Prosocial behaviour

Question 1

What is prosocial behaviour?

Answer 1

Acts that are performed with the goal of benefitting another person (not motivated by professional obligations)

Question 2

What are the 2 evolutionary perspectives of prosocial behaviour?

Answer 2

KIN SELECTION: behaviours that help genetic relatives are favoured by natural selection

NORM OF RECIPROCITY: helping others increases the likelihood of them helping us in the future

Question 3

What are some potential rewards of helping?

Answer 3

• relief from distress
• maintain positive emotions & attenuate negative emotions
• social approval & improved self-worth

Question 4

According to Cialdini et al. (1987), why might helping not serve as a potential reward?

Answer 4

Observing an emergency causes arousal &/or sadness

Question 5

84% of pps who found coins that a researcher had left in a payphone helped a man pick up papers after.

Who did this study & what benefit of helping does this support?

Answer 5

Isen & Levin (1972)

This study supports the idea that helping can help to maintain positive emotions

Question 6

How might helping be costly?

Answer 6

Helping in a situation may involve physical danger, pain, embarrassment, time

Question 7

When do people help?

Answer 7

When rewards outweigh the costs

Question 8

Who proposed the Empathy-Altruism theory?

Answer 8

Batson (1991)

Question 9

What is empathy?

Answer 9

Understanding/sharing another person’s emotional state

Question 10

What is altruism?

Answer 10

Behaviour that isn’t beneficial to the self but beneficial to others (the opposite of selfish)

Question 11

What does the Empathy-Altruism theory state?

Answer 11

If we feel empathy towards someone, we will help them regardless of what we gain

Do you feel empathy?
NO –> only help if it is in your self-interest
YES –> help regardless of whether it is in your self-interest (even if costs outweigh rewards)

Question 12

What did Toi & Batson (1982) do to investigate the effect of empathy on helping behaviour?

Answer 12

Toi & Batson (1982) asked students if they would help Carol, who had missed classes due to an accident.

High empathy for Carol vs. low empathy
High costs for helping vs. low costs for helping

Found that, for pps who felt high empathy for Carol, their behaviour didn’t differ depending on whether there were high/low costs for helping
Pps who felt low empathy for Carol only helped her if there was a high cost of helping (would see her again)

Question 13

What types of helping behaviours do men & women display/use?

Answer 13

Men tend to use chivalrous & heroic ways of helping

Women tend to us nurturing ways of helping that involve long-term commitment

Question 14

Does being religious mean you are more likely to help?

Answer 14

Religious people only tend to help more if it makes them look good - they don’t help when they are anonymous

Question 15

What did Darley & Batson (1973) do to investigate the effect of religion on helping behaviour?

Answer 15

Pps encountered a shabbily-dressed person on the roadside → pps in a hurry were more likely to pass by without stopping to help

Some pps were going to give a short talk on the parable of the Good Samaritan, others were going to give a talk on a non-helping relevant topic
–> there was no difference in the likelihood of each group helping

Question 16

Who first proposed the bystander effect?

Answer 16

Darley & Latane (1968)

Question 17

What is the bystander effect?

Answer 17

If we are in a group with more people (i.e. there are more bystanders), we are less likely to help someone

The average time for pps to respond in Darley & Latane’s (1968) study increased with more bystanders

Question 18

What are some exceptions to the bystander effect?

Answer 18

Fischer et al. (2011) - in situations that are dangerous for the victim & bystanders

Pilivian et al. (1981) - impulsive helping when the bystander experiences high empathy

Question 19

What are the steps involved in helping in an emergency?

Answer 19

1. We notice the event
2. Interpret the event as an emergency
3. Assume responsibility
4. Know an appropriate form of assistance
5. Implement a decision
6. Intervene & offer our assistance

Question 20

In relation to each step involved in helping in an emergency, what might occur that stops us from intervening?

Answer 20

1. Notice the event
   - if we are distracted/in a hurry (i.e. don’t notice the event), we don’t intervene
2. Interpret the event as an emergency
   - if we interpret the event as a non-emergency (adopt pluralistic ignorance), we don’t intervene
3. Assume responsibility
   - if we don’t assume personal responsibility, we don’t intervene
4. Know an appropriate form of assistance
   - if we lack knowledge/competence (i.e. can’t offer the appropriate help), we don’t intervene
5. Implement a decision
   - if helping in the situation involves danger to the self, legal concerns or embarrassment (i.e. costs are high), we don’t intervene

Question 21

What is ‘diffusion of responsibility’?

Answer 21

Believing that others will/should take the responsibility to help

Question 22

What is ‘audience inhibition’?

Answer 22

The reluctance to help for fear of making a bad impression on observers

Question 23

What is pluralistic ignorance?

Answer 23

The majority of the group privately rejects a norm but incorrectly assumes that most others accept it, so go along with it

Question 24

How does pluralistic ignorance explain the bystander effect?

Answer 24

If no one acts, bystanders may believe that others believe the action is incorrect & therefore will themselves refrain from helping too

Question 25

Pps sat in a room that gradually filled with smoke (simulation of an emergency)

Who did this study & what effect did bystanders have?

Answer 25

Latane & Darley (1968)

If pps were alone, they reported the smoke 75% of the time

If pps were with 2 other subjects, they reported the smoke 38% of the tie

If pps were with 2 oblivious subjects, they reported the smoke 10% of the time (diffusion of responsibility)

Question 26

When did pps help in Latane & Darley’s (1968) smoke study?

Answer 26

Pps only helped others if they noticed the incident, interpreted it as an emergency, & assumed responsibility → this was more likely to occur if pps were alone

Question 27

Private levels of comfort with drinking practices on campus were lower than the perceived average.

Who found this?

Answer 27

Prentice & Miller (1993)

Question 28

Who do we help?

Answer 28

• attractive people
• people who aren’t responsible for their situation
• if we are similar & feel close to the Person in Need

Question 29

Levine et al. (2005) found that we are more likely to help people who are…

Answer 29

…in our own group than in another group/a neutral person