Prosocial Behaviour and Altruism Flashcards
What is prosocial behaviour?
Behaviour with the intention to help or benefit others
- Other goals may be present as well
- Can be internally or externally motivated
Explain genetics as a possible reason for prosocial behaviour
Helping is adaptive when it perpetuates the helper’s gene pool
Explain kin selection as a possible reason for prosocial behaviour
Traits that facilitate survival of an individual’s genetic relatives
Explain evolutionary theory as a possible reason for prosocial behaviour
- Tendency to aid another at a cost to the helper’s survival cannot be an evolved genetic predisposition
- But some types of helping benefit helper as well:
*Helping kin (even at personal cost) may increase gene’s survival
*Helping other group members may benefit group’s survival
Explain altruism as a possible reason for prosocial behaviour
- Prosocial behaviour that is motivated by the genuine desire to help others for its own sake, not for personal rewards
- Internally motivated
Explain egoism as a possible reason for prosocial behaviour
- Prosocial behaviour motivated partly/fully by rewards
- Externally motivated
Explain the concept of egoism rewards
Egoism is prosocial behaviour motivated partly by rewards
- Mood-based (helping feels good)
- Material-based (we help bcs ppl give us things)
- Status-based (we receive recognition. respect, etc.)
Explain the ‘reciprocity’ in egoism rewards
Engage in “give and take” with others such that when we do someone a favor, we expect the favour to eventually be repaid
What is the norm of reciprocity?
We should both offer help & avoid harming those who have helped us
How do we learn about helping?
- Children taught to learn at an early age
- Operant conditioning -> Receiving praise increases likelihood of helping again
- Social or observational learning -> Modelling prosocial behaviour
Explain time pressure’s relationship with prosocial behaviour
- Negatively affects helping
- Effects of myopia
- When given short timeframe to make a decision, we tend to prioritise our own wellbeing AND assume helping others is too much effort
Explain pervasive social influence
- Other people’s reactions shape our interpretations
- If others are unresponsive, we may be too
- Leads to diffusion of responsibility
Explain ‘norm of social responsibility’ as a possible reason for prosocial behaviour
- The norm is that we give aid to the helpless or dependent
- Attributions regarding controllability of need
*Outgroup members may be seen as to blame for issues, leading to less helping compared to ingroup members whose issues may be viewed as caused by uncontrollable or external factors
Explain Pluralistic Ignorance
- Assumption that others know better than us in a situation and will engage in an appropriate response to the situation
- In an emergency, people may delay or stop response to help
Explain Diffusion of Responsibility
As the number of bystanders increases, individuals mentally spread responsibility for intervening to others
Explain the impact of norm of family privacy
- Strangers are typically reluctant in family matters
- Even during physical attack or abuse
Explain the impact of gender norms
- In emergencies, men see themselves as more capable of helping
- Potential explanation for men’s greater willingness to help found in much research
How is the norm of WHEN to help developed?
- Norms of when to help is modelled after observation of others throughout development
- If others help, then people perceive norm of helping
- Thus, prosocial behaviours promote further prosocial behaviour
- Often learned from parents or other role models
What are the possible emotional rewards from helping?
- Helping makes us feel good
- Happy people are more likely to help others, esp if the helping will maintain their mood
- However, sad or guilty people may help to escape from their negative mood (but at the same time, sad people are not always helpful dur to self-focused attention)
Illustrate how a good mood and a bad mood could influence acts of helping
- Good mood -> Increased attention to social environment -> More likely to notice others’ needs -> More helping
- Good mood -> Desire to remain in good mood -> More helping in ways that maintain mood OR Less helping if help would destroy mood
- Bad mood -> Self-focused attention -> Less likely to notice needs -> Less helping
- Bad mood -> Desire to improve mood -> More helping
Explain the Empathy-Altruism Model
People experience 2 types of emotions when helping:
- Personal distress (anxiety, upset, fear)
- Empathetic concern (sympathy, compassion)
- Personal distress motivates egoistic helping or escape
- Empathetic concern motivates altruistic helping
Explain the “Elaine” study done on connectedness
- Students see “Elaine” very upset by receiving shocks (watched through CCTV)
- Emotional empathy with Elaine manipulated (they made “Elaine” either someone with likeliness or differences to the observer) -> Will you take her place and receive the shocks for her?
- Ease of escape from situation manipulated
What were the findings from the “Elaine” study on connectedness
- For participants who showed higher empathy, regardless whether the escape was easy or not, they would be more willing to take up Elaine’s place
- The opposite for participants who did not feel empathy -> More with easy escape
OR another way to say it in case kamu gak ngerti:
- If participants felt more empathy when “Elaine” shared their interests, regardless of the ease of escape
- If participants did not feel empathy, they only volunteered to take the place of Elaine when they were forced to watch
What are mirror neurons?
- Cells in the brain that activate to mimic others’ behaviour
What are the functions of mirror neurons?
- Helps us to learn new behaviours and understand behaviours
- Linked to empathy (e.g. imagine yourself in __’s shoes)
Explain the findings from the study on mirror neurons of rats (zapped and observer)
- The level of brain activity and activation between the zapped-rat and observer rat is very similar
- Shows that the observer rat understands the pain of the zapped rat on a neural level
- Shows that we have the potential to emulate the feelings that other people are going through without experiencing the emotion-inducing event ourselves
How is prosocial behaviour increased?
- Reduce ambiguity of situation -> Make the need for help very clear
- Increase internal attributions for helping -> Seeing yourself as helpful/altruistic increases future helping AND promotes automaticity of helping
- Teach norms that support helping, cooperation -> ex. Media representation
- Make prosocial norms accessible -> Make it the norm that helping is a personal responsibility, self-awareness due to mirror can increase volunteering
- Avoid diffusion of responsibility -> Indicate what person is supposed to help
- Promote connectedness with those in need -> Feelings of connectedness promotes helping even at personal costs, Empathy towards outgroups via contact and perspective-taking
What are the personality influences in prosociality?
Tendency to engage in prosocial behaviour
What are Tinbergen’s 4 ‘Why?’ questions?
Ultimate explanations:
1. Survival value/function
2. Evolutionary history/phylogeny
Proximate explanations:
3. Causation/mechanisms
4. Development
Explain the concept of indirect reciprocity
- We cooperate, so that others will see us as a cooperative individual which will then allow us to receive one-off benefit from 3rd party/ies
- Decision about who to cooperate with
Explain the concept of competitive altruism
- Adding to the concept of indirect reciprocity
- We cooperate, so that others will see us as a cooperative individual which can lead to us being chosen as a partner for profitable relationship
- Decision about who best to forma partnership with
What are the assumptions in competitive altruism?
- Individuals vary in quality
- Individuals can choose partners
- Behaviour provides public information
What are the inferences in competitive altruism?
- Those seen to be the most cooperative can acquire the best partners
- Competition for partners results in increased public cooperation
Elaborate on the CA assumption: Individuals vary in quality as potential partners
- Cooperative strategies
*Free riders, Conditional and unconditional co-operators, others - Abilities
*Individual differences, Personality types, Cognitive attributes, Skills - Resources
*Shelter, Food, Trading opportunities
Elaborate on the CA assumption: Behaviour provides public information
- Humans do use information about others to make judgments
- We have the tendency to alter our behaviour to be more prosocial when others are watching
- Vice versa, we prefer people who display better forms of prosociality
Elaborate on the CA assumption: Individuals can choose platonic and romantic partners
- Humans typically engage in social interaction from infancy
- Social connections change throughout an individual’s lifetime
- There is vast research on mate choice
What are the differences between competitive altruism and indirect reciprocity?
- Benefits of IR come from effect of signalling, thus they don’t expect direct reciprocation
- Unlike indirect reciprocity, it doesn’t agree to the concept of just giving to people you observe show prosociality
- Competitive altruism can therefore also explain non-reciprocal behaviours such as giving to charity and public goods
What are the evidences in CA that people alter their behaviour when being observed?
PPG evidence:
Contributions increase when decisions are public and with partner choice
Field study evidence:
- More volunteers when public than private
- The Watching Eyes study -> Evaluation: mixed results
What are the evidences in CA that cooperative people are chosen more often as a preferred partner?
- The PPG evidence showed that the higher they rank in contributing to the pot, the more times they are chosen as a partner
What are the evidences in CA that cooperative people benefit from their cooperative behaviour?
- This would mean, in other words, that benefits are returned during a partnership
- slide 20
What are the evidences for cooperation as a sexual display?
- Cooperation affects attractiveness judgments (More attractive when cooperative)
Explain the costly signals in the context of making donations, between the genders
- Male donors gave a larger donation when giving to an attractive female fundraiser, and when responding to a large donation made by a male competitor
- Male donors compete directly with other males in the presence of an attractive female audience
- No evidence for this competition in females
Explain costly signalling in the context of turtle hunting
- Studied people who hunted turtles, even though it isn’t economically profitable
- Possible reasons for why they do it:
*A difficult feat so it acts as an indicator of strength, skill, leadership
*Widely broadcasted signal as all attend feast
*Costly yet isn’t reciprocated
*Long term benefits for the hunters
What is the function of emotions in humans?
- Perception of risk
- Act as a mechanism for detecting environmental cues for threats or resources, and making the appropriate behavioural, cognitive and physiological response
- Emotions have adaptive value of controlling avoidance and approach of environmental cues
Explain the way in which human emotions lay on a spectrum
- Human emotions exist on a dimension of valence, from pleasant to unpleasant
Explain the function and effect of experiencing unpleasant emotions
- Unpleasant emotions (such as fear and anxiety) -> act as a response to potentially fitness reducing threats
- Experiencing this motivates an individual to avoid or prepare to engage with a threat
Explain the function and effect of experiencing pleasant emotions
- Pleasant emotions (such as excitement) -> act as a response to indicators of resource and motivate approaching behaviour
- Experiencing this motivates the individual to repeat a behaviour
How does the spectrum of emotions differ between animals and humans according to Darwin?
- Animals have less
- Animals’ is limited to Joy and affection – Pain, anger, shock and terror
Examples of when warm glow typically occur
- Prosocial spending
- Donation scenarios
- Pro-environmental behaviour
- Sharing behaviour
- Blood donation
What are the animal evidences for warm glow (specifically endorphins in monkeys)?
- Social interaction and grooming increased endorphins in talapoin monkeys
- Blockage of opiate receptors: grooming and requests for grooming increased
- Low doses of morphine: significantly reduces grooming and grooming requests
- Emotions mediating affiliative behaviour
How does social identification influence helping?
- Social identification with group promotes cooperation because individuals adopt group goals as their own AND assume other group members will also cooperate
- Individuals still contribute to public good even if they realise others’ contributions are insufficient, their contributions aren’t needed or they will not benefit from the outcome
Bystander Apathy
- Individuals are less likely to offer help to a victim in presence of other people
- Not because they do not care about the situation
- There is this collective assumption that someone else will take control of the situation
