Reflexive and Strategic Altruism Flashcards
Two definitions of Altruism
- Behaviour that promotes someone else’s welfare, even at a risk or cost to outselves
- any form of helping/cooperative behaviour
- Behaviour that is motivated by the “goal of increasing another’s welfare”
- not motivated by some underlying selfish goal
Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis
empathy —> truly altruistic motive (to improve the welfare of the person in need —> prosocial behaviour
- empathy leads to increased helping (truly altruistic motives) even when it would not be easy to help
Reflexive altruism
- prosocial behaviour often arises from intuitive, system 1 preferences
- intuitive model of prosociality
- “thoughtless” acts of real-life heroism
“Thoughtless” acts of real-life heroism
- Carnegie Hero Fund: risking their lives to save the lives of others
- “I think it was just instict”
Happiness and helping
- when people are happy, they are more helpful
- uses fast thinking (system 1)
The bystander effect
- people trying to figure out if they should help or not + “are other people helping?”
- makes people reflective of situation
- uses slow thinking (system 2)
Strategic altruism
- helping benefits helpers
- people may help more when they perceive greater personal benefits of doing so
Three illustrative lines of research
- Liking
- Mating
- Mood management
Liking
- helpful people liked by others and obtain social rewards
Implication: people strategically engage in altruistic behaviour when they believe other people are aware of their actions - when “eyes” are “watching” them = more likely to give money
Mating
- helpful people are more desirable mates
Implication: people strategically engage in altruistic behaviour when motivated to impress potential mates - mating motives temporarily aroused = express greater willingness to do helpful things/more inclined to spend money in altruitic ways (charity)
- men: heroic motives
- women: genuinely helpful motives
Mood management
- it feels good to act altruistically
- helping others makes oneself feel better
Implication: people in negative mood SOMETIMES strategically engage in altruistic behaviour to eliminate that negative mood state - only sometimes because it could be costly to help others —> can just watch funny video to feel better
Does sad mood always lead to increased altruistic behaviour?
- not if mood is perceived to be unchangeable
- not if there are other easier ways to improve mood
An alternative interpretation of the “empathy — altruism” evidence
empathy for a person in need —> sad mood —> non-altruistic motive to help that person (To improve own mood) —> Altruistic behaviour
- helping to improve own mood = not true altruistic behaviour
Does empathy lead to increased altruistic behaviour?
- not if empathic person perceives their mood to be unchangeable
- not if there are other easier ways to improve mood
3 markers that support an intuitive model of prosociality
- Behavioural signs of automaticity
- Neural signatures of values
- Early development
- Behavioural signs of automaticity
- people make prosocial decisions more quickly than selfish ones
- e.g. time pressure or distractions
- Neural signatures of values
the pursuit of rewarding goals such as food or money = prototypical behaviour that often does not require control (prefrontal cortex & anterior cingulate cortex)
prosocilaity as a form of reward seeing-impulse
- ventral stratum and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (brain reward system)
- even if they incur personal costs, reward-related brain regoins are activated when people donate money or make costly prosocial choices
- Early development
emerges in early life before children develop ability to exert significant control over their actions
by 18 months, children begin to spontaneously help others
rewarding prosocial behaviour can have a negative effect, reducing children’s subsequent willingness to help (intuitive)
- “overjustification”
Prosocial spending & happiness
people who spend money on others report more happiness
Benefits most likely to emerge when giving satisfies 1 or more human needs:
- Relatedness
- Competence
- Autonomy
Capacity to derive joy from giving might be a universal feature of human psychology
- more than 20% of SAfricans reported not having enough money to buy food for themselves BUT still gift candy to sick children in hospitals
- Relatedness
helping others may be most emotionally rewarding when it satisfied the fundamental need for social connection
when it gives them opportunity to connect with others
- Competence
prosocial spending most likely to satisfy the need for competence if people can see how generous actions have made a difference
- when charities share their accomplishments from donations
- Autonomy
emotional benefits of prosocial spending is stronger when people feel their actions are freely chosen
Emotional and physical vitality
prosocial giving = better overall health
