Topic 5 - Altruism Flashcards
1
Q
What is the bystander effect?
A
when numerous people fail to help strangers in an emergency situation
2
Q
Kitty Genovese?
A
- was murdered
- loads of people heard her screaming but no one called the police
- most famous e.g. of the bystander effect
3
Q
What are the 5 steps to emergency intervention?
A
- notice that something is happening
- interpret event as an emergency
- take responsibility for providing help
- decide how to help
- provide help
4
Q
Latane & Marley 1970?
A
- Participants complete questionnaire alone or with 2 others
- Fake smoke begins to pour through the ventilator
- Question is how long till someone reacts?
- Found that when the participants were alone: 50% leave after 2 mins, 75% by 6 mins
- When people were together: 12% after 2 mins, 38% by 6 mins
- Defined this as pluralistic ignorance - look to others to define ambiguous events
5
Q
Latane & Marley 1968?
A
- Participants in cubicles with headphones
- Take part in personal discussion, experimenter leaves
- One participant has an epileptic fit, was help given within 60 seconds?
- Victim + participant = 85%
- Victim + participant + 2 = 62%
- Victim + participant + 4 = 31%
- Diffusion of responsibility - responsibility divisible by number present
6
Q
What did Bickman 1971 say?
A
responsibility is not diffused when co-witnesses are clearly not able to help
7
Q
What did Moriarty 1975 say?
A
responsibility is not diffused when specifically attached to a bystander
8
Q
What did Fischer et al 2011 find?
A
- did a meta-analytic review of 105 studies
- found overall there was an effect size of d = -.35 for bystander apathy
9
Q
When is the bystander effect reduced?
A
- there is clear danger (no ambiguity, perpetrator is present, solution requires cooperation)
- dangerous emergencies are recognised faster and more clearly as real emergencies inducing higher levels of arousal and hence more helping
10
Q
When is the bystander effect increased?
A
- among females
- in a lab than a field
- with an increased no. of bystanders
11
Q
Evolution and helping?
A
- helping is typically more costly than non helping e.g. time and energy
- non helping = more ‘fit’ = should become increasingly prevalent in subsequent generations
12
Q
What is Hamilton’s rule?
A
- C<BR
- offer help where: RS cost to me < RS benefit to you x our relatedness
13
Q
Evidence for Hamilton’s rule?
A
- Sime 1983
- fire at a vacation complex
- people spent more time in a burning building looking for family members rather than looking for friends
14
Q
What did Bernstein et al 1994 say?
A
- kin selection is not strictly accurately perceived
- it drops down after parents/ siblings
- level of help needed may also be important
- people are more willing to help healthy relatives over sick ones and rich ones over poor ones
15
Q
Reciprocal altruism and Trivers 1971?
A
- RA = behaviour that benefits another with the expectation that those benefits will be returned in the future
- argued we should get a delayed ‘payback’ of altruistic acts where:
-> benefit to recipient is high
-> cost to donor is low
-> likelihood that positions will be reversed in the future
