week 6 Flashcards
Pro-social behaviour
Defined by society as beneficial to other people; excludes behaviours motivated by professional obligations.
Altruism
Behaviour that has the ultimate goal of benefiting another person, with no anticipation of reward
does it exist?
popular believes
- self is central
- behaviour is motivated by self-interest
- we always consider our own benefit
What motivates people to do unpaid voluntary work?
egoistic: for personal satisfaction, had time on my hands
altruistic: compassion for those in need, religious believes, solidarity with the poor and disadvantaged
In favor of altruism: Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis
We care about ourselves
But also for others
We help and make sacrifices to fulfill others’ needs
Empathetic concern
Empathy leading to altruistic motivation!
Empathetic concern
A feeling for a person in need
not pity or feeling sorry
What is empathy?
cognitive component: Understanding the feelings of others and the ability to take their perspective
affective component: An observer’s appropriate emotional response to another person’s emotional state
Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis
Seeing another person in distress
-> Vicarious Physiological Arousal/Emotion
-> Labelled as distress for other
->High Emphatic Emotion and Altruistic motivation = help
or
->Labelled as personal distress
->Low Empathic Emotion and Egoistic motivation= help or escape
Aversive-arousal reduction
When others suffer, we suffer too. In helping others we seek to relieve our own pain.
Punishment avoidance
We help because we fear others will judge us if we don’t. We seek to avoid feeling shame or guilt at not helping.
Reward seeking
We help because we hope for social rewards or self rewards
Cialdini’s Negative-State Relief Model
Witnessing distress creates unpleasant mood in observer who is then motivated to act in order to relieve this mood
Therefore actions are based on self-interest rather than altruism
How can you test: Batson vs. Cialdini
Conditions: Interview of a student in need
-Needs study participants
-Needs information for a university committee
about life at campus
Manipulation 1:
Imagine: how the person in need felt (to induce emotion)
Observe: just listen objectively
Manipulation 2: Read a newspaper article of the same student telling:
- Same problem as in the interview
- Different problem
Then they were given the chance to help:
For the problem described in the newspaper article
-Hence for some it was the same task as in the interview
-For some a different task
when imagined in negative state relief model they helped
->You want to relieve your negative affect
when imagined and same problem in E-A hypothesis they helped. the rest didnt.
->You want to solve the particular problem
In sum: Pro-social behaviour and altruism
Prosocial behaviour can be altruistically motivated
But: need to feel empathy
Why or when don’t people help?
1- Pluralistic ignorance:
2- Audience inhibition
3- Self-efficacy
Pluralistic ignorance
a situation in which a majority of group members privately reject a norm, but incorrectly assume that most others accept it, and therefore go along with it
Audience inhibition
People are inhibited from helping for fear that other bystanders will evaluate them negatively if they intervene and the situation is not an emergency
Self-efficacy
an individual’s belief in their innate ability to achieve goals
Do we help ingroup people more than outgroup people?
experiment
Participants: German or Muslim
Read story about student who is very lonely/has trouble finding a room
Student has cultural background that is either:
Muslim
German
Measure empathy and intention to help fictive student
ingroup -> helping intention because of empathy
Does group membership matter?
manchester experiment
All participants are Manchester United supporters
Participants fill in questionnaire (Identification with MU)
Manchester United or Football Fan made salient
Participant sent to another building:
Meets jogger wearing MU or Liverpool or unbranded T-shirt (control condition)
Jogger has accident
Does participant help?
MU: with mu shirt helps other barely
football: help mu and liverpool but not control
Why do we help others?
- Egoistic motives
- Altruistic motives
- Reciprocity beliefs
But also, we might help (outgroup) to:
- Maintain, reinforce, or gain power
- Create a favourable impression
- Protect the group’s social identity
Communicative aspects of help - Being able to help signals
- Competence
- Control over valuable resources (skills, knowledge, tangible resources)
- Superiority
Communicative aspects of help - Being dependent on help signals
- Incompetence
- Lack of control over resources
- Inferiority
Different types of help (Nadler)
- Dependency oriented help
- Autonomy-oriented help
Dependency oriented help
- providing a full solution to the problem at hand
- reflects the helper’s view that the needy cannot help themselves
- reinforces the differential status of the groups.
Autonomy-oriented help
is instrumental for the less powerful group to improve its position and become independent
Status of helper and recipient: Receiving assumptive help
experiment
Arab Israeli students (=low status) work on a knowledge test
Arab or Jewish (=high status) person offers solution to difficult question
The helper gives assistance without being asked to
Students report more negative affect, lower self-worth, lower feelings of worthiness as Arabs:
when helped by the Jewish rather than the Arab person
The downside to helping
strengthening power relations
Values
“Desirable transsituational goals varying in importance, which serves as guiding principles in the life of a person or social entity.’’
Values as general motivators of behaviour.
values (4)
- altruistic
- egoistic
- hedonic (pertaining to pleasure:)
- biospheric
Values and choice for a TV set
experiment
Prime environmental values
Hypothetical choice for a TV set
Priming biospheric values increased preference of an environmentally-friendly TV set, more so when these values were central to a person.
Environmental self-identity
past behavior & biospheric values -> environmental self-identity -> environmental behavior
The role of situational factors
Priming helping behaviour with parable of the Good Samaritan increased helping, more so when participants - seminary students - were not in a hurry
Cost of help: time, money, effort, physical danger
