Week 9 - Helping others Flashcards
The selfish gene explains (kinship theory)
The tendency to help relstives - not survival of the fittest.. strongest when biological stakes are high (life or death)
Influence of wealth and health
More likely to help sick relatives than healthy
Reciprocal altruism
Helping someone can be in your best Interest - increases l Iikelihood of being helped in return
Altruism and helping in genetic survival
Those who are altruistic more likely to survive - group survival
Indirect reciprocity
I help you and somebody else helps me
When are we more likely to help others
When the reward seems high relative to costs
Arousal cost reward model
In emergency situations people act in the mostcost-effective way to reduce the arousal of shock and alarm
Negative state relief model
Proposes that people help to counter their own negative feelings i.e sadness or guilt
Cialdini 1973 -praise on negative state
Those who received a praise were less likely to help - had negative state relieved by praise
Sept 11 neg state relief evidence (Wayment 2004)
Individuals who engaged in collective helping reported higher levels of guilt following the attacks
Women who engaged in collective helping reported a larger decrease in survivor guilt 6 months later compared to those not engaged in collective helping
Helping to fit moral principles
Motivated to help because it is in consistent with moral principles -e.g right thing to do
Also the appearance of being good but actually self-serving
Altruism
Motivated by the desire to increase another’s wellfare
Egoism
Motivated by thedesire to to increase one’s own welfare
Batson, 1991 altruism hyp
There is true altruism, adoption of other person’s perspective is key (empathy)
Batson 1983 data altruism
Empathic altruistic individuals respond no differently in easy and difficult situations
Altruism vs egoism limits
Not all helping is altrustically motivated
Motives do not guarantee behavior
Bystander effect
E.g Kitty Genovese
Presence of others inhibits helping -‘some one else will help’-difussion of responsibility
How to get help in a crowd
- eye contact
- pointing
- direct requests
Evidence of bystander effect online
Takes longer for help depending on amount of people in chat room
Effect of time pressure on helping
Those who were pressured for time helped less than thkse who were told they were early (Darley & Batson, 1973)
Cost of living on helping
Negatively correlated with helping
Influence of economic wellbeing
The more well-off less likely to help
Indivialistic culture and helping
More likely to exihibt helping charitable and volunteering behaviour than collectivist - planned more so
The impact of scent on helping behavior
Percent helped lower when neutral smell compared to pleasant smell - 19% / 55 % -good mood-
Impact of weather
More people help in sunny weather compared to cloudy-good mood-
Why does feeling good lead to doing good
- desire to maintain one’s good mood…
When negative moods make us more likely to help
If we take responsibility for cause of bad mood (guilt) and focus on other people…. not as strong as influence of good mood on helping
Altruistic personality traits
- empathy
- internalised and advanced level of moral reasoning - conscientiousness
- Miller et al 1996 - combination of cold reasoning and hot empathy required
What is beautiful is good stereotype
Stereotype that physically attractive individuals possess more positive personality traits compared to unattractive people who are stereotypically seen to have negative personality traits
What is beautiful is self centered stereotype
Physically attractive people also believed to be more vain or egotistical
Influence of similarity on
More likely to help those who are similar to you
Racial data - highly inconsistent…. possibly due to worry about public perception. Less likely to help other race if there is an excuse not toan
Influence of closeness
More likely to help friends/family
Gender influences
- women tend to help both men and women
- men help women more than other men
- men tend to ask for help less frequently, less socially acceptable (threat to self-esteem model)
Threat to self-esteem model
Help is experienced as self-supportive when recipient feels appreciated and cared for.
Help is experiencedas selfthreatening …
Explain the empathy-altruism hypothesis
The proposition that empathic concern for a person in need produces an altruistic motive for helping.
The five steps in the helping process (and obstacles between steps)
-situational time pressure etc -
distractions
Step 1 - notice that something is happening
-ambiguity
-relationship
-pluralistic ignorance
Step 2 - Interpret event as emergency
-diffusion of responsibility (someone else called 911)
Step 3 - Take responsibility for providing help
Lack of competence
Step 4 - Decide how to help
Audience inhibition
costs > rewards
Step 5 - Provide help
Pluralistic ignorance
The state in which people in a group mistakenly think that their own individual thoughts, feelings, or behaviors are different from those of the others in the group.
