chapter 9 - prosocial behavior what is prosocial behavior? your fair share cooperation, forgiveness,...
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Chapter 9 - Prosocial Behavior
• What is Prosocial Behavior?
• Your Fair Share
• Cooperation, Forgiveness, Obedience, and Conformity
• Why Do People Help Others?
• Who Helps Whom?
• Bystander Help in Emergencies
• How Can We Increase Helping?
Doing What’s Best for Others
• Oskar Schindler – Holocaust rescues
• Why do humans behave in helpful and cooperative ways even when it is not in their own self interest to do so?
What is Prosocial Behavior?
• Doing something good for someone or for society
• Builds relationships; allows society to function
• Includes helping others– Obeying the rules– Conforming to socially acceptable behavior– Cooperating with others
Cooperation
• Each person does their part and work toward a common goal
• Prisoner’s dilemma– Forced to choose between competition and
cooperation
• If one of the pair is not cooperative, then cooperation is typically doomed
• Communication improves cooperation
Tradeoffs - Prisoner’s Dilemma
• Choice is between cooperative response and an antagonistic response
• Choice is between what is best for one person versus what is best for everyone
• Non-zero-sum game
Obedience
• Following orders from an authority figure
• Milgram (1963)– Majority of participants delivered extreme
shocks to a screaming victim in obedience to an authority figure
Obedience
• Milgram’s research represented obedience as a negative (negative outcome)
• Without obedience, society would not function
• Obedience fosters– Social acceptance– Group life
Conformity
• Going along with the crowd– May be good or bad
• Asch (1955, 1956)
• Normative social influence– Conformity to be accepted by the group
• Informational social influence– Conformity based on actions of others as
evidence about reality
Conformity
• People conform more when others are watching them
• Public conformity– Going along with the crowd regardless of
what one privately believes
• Private attitude change– Altering one’s internal attitude
Factors in Prosocial Behavior
• Effective rule of law
• Fairness and justice
• Public circumstances– Wanting to make a good impression
Reciprocity
• Obligation to return in kind what another has done for us– Direct reciprocity– Indirect reciprocity
• Willingness to request or accept help is often predicated on ability to return in kind
Fairness
• Norms that promote fairness– Equity – Equality
• People desire a system based on fairness and social exchange
• Sensitivity about being the target of a threatening upward comparison
Unfairness
• Underbenefited – Getting less than you deserve
• Overbenefited– Getting more than you deserve
• Fairness requires both and is found only in humans
• Survivor guilt
Your Fair Share
• Tragedy of the Commons– Depletion of resources owned collectively
• Hoarding– Can be influenced by group and individual
differences
Forgiveness
• Ceasing to feel anger toward or seek retribution against someone who has wronged you
• Forgiveness helps repair relationships– Provides health benefits to both parties
Forgiveness
• When is forgiveness more likely?– Minor offense– Offender apologizes
• Who is more likely to forgive?– Religious people– People committed to a relationship– Not self-centered or narcissistic
Why Do People Help Others?
• Evolutionary benefits– Kin selection– More likely to help others who share our
genes– Life-and-death helping is affected more
strongly by genetic relatedness
Why Do People Help Others?
• Egoistic helping– Wanting something in return for helping– Negative state relief theory – help to
reduce your own distress
• Altruistic helping– Expecting nothing in return for helping– Motivated by empathy
Why Do People Help Others?
• Empathy-altruism hypothesis– Empathy motivates people to reduce
other’s distress– Low empathy, people can reduce their own
distress by escaping the situation– Batson et al. (1981)
• Negative state relief theory
Who Helps Whom?
• Helpful Personality
• Similarity
• Males are more helpful in broader public sphere, toward strangers and in emergencies
• Females are more helpful in family sphere, toward close relationships and in repeated contact
Who Helps Whom?
• Females feel more sympathy and empathy
• Females are more likely to receive help
• Beautiful victims
Belief in a Just World
• Life is essentially fair and people generally get what they deserve– Blaming the victim– Fallacy of affirming the consequent
• People who hold belief in a just world will help if they think those people deserve help
Emotion and Helping
• Positive feelings increase helping
• Negative emotions may or may not increase helping– Focus on self versus the victim
Bystander Helping in Emergencies
• Kitty Genovese– Bystander effect – people less likely to help
when they are in the presence of others
Steps to Helping
• Notice that something is happening
• Interpret meaning of event– Pluralistic ignorance
• Taking responsibility for providing help– Diffusion of responsibility
• Know how to help
• Provide help
Too Busy to Help?
• People in a hurry, help less– Even when thinking about helping
• The more time people had, the more likely they were to help
How Can We Increase Helping?
• Obstacles to helping can be overcome when you– Reduce distractions– Reduce pluralistic ignorance– Reduce diffusion of responsibility– Reduce concerns about competence to
help– Reduce audience inhibitions
How Can We Increase Helping?
• Helping can be increased by– Reduce uncertainties of obstacles– Educate others about bystander
indifference– Model helpfulness– Teach moral inclusion
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