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Topic 9

ALTRUISM:

Why Do People Help?

If you want others to be happy,

practice compassion.

If you want to be happy, practice

compassion.

The Dalai Lama

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BASIC MOTIVES UNDERLYING

PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR:

WHY DO PEOPLE HELP?

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Prosocial Behavior & Altruism

Prosocial BehaviorAny act performed with the goal of

benefiting another person.

AltruismThe desire to help another person even ifit

involves a cost to the helper.

Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

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Evolutionary Psychology:

Instincts and Genes

Any gene that furthers our survival and

increases the probability that we will

produce offspring is likely to be passed on

from generation to generation.

Genes that lower our chances of survival, suchas those causing life-threatening diseases, reduce

the chances that we will produce offspring thusare less likely to be passed on.

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Instincts and Genes

Evolutionary Psychology

The attempt to explain social behavior interms ofgeneticfactors that evolved over

time according to the principles of naturalselection.


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Instincts and Genes

If peoples overriding goal is toensure their own survival, why

would they ever help others at a

cost to themselves? Genes promoting selfish behavior

should be more likely to be passed

onor should they?

Darwin realized early on that there was aproblem with evolutionary theory:

How can it explain altruism?


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Instincts and Genes

Kin SelectionThe idea that behaviors that help agenetic relative

are favored by natural selection.

People can increase the chances their genes will bepassed along not only by having children but also byensuring that their genetic relatives have children.

Because a persons blood relatives share some of

his or her genes, the more that person ensurestheir survival, the greater the chance that his orher genes will flourish in future generations.

Thus natural selection should favor altruistic acts

directed toward genetic relatives.

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The Reciprocity Norm

Try it!

1) Choose a charity or cause for which you would like to collectmoney.

2) Make a list of 10 15 friends whom you are willing to ask togive money to this charity.

3) Go down the list, and flip a coin for each name. If the coincomes up tails, assign the person to the favor condition (headsno favor).

4) Find a way to do a small favor for each person in the favorcondition.

5) A day later, ask everyone on your list to make a donation toyour charity.

P/s: Warning1, 2, 3

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The Reciprocity Norm

Norm of Reciprocity

The expectationthat helping others willincrease the likelihood that they willhelp us in the future.


Because of its survival value, such a norm of

reciprocity may have become genetically based.

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Learning Social Norms

Nobel laureate Herbert Simon (1990) :The best learners of a societys norms and

customs have a survival advantage, because

a culture learns things like which foods arepoisonous and how best to cooperate.

Consequently, the ability to learn social normshas become part of our genetic makeup.

In short, people are genetically programmed tolearn social norms, and one of these norms isaltruism.

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Social Exchange:

The Costs and Rewards of Helping

Social exchange theoryargues that much of what wedo (relationships with others) stems from thedesire to maximize our rewards and minimize

our costs.

The difference from evolutionary approaches is that social

exchange theory doesnt trace this desire back to our evolutionary

roots; nor does it assume that the desire is genetically based.

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Social Exchange:


Helping can be rewarding in a number of ways:

The norm of reciprocity can increase the likelihoodthat someone will help us in return(helping asinvestment).

Helping can relieve the personal distress of abystanderwhen they see another person suffer.

By helping others, we can alsogain socialapprovaland increased feelings of self-worth.


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Social Exchange:


The other side is that helping can be costly:

Physical danger

Pain

Embarrassment

Time

Basically, social exchange theory argues that true altruism,

in which people help even when doing so is costly tothemselves, does not exist.

People help when the benefits outweigh the costs.


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Empathy and Altruism:

THE PURE MOTIVE FOR HELPING

EmpathyThe ability to put oneself in the shoes of

another person and to experience events

and emotions (e.g., joy and sadness) theway that person experiences them.

Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis

The idea that when we feel empathy for a person,we will attempt to help that personpurelyforaltruistic reasons, regardless of what we haveto gain.

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3 Basic Motives

To sum up,

1. Helping is an instinctive reaction to promote thewelfare of those genetically similar to us (evolutionary

psychology).2. The rewards of helping often outweigh the costs, so

helping is in our self-interest (social exchange theory).

3. Under some conditions, powerful feelings of empathyand compassion for the victim prompt selfless giving(the empathy-altruism hypothesis).


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PERSONAL QUALITIES AND

PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR:

WHY DO SOME PEOPLE HELP

MORE THAN OTHERS?

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Individual Differences:

The Altruistic Personality

Altruistic Personality

The qualities that cause an individual to help

others in a wide variety of situations.

Surprisingly, studies of both children and adults indicate

that people with high scores on personality tests ofaltruism are not much more likely to help than thosewith lower scores.

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Individual Differences:

The Altruistic Personality

Individual differences in personality are notthe onlypredictors of how helpful someone will be.

We need to consider several other critical factors aswell, such as:

Situational pressures that are affecting people,

Their gender,

The culture in which they grew up,

Even their current mood

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Gender Differences in

Prosocial Behavior

Consider two scenarios:

In one, someone performs a dramatic, heroic act tofight the terrorists.

In the other, someone is involved in a long-termhelping relationship, such as assisting a disabledneighbor with chores around the house.

Are men or women more likely to help in each situation?

G d Diff i

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Gender Differences in

Prosocial Behavior

Consider two scenarios:

In one, someone performs a dramatic, heroic act to fight theterrorists.

In the other, someone is involved in a long-term helping

relationship, such as assisting a disabled neighbor with choresaround the house.

Are men or women more likely to help in each situation?


The answer is no.

Males are more likely to help in the first situation.

Females are more likely in the second.

(social norm difference)

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Cultural Differences in

Prosocial Behavior

In-Group

The group with which an individualidentifies as a member.

Out-Group

Any group with which an individual doesnot identify.

People in all cultures are more likely to help anyone theydefine as a member of their in-group than those theyperceive in out-groups.

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Prosocial Behavior

1. In manyinterdependentcultures, the needs ofin-group members are considered moreimportant than those ofout-groups, and

consequently, people in these cultures are morelikely to help in-group members than membersof individualistic cultures are.

2. However, because the line between us andthem is more firmly drawn in interdependentcultures, people in these cultures are lesslikely tohelp members of out-groups than people in

individualistic cultures are.

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Prosocial Behavior

A particular cultural value that strongly relates to prosocial

behavior is simpata.

Prominent in Spanish-speaking countries, simpatarefers to

a range of social and emotional traits, including being: Friendly

Polite

Good-natured Pleasant and

Helpful toward others

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The Effects of Mood on

Prosocial Behavior

Effects of Positive Moods:

Feel Good, Do Good

People are more likely to help others when theyare in a good mood for a number of reasons,including doing well on a test, receiving a gift,

thinking happy thoughts, and listening topleasant music.

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Prosocial Behavior

Being in a good mood can increase helping for

three reasons:

1. Good moods make us look on the bright sideof life.

A victim who might normally seem clumsy orannoying will, when we are feeling cheerful,

seem like a decent, needy person who is worthyof our help.

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Prosocial Behavior


three reasons:


2. Helping others can prolong our good mood.

Not helping when we know we should deflatesour good mood.

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Prosocial Behavior


three reasons:


2. Helping others can prolong our good mood.

3. Good moods increase self-attention.

This factor in turn makes us more likely tobehave according to our values and ideals, suchas altruism.

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Prosocial Behavior

Negative-State Relief:

Feel Bad, Do Good

One kind of bad mood clearly leads to anincrease in helpingfeelingguilty.

People often act on the idea that good deeds

cancel out bad deeds.E.g., if you just realized you had forgotten your

best friends birthday and you felt guilty about it.

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Prosocial Behavior


Feel Bad, Do Good

Sadnesscan also lead to an increase in helping,at least under certain conditions.

To the extent that helping is rewarding, it can

lift us out of the doldrums.

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Prosocial Behavior


Feel Bad, Do Good

Negative-State Relief Hypothesis

The idea that people help in order to alleviate

their own sadness and distress.

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Feel Bad, Do Good

It is an example of the social exchange theoryapproach to helping. People help someone

else with the goal ofhelping themselves. This is pretty obvious if we help in a way that

deals with the cause of our sadness.

However, when we feel blue, we are also morelikely to help in some totally unrelated way.

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Environment:

Rural versus Urban

Studies have found that people in small townsare more likely to help when asked to find a

lost child, give directions, and return a lost

letter.

Helping has been found to be more prevalent

in small towns in several countries.

Why?

Source of images: Microsoft Office Online.

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Environment:

Rural versus Urban

1. Perhaps people who grow up in a small town aremore likely to internalize altruistic values.

2. Alternatively, the immediate surroundings might be

the key and not people's internalized values.


Urban Overload Hypothesis

The theory that people living in cities are constantlybeing bombarded with stimulation and that theykeep to themselves to avoid being overwhelmed by it.

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Environment:

Rural versus Urban

According to urban overload hypothesis, if you put urbandwellers in a calmer, less stimulating environment, they

would be as likely as anyone else to reach out to others.


Field studies found thatpopulation density(the number ofpeopleper square mile)was more related to helpingthan population size was.The greater the density of

people, the less likely people were to help (since thereshould be more stimulation in a small area packed with alot of people than in a large area where the same numberof people are spread out).

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Residential Mobility

How often you have moved from one place toanother?

People who have lived for a long time in oneplace are more likely to engage in prosocialbehaviors that help the community.


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Residential Mobility

Living for a long time in one place leads to:

Greater attachment to the community,

More interdependence with neighbors, and Greater concern with one's reputation in the

community.

The Number of Bystanders:

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The Number of Bystanders:

The Bystander Effect

The greater the number of bystanders who witness anemergency, the less likely any one of them is tohelp the victim.

This is known as the bystander effect.

Bystander interventiondecision tree: Five steps tohelping in an emergency

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