Ch. 14 - Altruism and Cooperation

Victim Characteristics [Situational Determinants of Altruism]

**Some people are more likely to receive help than others when... -- People are more likely to help similar others --People are most likely to help when the victim is clear and the need is unambiguous (Bystanders help victims who scream and make their needs known more than twice as often as silent victims) -- but Even if we interpret an event as an emergency, we have to decide that it is our responsibility—not someone else's—to do something about it.

Understanding Bystander Effect makes it easier to overcome it STUDY

**Students were randomly assigned to watch a lecture on the bystander effect or an unrelated topic -- 2 weeks later, the same students encountered a staged emergency -- Heard bystander lecture: 43% helped -- Heard different lecture: 25% helped **Understanding barriers to prosocial behavior can make it easier to overcome them.

Baston et al, 1983 - Altruistic even when they can allevite their own feeling of distress by leaving the situation?

--*Easy-to-escape' condition*: Just have to 2 trials of shocking the conferdate , then free to leave -- *Difficult-to-escape' condition*: Must watch all 10 trials -- participants were surveyed about their feelings (to see if they emphasized with the victim) --Experimenter told participant he/she could take some of the confederate's shocks for him/her RESULTS: --Those who reported feeling personal distress behaved altruistically when escape was difficult, but left more quickly when escape was easy --Those who reported experiencing empathic concern (e.g., "I felt bad for her") tended to behave equally altruistically (i.e., took many shocks for the confederate) regardless of ease of escape

2 evolutionary explanations to explain why people act altruistically even if it might harm them

1. Kin Selection 2. Reciprocity

3 Motives for Altruistic Action

1. Social Reward 2. Personal Distress 3. Empathic Concern

5 factors that make the tit-for-tat strategy compelling

1. it is cooperative and encourages mutually supportive action towards a shared goal 2. not envious - no competitive behavior 3. not exploitable, if you defect it will defect on you 4. it is forgiving - it is willing to cooperate at the first cooperative action of the partner 5. it is easy to read and know what is going on - be nice and others will be nice to you

2 ways to activate bystander intervention

1. make your needs clear ("I need help!") - this eliminate pluraistic ignorance telling everyone that this is a real emergency 2. select a specific person - this prevents others from thinking someone else will help (reducing diffusion of responsibility)

4 Reasons why people in urban cities are less likely to help

1. stimulus overload 2. diversity hypothesis - you are more likely to help similar others and urban areas are made up of diverse peeps 3. greater diffusion of responsibility in urban areas - there are more people around 4. power of reputation in rural areas

OVERCOMING FACTORS THAT INHIBIT OUR ALTRUISTIC TENDENCIES how can we help

Even if it seems like we can't be effective, we usually can do something useful. • Advocate. Direct others who can help. • Provide moral support if YOU are the VICTIM: -- Make your need clear, emergency! no ambiguousness—"I've twisted my ankle and I can't walk; I need help" -- Select a specific person—"You there, in the blue shirt, can you help me?" **These 2 steps counteract the effects of pluralistic ignorance and diffusion of responsibility.

Truly SELFLESS actions should be done TOTALLY ANONYMOUS -If people can be made to help others for truly selfless reasons, they should not only help when they have other options for reducing personal distress: They should also help when doing so will be totally anonymous

Even when participants think that no one (e.g., the experimenter, confederates) will find out about their helping behavior, they still behave altruistically. Anonymous helping behavior is especially common when people are made to feel empathic concern (e.g., by vividly imagining how the person in need of help must feel). chimp example: Chimpanzees will help others even when there's no immediate benefit to themselves for doing so. Empathy and altruistic behavior appear to be evolutionarily old tendencies

Good Samaritan Study Power of the Situation and Helping

IV#1: Topic of the Talk -- Half of the subjects told they will give a talk on the parable of the Good Samaritan -- Half were told that they give a talk about job prospects for seminary students IV#2: In a Rush -- Some participants were made to think that they were running late to get to the talk; others thought they had plenty of time RESULTS: -- topic of the talk had no discernible effect on likelihood of helping --Participants usually helped the "victim" if they were not in a hurry, but rarely helped if they were in a rush. SIG: illustrates the power of the situation in shaping helping behavior

How can researchers document the fact that altruistic action can be motivated by empathic concern alone, independent of the desire for social rewards or to reduce personal distress?

Remove possibility of social reward (make behavior anonymous); provide ways to alleviate personal distress without helping (e.g., leaving the room).

Personal Distress seen EARLY IN LIFE / INFANTS example

The tendency to feel distress in response to the distress in others starts early in life: Even newborn infants cry if they hear a recording of other newborns crying. Notice that in this video, Baby Reagan cries and appears distressed whenever the doll starts crying, but her distress and crying subside when her doll stops showing signs of 'experiencing' distress. This early-arising tendency persists later in life. One way to reduce the distress we feel in response to the observed suffering of others is engaging in helping behavior to reduce their suffering. **we feel distressed when we see others in distress

Pluralistic Ignorance

We see others not acting and take that as information (assume it must not be an emergency) - thus we are less likely to help if we see no one is helping, they think the situation is not that bad. if the situation is bad, then evryone would help. thus this reinforces you to not help!

Vounteerism

assistance a person regularly provides to another person or group with no expectation of compensation (non-monetary assistance)

Bystander Intervention

assistance given by a witness to someone in need

Reputation

collective beliefs, evaluations, and impressions people hold about an individual within a social network

Kin Selection

evolutionary strategy that favors the reproductive success of one's genetic relatives, even at a cost to one's own survival and reproduction

Wesly Autrey

example of altruism he is risking his own life and his 2 daughter to save the lfe of a total strnager from a train

Lenny Skutinkn & Arland Williams

exaples of altruism lenny skutinkn - he jumped into the water to save a female survivor arlnad williams - he was the last 6ht person who got the surface. the helicopter kept giving him the rope but he kept giving the rope to other people. they cleary put other peopel's survival and life first even putting your life at stake.

Reciprocal Altruism

helping others with the expectation that they will probably return the favor in the future

3. Empathic Concern (Motives for Altruistic Action)

identifying with someone in need, including feeling and understanding what that person is experiencing, accompanied by the intention to help the person address the person's needs and thus enhance his or her welfare even at our own expense **this is a fast and intuitive response/SELFLESS

1. Social Reward (Motives for Altruistic Action)

motivation of being altruistic; being esteemed and valued by others, in the form of praise, an award, or acknowledgement in the mass media or social media (kinda selfish motive)

2. Personal Distress (Motives for Altruistic Action)

motive for helping others in distress that may arise from a need to reduce one's OWN distress the most direct way to alleviate our own personal distress is to reduce the distress of the other person, and helping behavior is one way to do it (kinda selfish motive)

Competitive Altruism (Social Reward motive)

people try to outdo one another in their altruistic acts all in service of being the most highly esteemed

Diffusion of Responsibility

reduction of the sense of urgency to help someone involved in an emergency or dangerous situation, based on the assumption that others who are present will help

Prisoner's dilemma

situation involving payoffs to two poeple, who must decide whether to cooperate or defect. in the end, trust and cooperation lead to higher joint payoffs than mistrust and defection

Tit-for-Tat Strategy

strategy in the prisoner's dilemma game in which the player's first move is cooperative; thereafter, the player mimics the other person's behavior, whether cooperative of competitive. this strategy fares well when interacting with other strategies you are act defection then you are punished with immediate defection

Bystander Effect on Altruism

the greater the number of bystanders who witness an emergency, the less likely any one of them is to help the victim. WHY does presence of other poeple inhibit altruistic behavior? 1. Diffusion of Responsibility 2. Pluralistic Ignorane

Altruism

unselfish behavior that benefits others without regard to consequences for oneself Scenarios involving people helping each other out are often ambiguous. difficult to determine if someone has acted out of pure altruism (empathic concern) or more selfish motives (social rewards and relieving personal distress).

Diffusion of Responsibility

we assume others have helped or will help we feel less bad for not helping if there are a lot of other people. we assume that someone else will do something. we feel responsbility when others are around