Chapter 12: Helping

Elevation

"a distinctive feeling in the chest of warmth and expansion" that may provoke chills, tears, and throat clenching. Such elevation often inspires people to become more self-giving.

Empathy-induced altruism

* produces sensitive helping * inhibits aggression * increases cooperation * improves attitudes toward stigmatized groups Liabilities: * It can be harmful: People who risk their lives on behalf of others sometimes lose them. People who seek to do good can also do harm, sometimes by unintentionally humiliating or demotivating the recipient. *it can't address all needs: It's easier to feel empathy for a needy individual than, say, for Mother Earth *it burns out: Feeling others' pain is painful, which may cause us to avoid situations that evoke our empathy, or to experience "burnout" or "compassion fatigue. *It can feed favoritism, injustice, and indifference to the larger common good (narrow circle of concern): When their empathy for someone is aroused, people will violate their own standards of fairness and justice by giving that person favored treatment

When will we help?

- when there are few bystanders * Even children as young as 5 are less likely to help when other children are present *any given bystander is less likely to NOTICE the incident, less likely to INTERPRET the incident as a problem or an emergency, and less likely to ASSUME RESPONSIBILITY for taking action - when we observe someone else helping - when we are not in a hurry - when the person needing help is similar to us *familiarity breeds compassion * The rule seems to be: When norms for appropriate behavior are well-defined, Whites don't discriminate; when norms are ambiguous or conflicting and providing help is more difficult or riskier, racial similarity may bias responses

Theories of Altruism

-Each proposes two types of prosocial behavior: a tit-for-tat reciprocal exchange and a more unconditional helpfulness

Evolutionary Psychology and Helping

-Overcoming selfishness: kin selection, direct reciprocity, indirect reciprocity, group selection -Genetic egoism (at the biological level) fosters parental altruism (at the psychological level). -genetic relatedness predicts helping and that genetically identical twins are noticeably more mutually supportive than fraternal twins -We feel more empathy for a distressed or tortured person in our ingroup, and even Schadenfreude (secret pleasure at another's misfortune) for rival or outgroup member -Reciprocity works best in small, isolated groups in which one will often see the people for whom one does favors. -Group selection: groups of mutually supportive altruists outlast groups of non-altruists (bees and ants).

gender and receiving help

-Women offer help equally to males and females -Men offer more help when the persons in need are women (+more attractive) -Women also seek more help

Who will help?

1) Personality traits -individual differences in helpfulness and shown that those differences persist over time and are noticed by one's peers -Network of traits to predispose to helpfulness: high in positive emotionality, empathy, and self-efficacy. -Overall agreeableness best predicts helpfulness -Personal influences influence reaction to a situation: high in self-monitoring will help if will be socially rewarding 2) Status -less privileged people were more generous, trusting, and helpful than more privileged people, likely because they felt more compassion for others and felt less entitled to special treatment 3) gender -Potentially dangerous situations--> men more often help. -Safer situations (volunteering)--> women are slightly more likely to help -Women are more likely to describe themselves as helpful -Women are more likely to risk death helping (Holocaust rescuers, Peace Corps, etc.) -Women tend to be more generous 4) religious faith -"Religion" primes helpfulness toward ingroup members and "God" toward outgroup members -Correlation between faith and volunteering -prosocial effect of religiosity was strongest "in countries in which religious behavior is a matter of personal choice" rather than imposed by strong social norms

socializing altruism

1) Teaching moral inclusion -Moral inclusion: regarding others as within one's circle of moral concern -to counter the natural ingroup bias favoring kin and tribe by personalizing and broadening the range of people whose well-being should concern us. 2) Modeling altruism 3) Learning by doing 4) Attributing helpful behavior to altruistic motives 5) Learning about altruism

How can we increase helping?

1) Undo the restraints on helping: *reduce ambiguity and increase responsibility -anything that personalizes bystanders—a personal request, eye contact, stating one's name, anticipating interaction—increases willingness to help. -circumstances that promote self-awareness—name tags, being watched and evaluated, undistracted quiet—should also increase helping. *Personalized appeals *make people feel guilty 2) Socialize altruism *define positive norms *attend altruism lectures *prosocial media

psychic numbing

A self-protective psychological response to horrific death that causes individuals to become temporarily insensitive and unfeeling.

dynamic norm vs static norm

Dynamic: norms that are favorably changing-->"30 % of people have begun eating less meat in the last five years Static norm--> 30% trying to eat less meat

Social Exchange and Social Norms

We help to 1) Increase positive emotions-->do-good/feel-good effect 2) Reduce Negative Emotion -the most arousal in response to another's distress also gave the most help to the person. 3) Guilt -Our eagerness to do good after doing bad reflects our need to reduce private guilt and restore a shaken self-image. It also reflects our desire to reclaim a positive public image. EXCEPTIONS to feel-bad/do-good scenario: anger, profound grief 4) Why feel-bad & feel-good both lead to do-good? -Helping softens a bad mood and sustains a good mood. -A positive mood is, in turn, conducive to positive thoughts and positive self-esteem, which predispose us to positive behavior

altruism

a motive to increase another's welfare without conscious regard for one's self-interests

social-responsibility norm

an expectation that people will help those needing their help/dependent on them -Responses are thus closely tied to attributions. If we attribute the need to an uncontrollable predicament, we help. If we attribute the need to the person's choices, fairness does not require us to help; we say it's the person's own fault

reciprocity norm

an expectation that people will help, not hurt, those who have helped them -The norm operates most effectively as people respond publicly to deeds earlier done to them. -When people cannot reciprocate, they may feel threatened and demeaned by accepting aid. Thus, proud, high-self-esteem people are often reluctant to seek help

do-good/feel-good effect

people who help others feel better about themselves

bystander effect

the finding that a person is less likely to provide help when there are other bystanders

kin selection

the idea that evolution has selected altruism toward one's close relatives to enhance the survival of mutually shared genes

social capital

the mutual support and cooperation enabled by a social network -the supportive connections, information flow, trust, and cooperative actions

moral exclusion

the perception of certain individuals or groups as outside the boundary within which one applies moral values and rules of fairness. Moral inclusion is regarding others as within one's circle of moral concern

overjustification effect

the result of bribing people to do what they already like doing; they may then see their actions as externally controlled rather than intrinsically appealing

social exchange theory

the theory that human interactions are transactions that aim to maximize one's rewards and minimize one's costs

empathy

the vicarious experience of another's feelings; putting oneself in another's shoes

Why do we help? (Summary)

• Three theories explain helping behavior: - The social - exchange theory assumes that helping, like other social behaviors, is motivated by a desire to maximize rewards, which may be external or internal.Thus, after wrongdoing, people often become more willing to offer help. Finally, there is a striking feel-good/ do-good effect: Happy people are helpful people. -Social norms also mandate helping. The reciprocity norm stimulates us to help those who have helped us. The social-responsibility norm beckons us to help needy people, even if they cannot reciprocate, as long as they are deserving. Women in crisis, partly because they may be seen as more needy, receive more offers of help than men, especially from men. • Evolutionary psychology assumes two types of helping: devotion to kin and reciprocity. Most evolutionary psychologists, however, believe that the genes of selfish individuals are more likely to survive than the genes of self-sacrificing individuals. Thus, selfishness is our natural tendency and society must therefore teach helping. -Genuine altruism