Prosocial Behavior
wealthy
This question cannot be easily answered on the basis of existing empirical research—which has been conducted almost exclusively in __________ countries such as the United States and Canada.
empathy-altruism vs. negative state relief (agreement)
- Empathy leads to increased helping - Empathy from observing distress also likely to elicit temporary sadness and despair - Helping is likely to dispel sadness and despair.
reciprocal altruism (Pearson)
- Robert Trivers; when there's a chance that the situation (typically with net cost) might be reversed later (tit-for-tat behavior) - benefit to receiver would have to be larger than cost to donor for this to hold up (e.g. social feeding among Vampire bats, regurgitate blood or else die) - evolutionary, gives advantage in the long-term
decomposed games
A task in which an individual chooses from multiple allocations of resources to distribute between him- or herself and another person. (500-100, 550-300, 330-330)
Test of Batson's Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis (Batson et al., 1981 1989)
3 experiments manipulating empathy and ease of escape from helping. 2 (hi v lo empathy) x 2 (easy vs difficult to escape) design. HYPOTHESES: Empathy high -> help regardless of ease of escape (altruistic) Empathy low -> help only when escape is difficult (egoistic) 1-3. Task performance under aversive conditions while being shocked. Watch series of trials where another student, Elaine, receive 10 trials of electric shocks and given a chance to help her by taking shocks themselves part way through. Escape Easy: Ps can leave after 2nd trial (if they continue observing), wouldn't have to watch rest Escape Difficult: Ps must stay for all trials (if they continue observing) DV: willingness to trade places w/victim after 2nd trial for remaining shocks Operationalization... 1: perceived similarity to victim manipulated on pre-test questionnaire 2: misattribution of emotion (unease/discomfort or warmth/sensitivity) to a pill's side effects (placebo of corn starch), given pill which is ostensibly taken for a study on effects on short-term memory, told to be observer in shock study as pill needs to kick in - LOW EMPATHY: told pill -> warmth/sensitivity similar to reading novel (allow attribute empathy to pill) - HIGH EMPATHY: told unease/discomfort is due to pill 3: the TRAIT of empathic concern measured (questionnaire) RESULTS: in all studies, empathy low much more sensitive to difficulty of escape (less help if easy to escape and low empathy, more help if difficult escape); help pretty high % if empathy high regardless of escape
prisoner's dilemma
A classic paradox in which two individuals must independently choose between defection (maximizing reward to the self) and cooperation (maximizing reward to the group).
common-pool resource
A collective product or service that is freely available to all individuals of a society, but is vulnerable to overuse and degradation.
agreeableness
A core personality trait that includes such dispositional characteristics as being sympathetic, generous, forgiving, and helpful, and behavioral tendencies toward harmonious social relations and likeability.
empathic concern
According to Batson's empathy-altruism hypothesis, observers who empathize with a person in need (that is, put themselves in the shoes of the victim and imagine how that person feels) will experience __________ ________ and have an altruistic motivation for helping.
conflicting
Batson argues that not the case that people are self-interested. Participant actually in conflict: help victim or help experimenter? They're in a hurry because somebody is depending on them somewhere else. It may be ___________ social motives rather than callousness.
cost (Pearson)
Being too busy and overworked can have social _____. We're less likely to help, for example. If we feel like others aren't being particularly helpful, they may well be overburdened or extra pressure. It's easy to attribute to personality rather than circumstances.
joy, guilt
But can these motivations (EA, NSR) interact in complex ways? - empathic ____: securing empathy-specific rewards, maybe I personally value empathy and derive joy from helping others (is this selfish or not)? - empathic _______: avoiding empathy-specific punishments, what if I feel for another person and then thinking about guilt if I don't help maybe because of empathy (is this egoistic?)
communal vs exchange relationships (Maner & Gailliot, 2007)
Caveats to empathy-altruism hypothesis. Exchange (acquiantance) and communal relationships (like friends). E-A seems to hold more for communal close relationships whereas egoistic motivations (NSR - negative-state relief) for exchange relationships.
motivations
Challenge in these experiments... how do we infer _____________ (e.g. egoistic vs. altruistic)?
young
Children as _______ as 2 years old show a variety of prosocial behaviors, such as sharing, helping, and comforting others, even when no reward is expected and they exhibit increased happiness.
empathy-altruism hypothesis
Dan Batson. Why would anybody be a layaway Santa? Why and when exhibit altruistic helping when there may be a net cost to us? He argues secret ingredient: empathic concern for somebody produces altruistic motive for helping. When people feel empathy for another, they will help for purely altruistic reasons regardless of what one has to gain.
egoistic vs. altruistic accounts (of prosocial behavior)
EGOISTIC Ultimate Goal: self-benefit Instrumental Goal to get to above: relief of other's distress ALTRUISTIC Ultimate Goal: Relief of other's distress Self-benefit is an incidental consequence.
between
Emphasizing group identity is not without its costs: although it can increase cooperation within groups, it can also undermine cooperation __________ groups.
empathy, cooperation
Feelings of _________ lead to greater levels of ____________. Research shows that even young children cooperate more when experiencing feelings of empathy.
kin
Future research should also explore whether the emotional benefits of prosocial spending are greatest when directed toward ____ and close others.
Study 2b (Aknin et al. 2013)
Included control and tested 3rd country and build relationship measure. PARTICIPANTS: 101 from Indian through Mechanical Turk IV: personal spending v. prosocial conditions DV: SHS, did it build relationships RESULTS: more positive affect after reflecting on prosocial spending, which led them to evaluate well-being and lives more positively
unsettling
Learning that person we helped didn't actually need our help can be __________. Pearson leave trash outside in preparation, and sometimes trash would be gone. Saw gentleman moving garbage down to dumpster. Thanked but looked confused. Said elderly woman used to live there.
punished
Participants seen as being uncooperative were ___________ harshly by their fellow participants.
Egotism vs. Altruism Study (Toi & Batson, 1982)
Participants, intro psych students asked to evaluate tapes on pilot programs "News from Personal Side" for college radio station. Told to adopt specific listening perspective because told that how people listen can influence reactions to broadcast material. (cover story). All participants hear a tape about student named Carol. Broke both legs in car accident and how it's been really hard to keep up with schoolwork in hospital confined to wheelchair, particularly worried about intro psych class and needs to drop if another student won't help her. Get envelope from professor at end of study "to student listening to Carol pilot tape"... would you be willing to meet with her and share notes? also handwritten plea from Carol describing same thing. IV1: mindset manipulation (half told to be as objective as possible, other half told to adopt the other person's perspective... empathy) IV2: ease-of-escape, participants get unexpected chance to help Carol by going over class notes with Carol which enable her to stay in course... half told Carol will NOT be returning to class and study from home, other half told Carol WILL be returning to class and she's in your section! low v high empathy condition, and yes or no to see Carol in class RESULTS: for those in low empathy condition, whether see Carol mattered a lot (75-30% help); for high empathy, didn't matter and helped at high rates in both (~80%)
empathy-altruism vs. negative state relief (disagreement)
Primary motivation: - Negative state relief: egoistic goal of mood management - Empathy-altruism hypothesis: altruistic goal of relieving other's distress
evolutionary, egoistic, altruistic
Psychologists have suggested that 1) ______________ forces may serve to predispose humans to help others, 2) _________ concerns may determine if and when help will be given, and 3) selfless, ________ motives may also promote helping in some cases.
cooperate
Rational self-interest would predict 100% defection in cooperative tasks; instead, there is a surprising tendency to ___________ in the prisoner's dilemma and similar tasks.
pluralistic ignorance
Relying on the actions of others to define an ambiguous need situation and to then erroneously conclude that no help or intervention is necessary.
negative state relief hypothesis
Robert Cialdini; like "child in Africa ad"; describes an egoistic motivation in which feel bad and make self feel better by e.g. giving money
exchange, empathic
Social ________ came into play for low empathy condition. When empathy is high, the ultimate goal isn't satisfied if don't help... the crucial mediator is _________ concern.
prosocial behavior
Social behavior that benefits another person.
Good Samaritan Study (Darley & Batson, 1973)
Sometimes, we help when it's easy to do so. RQ: Are situational or personality factors more important in determining prosocial behavior? PARTICIPANTS: Princeton seminary students METHODS: asked to participate in study on religious education Part 1: personality questionnaire Part 2: Report across campus to give talk on either vocational training or parable of Good Samaritan (IV1) (IV2) Told running late or not High-hurry condition: "Oh you're late. They were expecting you a few minutes ago." Intermediate-hurry condition: "The assistant is ready for you, so please go right over." Low-hurry condition: "It'll be a few minutes before they're ready for you, but you might as well head on over." As going to next building, you're walking through alleyway so see person who looks like they're in trouble. Slumped in doorway. If you try to step by, they cough twice and groans. DV: who and how helps? RESULTS: 60-40-10% who helped from low hurry to high hurry; the subject of the talk didn't predict helping behavior; personality factors also didn't predict helping behavior
emotional
Taken together, the present studies provide the first evidence for a possible psychological universal: human beings around the world experience __________ rewards from using their financial resources to benefit others.
empathy
The ability to vicariously experience the emotions of another person.
cooperation
The coordination of multiple partners toward a common goal that will benefit everyone involved.
bystander intervention
The phenomenon whereby people intervene to help others in need even if the other is a complete stranger and the intervention puts the helper at risk.
rational self-interest
The principle that people will make logical decisions based on maximizing their own gains and benefits.
define, responsibility, costs
To answer the question regarding when people help, researchers have focused on: 1. how bystanders come to ________ emergencies, 2. when they decide to take ______________ for helping, and 3. how the ______ and benefits of intervening affect their decisions of whether to help.
interindividual-intergroup discontinuity
The tendency for relations between groups to be less cooperative than relations between individuals.
consistent, care
There has been a lot of research on empathy and link to altruism. Pretty ____________ support for empathy-altruism hypothesis. Dan Batson wins the "literature war." E-A is stronger winner here. Empathy does seem to be unique ingredient, where seems to explain behavior in scenarios where self-benefit is unclear or cast out. (i.e. Sometimes we do genuinely ____ for others including strangers and are capable of acting unselfishly on their behalf.)
actions, reputation
Trusting others, however, depends on their ________ and ____________.
Christmas phenomenon
Walmart allows customers to pay off gifts over time, aka putting on layaway. Every year, people pay off others layaway bills, often anonymously.
help
When and why do we _____ others, especially strangers?
psychological altruism
behavior stemming from a prosocial motive with the ultimate goal to benefit another; altruism refers to people's motivation not the consequence of the actions
competitive orientation
people who seek to undermine others in order to get ahead
egoistic motive (cynical view)
egoistic motive to not help or help another person out of self-interest
egoistic vs. altruistic helping
other's distress -> emotion (personal distress) -> motive (egoistic or altruistic) -> ultimate goal (reduce personal distress, reduce other's distress)
helping
prosocial acts in dyadic situations in which one person is in need and another provides the necessary assistance to eliminate the other's need; Prosocial acts that typically involve situations in which one person is in need and another provides the necessary assistance to eliminate the other's need.
social trust
the belief that another person's actions will be beneficial to one's own interests, which enables people to work together as a single unit to accomplish more than they could individually
social loafing
the way that one person expends less effort but still benefits from the efforts of the group
prosocial view (altruistic motive)
they help others for sake of helping
accessibility universals
universals that appear everywhere with little or no cultural variation
functional universals
universals which are potentially detectable in all cultures but that may vary in degree of expression according to cultural context
social exchange theory
when the benefits of helping someone outweigh the costs, people will help (net benefit) to explain egoistic/selfish account
free rider problem
A situation in which one or more individuals benefit from a common-pool resource without paying their share of the cost.
outgroups
A social category or group with which an individual does not identify.
helpfulness
A component of the prosocial personality orientation; describes individuals who have been helpful in the past and, because they believe they can be effective with the help they give, are more likely to be helpful in the future.
cost-benefit analysis
A decision-making process that compares the cost of an action or thing against the expected benefit to help determine the best course of action.
altruism (cooperation chp)
A desire to improve the welfare of another person, at a potential cost to the self and without any expectation of reward.
social identity
A person's sense of who they are, based on their group membership(s).
personal distress
According to Batson's empathy-altruism hypothesis, observers who take a detached view of a person in need will experience feelings of being "worried" and "upset" and will have an egoistic motivation for helping to relieve that distress.
reciprocal altruism
According to evolutionary psychology, a genetic predisposition for people to help those who have previously helped them.
kin selection
According to evolutionary psychology, the favoritism shown for helping our blood relatives, with the goals of increasing the likelihood that some portion of our DNA will be passed on to future generations.
generations
According to evolutionary psychology, we are helpful in ways that increase the chances that our DNA will be passed along to future ______________.
cost
Because egoistically motivated individuals are primarily concerned with their own cost-benefit outcomes, they are less likely to help if they think they can escape the situation with no costs to themselves. In contrast, altruistically motivated helpers are willing to accept the _____ of helping to benefit a person with whom they have empathized—this "self-sacrificial" approach to helping is the hallmark of altruism.
evolutionary
Cooperation, it seems, is embedded in our _____________ heritage.
Study 1 (Aknin et al. 2013)
Correlational analyses to demonstrate a relationship between prosocial spending and well-being across 136 countries that spanned a wide range of income levels. Sample represents over 95% of the world's adult population (15+). 30-60 minute interview, with questions back-translated. Measured: prosocial spending (PS), SWB (using average of Cantril ladder and life satisfaction), income and demographics RESULTS: positive relationship between PS and SWB in 120/136 countries, reaching .05 significance in 59% of 120, PS higher in wealthier countries but PS/SWB relationship unrelated to rates of donation or to countries' average income... universal? Once accounting for power, estimate of PS is significantly positive in 20
Study 3 (Aknin et al. 2013)
Didn't interact with recipient of gift. Purchase material item to rule out effect of experiential purchasing. IV: buy goody bag for self (personal spending) or for sick child (prosocial spending) PARTICIPANTS: 207 students in Canada and South Africa PROCEDURE: marked purchase or cash voucher and then filled out questionnaire RESULTS: higher positive affect when choose gift for someone else than self even tho had no contact with recipient; (no control so possible that personal decrease and prosocial stable)
world
Examining over 200,000 respondents drawn from 136 countries in Study 1, we found that prosocial spending is linked to higher SWB around the _______. The warm glow of giving is a functional universal.
Henrich et al. (2001)
Found that 15 small-scale societies donate an almost identical amount % of money to their partners as compared to Western cultures in the ultimatum game. However, there was significant variation between cultures in terms of their level of cooperation which correlated with the %.
prosocial spending
Human beings around the world derive emotional benefits from using their financial resources to help others. Operationalized as giving money to others in this study. Narrowed to emotional consequences of purchasing material items for unknown participants without social praise in Study 3.
conscience
Once people make a specific promise to cooperate, they are driven by "that still, small voice"—the voice of their own inner ___________—to fulfill that commitment (Kerr et al., 1997).
benefit
People often act to _________ other people, and these acts are examples of prosocial behavior.
life
Removal from mainstream education settings for discipline problems denies children opportunities to learn and thus predicts major negative _____ outcomes such as adult unemployment and incarceration.
Cantril ladder
Require respondents to imagine a ladder with 11 steps (from 0, worst possible life, to 10, best possible life) and report which step best represents their life.
subjective well-being
SWB or used interchangeably with happiness. Has both affective and cognitive components.
cooperative, individualistic, competitive
Three categories of SVO.
WEIRD
Thus, if scholars wish to draw conclusions about the role of generosity in human nature, it is essential to sample far more widely than standard ________ samples.
size, specific
We anticipated that prosocial spending would be related to happiness across diverse cultures but that both the _____ of this relationship and the _________ manifestations of prosocial spending would vary across cultures. (functional universal).
diffusion of responsibility
When deciding whether to help a person in need, knowing that there are others who could also provide assistance relieves bystanders of some measure of personal responsibility, reducing the likelihood that bystanders will intervene.
personal, group
Whether framed as a monetary game or a prison game, the prisoner's dilemma illuminates a conflict at the core of many decisions to cooperate: it pits the motivation to maximize __________ reward against the motivation to maximize gains for the _______ (you and your partner combined).
strength
While the relationship between prosocial spending and SWB was positive in economically and culturally diverse areas of the world, it also varied in __________ in different cultural contexts, consistent with our hypothesis that this relationship represents a functional (as opposed to an accessibility) universal.
individualistic orientation
certain types of people who are less concerned about the outcomes of others
psychological universals
core mental attributes shared by humans everywhere
cooperative orientation
people who want to bring about positive outcomes for all
other-oriented empathy
A component of the prosocial personality orientation; describes individuals who have a strong sense of social responsibility, empathize with and feel emotionally tied to those in need, understand the problems the victim is experiencing, and have a heightened sense of moral obligations to be helpful.
commons dilemma game
A game in which members of a group must balance their desire for personal gain against the deterioration and possible collapse of a resource.
prosocial personality orientation
A measure of individual differences that identifies two sets of personality characteristics (other-oriented empathy, helpfulness) that are highly correlated with prosocial behavior.
altruism
A motivation for helping that has the improvement of another's welfare as its ultimate goal, with no expectation of any benefits for the helper.
egoism
A motivation for helping that has the improvement of the helper's own circumstances as its primary goal.
abandon
Although empathizing with a partner can lead to more cooperation between two people, it can also undercut cooperation within larger groups. In groups, empathizing with a single person can lead people to _________ cooperation in favor of helping only the target individual.
ultimatum game
An economic game in which a proposer (Player A) can offer a subset of resources to a responder (Player B), who can then either accept or reject the given proposal.
negative state relief model
An egoistic theory proposed by Cialdini et al. (1982) that claims that people have learned through socialization that helping can serve as a secondary reinforcement that will relieve negative moods such as sadness.
arousal: cost-reward model
An egoistic theory proposed by Piliavin et al. (1981) that claims that seeing a person in need leads to the arousal of unpleasant feelings, and observers are motivated to eliminate that aversive state, often by helping the victim. A cost-reward analysis may lead observers to react in ways other than offering direct assistance, including indirect help, reinterpretation of the situation, or fleeing the scene.
Experiment 3 (Okonofua et al. 2016)
Builds on Experiments 1 and 2 in a longitudinal randomized placebo-controlled field experiment. PARTICIPANTS: 31 math teachers at 5 schools across 3 districts and their 1682 students IV: receive two modules of training (2 months apart) vs. control; students complete survey on school climate (focus on item about perceived respect) DV: students' year-long suspension rates RESULTS: half as likely to be suspended consistent when control across different groups, previously suspended students thought their teachers were less respectful which was eliminated by intervention
relationships
Consistent with this hypothesis, the quality of students' ______________ with teachers is one of the strongest predictors of classroom behavior, especially important in adolescence.
punishment
Contemporaneously, a dominant approach to misbehavior, which prioritizes _______________ over remediation, has emerged in US schooling. (e.g. zero-tolerance policies)
personality, gender, traits, characteristics
Do you know someone who always seems to be ready, willing, and able to help? Do you know someone who never helps out? It seems there are _______________ and individual differences in the helpfulness of others. To answer the question of who chooses to help, researchers have examined 1) the role that sex and ________ play in helping, 2) what personality ______ are associated with helping, and 3) the _____________ of the "prosocial personality."
tripled
However, in the United States, the number of students suspended for misbehavior nearly _________ from 1.7 million in 1974 to more than 5 million in 2011 (3.7-11% of all students).
low, rewards
If the needed help is of relatively _____ cost in terms of time, money, resources, or risk, then help is more likely to be given. The potential ________ of helping someone will also enter into the equation, perhaps offsetting the cost of helping.
happier
North American students who were randomly assigned to spend a small windfall on others were significantly _________ at the end of the day than those assigned to spend money on themselves, even when controlling for income. Does this extend beyond North American samples?
emphasized
Research shows that when people's group identity is ____________, they are less likely to act selfishly in a commons dilemma game.
Study 2a (Aknin et al. 2013)
Randomly assigned participants in Canada and Uganda to write about a time where they engaged in personal spending or prosocial spending. Assessed happiness afterwards and coded responses for specific form that purchases had taken. PARTICIPANTS: students and some adults (820) PROCEDURE: approached and randomly assigned to personal or prosocial spending condition, report future happiness on 4-item SHS RESULTS: happier when made purchase for someone else than self in Canada and Uganda and not just because build relationship 2x more likely in Uganda to recall necessary self-purchase than Canada, 15% in Uganda recall other-purchases bc negative event compared to almost none in Canada
emergencies, everyday
There is an extensive body of research showing the negative impact of pluralistic ignorance and diffusion of responsibility on helping (Fisher et al., 2011), in both ___________ and _________ need situations.
agents, stories, connect
This representation of the first module in experiment 3 and interactive elements draws on other successful social-psychological interventions. Teachers were treated as experts and ________ of positive change for others, not as recipients of remediation. They were exposed to powerful _________ on which they elaborated in guided writing exercises, allowing them to take ownership of the intervention message, to __________ it to their own practice, and to advocate for it to others
part
Thus, while prosocial spending may enhance well-being in ______ by fostering social relationships, the benefits of prosocial spending are unlikely to be explained entirely by the well-known link between social relationships and SWB.
equivalent, different
To be very clear, the general level of helpfulness may be pretty much ____________ between the sexes, but men and women help in __________ ways (Becker & Eagly, 2004; Eagly & Crowley, 1986).
empathic mindset (to discipline)
Valuing students' perspectives and sustaining positive relationships while encouraging better behavior. Understanding students' experiences and negative feelings that give rise to misbehavior.
optimistic
Viewers are overly ____________ in their beliefs that they would play the hero.
shaped, bound
When members of a group place a high value on their group membership, their identity (the way they view themselves) can be ________ in part by the goals and values of that group. When people strongly identify with a group, their own well-being becomes _______ to the welfare of that group, increasing their willingness to make personal sacrifices for its benefit.
faith
Working with others toward a common goal requires a level of _____ that our partners will repay our hard work and generosity, and not take advantage of us for their own selfish gains.
effectively, willingness
Yet, cooperation can also be difficult to achieve; there are often breakdowns in people's ability to work _____________ in teams, or in their _____________ to collaborate with others.
Culture
_______ can have a powerful effect on people's beliefs about and ways they interact with others.
empathy-altruism model
An altruistic theory proposed by Batson (2011) that claims that people who put themselves in the shoes of a victim and imagining how the victim feel will experience empathic concern that evokes an altruistic motivation for helping.
social value orientation (SVO)
An assessment of how an individual prefers to allocate resources between him- or herself and another person.
whole, larger
As is frequent in these types of scenarios, even though cooperation may benefit the _______ group, individuals are often able to earn even _______, personal rewards by defecting— as demonstrated in the prisoner's dilemma example above.
income
Cross-cultural research has shown that the within-country correlation between how much money individuals make and their happiness varies according to a country's average ________ (e.g., Deaton, 2008; Diener & Biswas-Diener, 2002). This suggests that the link between how individuals spend that money and their happiness might also differ between poor and wealthy countries
roles
Despite the presence of many spectators, the yellow-jacketed Boston marathon officials immediately rushed to give aid and comfort to the victims of the blast. Each one no doubt felt a personal responsibility to help by virtue of their official capacity in the event; fulfilling the obligations of their ______ overrode the influence of the diffusion of responsibility effect.
respect, follow
Much research shows that feeling _________ for and being respected by authority figures can motivate people to ________ rules enforced by those figures, especially in conflicts
Experiment 2 (Okonofua et al. 2016)
PARTICIPANTS: 302 college students METHOD: imagine they are MS students who disrupted class by repeatedly walking to throw away trash IV: punitive-discipline condition or empathic-discipline condition DV: respect they would have for teacher (6-item scale), motivation they have to behave well in future (2-item scale) RESULTS: respect teacher more in empathic-mindset and greater motivation to behave well in future
Experiment 1 (Okonofua et al. 2016)
Participants: 39 K-12 teachers IV: empathic- or punitive-mindset condition Method: reviewed 3 incidents of minor misbehavior DV: described how they would discipline student and likelihood they would consider the student a troublemaker (1-7) RESULTS: less punitive and more empathic in empathic-mindset condition, less likely to label troublemaker
looking
To define ambiguous situations (including many emergencies), potential helpers may look to the action of others to decide what should be done. But those others are looking around too, also trying to figure out what to do. Everyone is _________, but no one is acting!
Physical, socialization
Two factors for gender differences: 1. _____________ differences between men and women 2. The second explanation is simple ______________.
negative state relief model, arousal: cost-reward model
Two major theories explaining what types of reinforcement helpers motivated egoistically may be seeking. Helpers help to the extent that it makes them feel better.
state of vulnerability
When a person places him or herself in a position in which he or she might be exploited or harmed. This is often done out of trust that others will not exploit the vulnerability.
