chapter 9

A repeated measures study

Each participant in this study was measured or observed twice (in general 2 or more times). Immediately 2-weeks later

People differ in the degree to which they habitually experience empathy and personal distress.

(Narcissists would experience neither) These reactions affect helping behavior.

Willingness to help depends on the perceived morality of those in need.

(Weiner et al., 2011)

Egoistic Helping

(in exchange for something in return. To increase one's own welfare) and

Altruistic Helping

(just to increase another's welfare, while expecting nothing in return)

Moral Motives

-Generativity -Self-interest -Moral integrity -Moral Hypocrisy

Factors used to explain the By-stander effect

1. Diffusion of Responsibility 2. Audience Inhibition effect Fear of social blunder We do not want to lose our cool or look foolish in front of others. So, we engage in calm Social Comparison Everyone is doing the same, so situation is defined as non-emergency.

Five-Step Model

1. Notice something happening 2. Interpret situation as one where help is needed (The Audience Inhibition Effect working through Pluralistic Ignorance here. (See next slide) 3. Assume responsibility (Diffusion of Responsibility is at work here.) 4. Know and Decide on course of action 5. Take action If any step does not happen, help will not follow.

Save the Children example

A charity in which each donor gets one or two specific children to sponsor or "support". The kids write letters of thanks and share stories and send photos. All monies go to the community for schools or infrastructure, not the children. The donor feels they have made a difference and they feel appreciated. Feedback enhances the joy of helping.

II. Theoretical Explanations for Prosocial Behavior (overview)

A. Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis pure desire to help (1981). B. Negative State Relief Model selfish desire to make self feel better (1981). C. Empathic Joy Hypothesis motivated by the positive feeling one gets. D. Competitive Altruism to gain status. E. Genetic Determinism Model we help others who are genetically similar to ourselves to preserve our gene pool. This is a sociobiological explanation.

A. Situational factors

Attraction Mood (caused by cookies, dime in a phone booth) Similarity (new mothers, pregnant, never pregnant) (Business suit, no suit: video below) Attribution of Responsibility(alcohol, drugs) Prosocial Role Models Perceived Cost of Helping (blood, being in a hurry) Scent (works through mood) Prosocial vs. aggressive video games (slide)

Two kinds of helping:

Egoistic Helping & altruistic helping

Two important emotional reactions to emergencies:

Empathy (sharing the feelings of a victim) Personal distress (feeling anxiety when seeing the victim's plight)

Empathy-Altruism HypothesisBatson, Duncan, Ackerman, Buckley & Birch, 198

Empathy is the capacity to experience others' emotional states vicariously. Thus we want to bring their negative feelings to an end. Altruism is doing something for someone else with NO thought of reward. Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis says some prosocial behavior is motivated solely by desire to help someone who is in need.

low social class individuals

Express more concern for welfare of others Are more trusting (Piff et al., 2010) Give higher percentages of their income to charity (Greve, 2009 and James and Sharpe, 2007) The rich get richer and the poor get poorer

Conservatives more likely to:

Endorse the norm of social justice* (help the deserving) Make dispositional attributions blaming victims for their plight Provide less help to others

Liberals more likely to:

Endorse the norm of social responsibility* (help anyone who needs it) Make situational attributions, blame the situation Provide more help to others *Help in situations that are not immediately life-threatening, p.343

Generativity

Generativity is an adult's concern for and commitment to the well-being of future generations. (Erikson's 7th stage (30 to 60) compared to stagnation.

D. Competitive Altruism

Here, help such as a big donation, is often made in order to gain status. Endow a chair, a building, an entire school. UM names Business school University of Miami Patti and Allen Herbert Business School ( $100 million dollars in giving) Oct 15, 2019

The Bystander effect is strongest:

If the situation is ambiguous If the bystanders are anonymous strangers whom you are unlikely to meet again. Effect does not occur as much with friends or with strangers whom you believe you will meet again. Does not occur among trained helpers like police, lifeguards, doctors, first aiders

Why is Empathy declining among U.S. College students. (Konrath et Al. 2011, meta-analysis of 72 samples of 14,000 U.S. students from 1979 to 2009) empathy -alturism hypothesis

Increasing exposure to violence in the mass media. Schools still emphasizing unearned self-esteem. Feel good about yourself no matter what.(1999) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTfwH_DYWUo Reality T.V. message "Do anything to win" Social Media reduces face-to-face interactions. The "look at me" generation.

Victim expressed gratitude increases future prosocial action by helper, but why?

It Add to self-efficacy of the helper I feel capable It Adds to self-worth of helper I feel valuable Also, when helped individual recognizes and is thankful for help they received, it might also put the helper in a better mood.

Genetic Determinism Model

Kin Selection Theory: A key "goal" of all organisms, including us, is getting our genes into the next generation: one way is by helping others who share our genes. (Cialdini, Brown, Lewis, Luce, & Neuberg, 1997) You do not need to have a child to pass on most of your genes. Family and even neighbors often share many genes.

The Bystander Effect

Kitty Genovese March 13, 1964 See revised story in our book Darley and Latane, 1968 Participants interacting by intercom, A "participant/confederate" has audible seizure Researchers record who helps and how long it takes. See graph on next slide _ Latane & Darley, 1968 smoke filled room

B. Negative-State Relief Model

Maybe prosocial behavior is motivated by a desire to reduce own negative emotional state. We get a Negative Reinforcement. If you're feeling bad, help someone else. Empathy is not needed, unhappiness about anything could motivate prosocial behavior.

Greitemeyer & Mugge, 2014

Meta analysis of 98 studies involving 37,000 participants found that playing video games that encourage prosocial activities increased the likelihood that participants will engage in prosocial activities in everyday lives.

When given the option to decide who gets what or use the coin to decide, most chose to use the coin, but apparently ignored the results, thus demonstrating

Moral Hypocrisy.

C. Empathic Joy Hypothesis Smith Keating & Stotland, 1989

Or maybe we help because it feels good when we do. We get a positive reinforcement. If this is true, helper must find out about the positive impact they've had. Experiment in which female student (similar/dissimilar) might drop out of college because she felt isolated. Participants were helpful only if High Empathy (similar) and told they would receive feedback about their impact.

Greitmeyer & Osswald, 2010 Video games

Participants (age 19 to 43) randomly assigned to play one of 3 video games for 8 min., then experimenter spilled cup of pencils. DV was whether participants helped her or not. IV was video game they played. Prosocial game (Lemmings) 57% helped Neutral game (Tetris) 33% helped Aggressive game (Lamers) 28% helped A true experiment. Causal inference was possible.

The Altruistic Personality consists of the following 5 traits

Self-concept that includes Empathy Belief in Just World everybody gets what they deserve (karma) High in Social Responsibility/sense of duty Internal Locus of Control, Julien Rotter, 1966 low in Egocentricism

Authoritarianism vs. Altruism

Some evidence suggests these are strongly and negatively correlated. Defined in 1950 as traits that cluster together as a result of childhood experiences: conventionalism, authoritarian submission, authoritarian aggression, anti-intellectualism, anti-intraception, superstition and stereotypy, power and toughness, destructiveness and cynicism, projectivity, and exaggerated concern over sex. (Much debate about this.) 1998 Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA):Submission to authority, aggression towards sanctioned minorities, adherence to values and beliefs of the authority figure, Low openness to new experiences.

Norm of social responsibility -indiv & coll

Stronger for ingroup members in collectivist societies than individualist societies Weaker for outgroup members in collectivist societies than individualist societies

Pluralistic Ignorance

The tendency to think that everyone else is interpreting a situation in a certain way, when they are not. Fear of social blunder leads to Social Comparison, leads, through pluralistic ignorance, to an Audience Inhibition Effect

Batson et al. 1997

Undergraduate students were presented with a moral dilemma: Give either (the boring task) or (the chance to win a raffle ticket) to themselves or to another participant. 90% agreed they should take the boring task But 70-80% actually did the opposite. A 1999 study introduced the coin toss option.

9.3. Deciding Whom to Help

Victim Responsibility Blaming the victim (Trump and bomb at CNN. Fake news caused it) (Trump and the Pittsburgh synagogue. Should have had protection inside.) (Trump and Puerto Rico they've mismanaged their economy)This week some conservatives are trying to blame Paul and Nancy Pelosi for the egregious attack on Mr. Pelosi. Prior Commitment (Moriarity, 1970) Beach blanket study Neighborhood watch

Prosocial Behavior

Voluntary behavior that is carried out to benefit others. From Franzoi We used to say "any positive social action such as mowing your lawn or voting". Helping in an emergency would be a subset of prosocial behavior. It is even a subset of helping in general.

Norm of reciprocity

We should help those who help us.

Norm of social justice

We should only help those who deserve help.

Helping when help is needed

a specific type of prosocial behavior that involves giving some type of aid or assistance to someone in need of such

Increasing Prosocial Behavior Social rewards

are more effective reinforcers than material rewards. Reinforcement influences adults as well as children. - Thanks are a form of reinforcement. - Thanks appear to increase self-efficacy. Lots of Gratitude research

Moral Integrity

is the motivation to be moral and to actually engage in moral behavior. Kohlberg's Conventional and Post Conventional Morality (stages 2 & 3).

Self-interest (stagnation)

is the motivation to engage in whatever behavior provides the greatest satisfaction.

people in __________________help more than people in individualist societies and appear to enjoy it more.

collectivist societies

Liberal ideology emphasizes

egalitarianism.

Helping others can also directly impact well-being in terms of generating higher degrees of peer acceptance (popularity) which is associated with

happiness.

Moral Hypocrisy

is the motivation to appear moral while doing one's best to avoid the costs involved with actually being moral. Its fake morality. (Kohlberg stage 1)

Conservative ideology emphasizes

individualism.

Helping sometimes

leads to resentment and unwanted obligation. It sometimes even leads to lowered self-esteem in the person who is helped.

For aiding strangers in emergencies......

men help more than women. - Especially when there is an audience, there is danger, and the victim is female

stagnation

motionlessness; inactivity

C. Empathic Joy Hypothesis

motivated by the positive feeling one gets.

2. Reciprocal Helping

ndividuals help others with the understanding that the favor will be returned. Provides adaptive advantage This better accounts for helping nonrelatives. Likely if benefit to recipient is high and cost to helper is low Must be a way to identify "cheaters"

Three Norms that Influence Helping

norm of reciprocity, norm of social responsibility, norm of social justice

The resulting positive emotions of helping can enhance

physiological and psychological resilience.

A. Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis

pure desire to help (1981).

High Social class individuals

put a higher priority on satisfying their own needs

Happy and helpful people are more likely to have

satisfying interpersonal relationships.

B. Negative State Relief Model

selfish desire to make self feel better (1981)

For long-term helping,

such as caregiving, women help more than men.

D. Competitive Altruism

to gain status.

The norm of reciprocity is

universal.

Genetic Determinism Model

we help others who are genetically similar to ourselves to preserve our gene pool. This is a sociobiological explanation.

Norm of social responsibility

we should help anyone who needs help