Prosocial behaviour

Cultural differences Prosocial behaviour

In groups and out groups

Knowing how to help

If people don't know how to help, they will be unable to help

In groups

Groups with which they identify as a member

Basic motives underlying Prosocial behaviour

1) Helping is an instinctive reaction to promote the welfare 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 empathy and compassion for the victim prompt selfless giving

Altruism

Altruism is the desire to help another person even if it involves a cost to the helper Altruism is helping purely out of the desire to benefit someone else, with no benefit ( and often a cost ) to oneself

Prosocial behavior

Any act performed with the goal of benefiting another person

People do not always want to be helped

Because offer of help often comes as a message " you are too stupid to figure this out" . Because receiving help can make people feel inadequate and dependent, they do not always reach positively when someone offers them aid

Situational

Could be immediate surroundings that make it hard to help People living in cities are constantly bombarded with stimulation and that they keep to themselves because they don't want to be overwhelmed by it

Out groups

Defined as groups which do not identify with us

Diffusion of responsibility

Each bystander's sense of responsibility to help decreases as the number of witnesses increases because when other people are present, no single bystander feels a strong personal responsibility to acf

Interpreting the event as an emergency

Even if people notice someone slumped , they might not stop and help because they assume the event is not an emergency

Evolutionary psychology

Evolutionary psychology is the attempt to explain social behaviour in terms of genetic factors that have evolved over time according to the principles of natural selection

Exchange relationships

Governed by concerns about equity - that what you put into the relationship is what you get out of it

Costs

However, helping can be costly and helping decreases when the costs are high, such as when it would put us in physical danger or result in pain and embarrassment

Urban overload hypothesis

If you put urban dwellers in a calmer less still sting environment, they would be as likely as anyone else to reach out to others

Benefits

It can increase the likelihood of people helping us Helping will also relieve the personal distress of a bystander

So whom do we help?

It depends. We are more likely to feel empathy towards members of our in groups who are in need. ( in group empathy) We tend to help out group members for a different reason , when there is something in it for us, like making us feel good about ourselves or when we wants to make a good impression ( Social theory )

Kin selection

Kin selection is the idea that behaviours that help a genetic relative are favoured by natural selection

Communal relationships

More likely in friends than in strangers However there is an interesting exception to the rule. When it is a task not important to us, we will be more likely to help friends than strangers However, when it is a task important to us, we are more likely to help a stranger than a friend . This is because it hurts to see a close friend do better than we do in an area of great importance to our self esteem

Gender differences in Prosocial behavior

Norms prescribe different traits and behaviours for males and females, learned as boys and girls are growing up. In western cultures, the male sex role includes being chivalrous and heroic and thus tend to help more for heroic stuff while female sex are nurturing and caring and theme to value close long term relationships and thus are more involved in helping with relationship measures

What about bad mood?

One kind of bad mood leads to increase in helping : Guilty Because helping others balances things out, people feel less guilty

Deciding to implement the help

People may be afraid of making a fool of themselves and do the wrong thing or place themselves in danger

Kin selection experiment

People reported that they would be more likely to help genetic relatives than non-relatives in life and death situations However, they did not report that they would be more likely to help genetic relatives when the situation was non-life threatening, which supports the idea that people are most likely to help in ways that ensure the survival of their own genes In a real life situation, survivors of a firm at a vacation complex reported that when they become aware of a life threatening situation, they are more likely to search for family members than friends

Effects of mood

People who feel happier are more likely to help than people with neutral mood Why? 1) Good moods make us look on the bright side of life That is if we're in good mood, we tend to see the good side of other people, giving them benefit of doubt. 2) It helps to prolong our good mood 3) Finally good moods increase the amount of attention we pay to ourselves and this factor in turn makes us more likely to behave according to our values and ideals Because altruism is one of our ideals, we help more when we're in a good mood

Effects of the media

People who had just played a Prosocial video game or listened to Prosocial music were more likely to help in all of these ways than were people who had just played a neutral video game This is because it increases people's empathy towards someone in need of help and increasing the accessibility of thoughts about helping others

Residential mobility

People who have lived for a long time in one place are more likely to engage in Prosocial behaviours that help the community. Residing in one place leads to a greater attachment to the community, more interdependence with one's neighbours and a greater concern with one's reputation in the community

Group selection

People who have traits that make them more likely to survive are likely to reproduce and pass on their traits to future generations For example, Village A that is totally selfish and Village B that is altruistic . So Group B is more likely to survive and thus have more and more generations with such traits

Social exchange theory further explained

Perhaps people who saved others found it too distressing , in a way is also for themselves. So essentially people only help when the benefits outweigh the costs

Empathy and altruism

Pure altruism is likely to come into play when we feel empathy for the person in need of help, putting ourselves in the shoes of another person and experiencing events and emotions that the way that person experiences them

Religion and Prosocial behaviour

Religious people are more likely to help in situations in which helping makes them look good about themselves. They are not more likely to help, however in private situations in which no one will know that they helped. This coincides with the social exchange theory

Situational

Rural vs urban In rural areas, ie small cities , people are more likely to help This is because people who grow up in a small town are more likely to internalize altruistic values

Sad mood

Sadness can also lead to increase in helping When people are sad, they are motivated to engage in activities to make them feel better

Simpatia

Simpatia refers to a range of social and emotional traits, including being friendly, polite, good natured, peasant and helpful towards others One study tested the hypothesis that helping would be higher in cultures that value simpatia than in cultures that do not If a culture strongly values friendliness and Prosocial behaviour, people may be more likely to help strangers on city streets

Social exchange theory

Social exchange theory argues that much of what we do stems from the desire to maximise our rewards and minimise our costs People in their relationships with others try to maximise the ratio of social rewards to social costs

Individual differences

The altruistic personality Altruistic personality are the qualities that cause an individual to help others in a wide variety of situations Personality alone does not determine behaviour- the pressures of the situation matter as well Studies of both children and adults find that people with high scores on personality tests of altruism are not that Much more likely to help those with lower scores There are other factors such as situational pressures, gender, the culture in which they grow up, how religious they are and even their current mood

Reciprocity Norm

The expectation that helping others will increase the likelihood that they will help us in the future

Number of bystanders

The greater the number of bystanders who witness an energy, the less likely any one of them is to help the victim

Reciprocity Norm and evolution

The idea is that as human beings were revolving, a group of selfish individuals would have found that it is more difficult to survive than a group that learned to cooperate They then developed understanding that if they help others now , others will reciprocate the favour and because of its survival value such a norm of reciprocity may have become genetically based. Researchers also suggest that the emotion of gratitude evolved to regulate reciprocity- That is if people help us, we become grateful and in turn feel more inclined to help them

Communal relationships

Those in which people's primary concern is the welfare of the other person

Noticing an event

What determines how much people notice an event? When they are hurrying vs when they are not If they were not in a hurry, most of them helped the man. However, if they were in a hurry, only 10% stopped to help. Many of the students who were in a hurry did not even notice the man

Experiment

When empathy was high, people helped regardless of the costs and rewards. When empathy was low, people were more concerned with the rewards and costs for themselves - they helped only if they encounter Carol in their psychology class and thus feel guilty about not helping

When people are around

When people are around, they are less likely to respond as they always used each other as a source of information. So if the person next to you and continue to fill their questionnaires, you will feel reassured that nothing is wrong; otherwise, why would they be acting so unconcerned

Empathy altruism theory

When we feel empathy for a person, we will help. But if we do not, social exchange comes into concern. What is in if we help? What's in it if we don't

Altruism hypothesis

When we feel empathy for another person, we will attempt to help that person for altruistic reasons, regardless of what we can get out of it

Pluralistic ignorance

Wherein people think that everyone is interpreting a situation in a certain way when in fact they are not