Social Psychology Chapter 12: Helping

Effects of Personality on Altruism

-Personality researchers have found individual differences in helpfulness and shown those differences persist over time and are noticed by one's peers. -Researchers are gathering clues to the network of traits that predispose a person to helpfulness. Personality influences how particular people react to particular situations.

Noticing

A factor that weakens with a large amount of bystanders. Groups take longer to be aware of an emergency.

Social Norms

A reason why we help. These are what prescribe proper behavior in a society. They're something that tells us we ought to.

Genuine Altruism

Altruism that is fueled by true empathy. With their empathy aroused, many people are motivated to assist others in need or distress, even when their helping is anonymous or their own mood will be unaffected.

Social-Responsibility Norm

An expectation that people will help those needing help. A norm that dates back to over 7,500 years ago! People in collectivist cultures support this norm more strongly than individualistic ones. We often only apply this norm to those at the hands of an uncontrollable predicament, and choose not to help those who cause their own problems.

Evolutionary Psychology

An explanation of helping reasoning that helping is essential for gene survival. Evolutionary success comes from cooperation, and is why humans abandon their selfishness in helping their genes survive.

Learning About Altruism

Once people learn of the factors that inhibit altruism, such as the presence of bystanders, people become more likely to help in individual and group situations.

Altruism

A motive to increase another's welfare without conscious regard for one's self-interests. Selfishness in reverse. The Good Samaritan is the most well-known example.

Reciprocity Norm

A universal moral code. An expectation that people will help, not hurt, those who have helped them. The reason why mail surveys and notifications sometimes include a little gift of money of personalized address labels, for they assume people will return the favor. Ideally, married couples should balance these exchanges.

Reducing Negative Emotion

A reason why we help. We may help because it relieves our fear and distress for the person. The amygdala is larger than average when this occurs.

Time Pressures

A factor that determines when people help. People who have spare time are more likely to set aside time and help.

Helping When Someone Else Does

A factor that determines when people help. The idea that prosocial models promote altruism. We are more likely to help after witnessing another do the same.

Similarity

A factor that determines when people help. We are more empathetic and helpful toward those who are like us. This bias applies to both dress and beliefs. Familiarity too breeds compassion. The more people know about disaster victims and where they live, the more they donate.

Gender

A factor that determines who will help and who will receive help. Women are more likely to be helped than men, and that men are more likely to help women than other men. Women also seek more help. Arie Nadler attributed this to gender differences; women are more collectivistic and thus more willing to ask others to help. Men more often help when faced with potentially dangerous situations in which strangers need help. Women are more likely to describe themselves as helpful, and tend to be more generous.

Effects of Status on Altruism

A factor that determines who will help. Paul Piff found that 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.

Religious Faith

A factor that determines who will help. Those who are of this are more helpful because their faith predisposes them to long-term altruism. People of high faith are more likely to volunteer and give to charity.

Personality Traits

A factor that determines who will help. Though there is no concrete personality that brings out a person's altruism, researchers have found that some people are consistently more helpful than others. Those high in positive emotionality, empathy, and self-efficacy are most likely to be concerned and helpful. The best predictor of willingness to help is agreeableness.

Interpreting

A factor that weakens with a large amount of bystanders. Once we notice an ambiguous event, we identify it by using others' behavior as clues to reality. This can cause a delayed response to an actual emergency or turn a person's weariness into unconcern based on how others are reacting. A group's passivity can also affect its members' interpretations. These can also affect people's reactions to street crimes.

Assuming Responsibility

A factor that weakens with a large amount of bystanders. The responsibility for action diffuses among members. People may assume that another person in the group will help or has already called for help. Sometimes, it's a matter of people not knowing why they do what they do. It also depends on if people know how to intervene a situation or if they are able to.

Feel-Bad / Do Good Effect

A generalized phenomenon where guilty people are likely to help. Guilt is a painful emotion that people avoid and seek to relieve. Choosing not to help someone may later plague the person with it. Ways to relieve guilt include confessing, disparaging the one harmed, or by doing a good deed to offset the bad one. People rid themselves of guilt to restore their self-image or public image. Exceptions to this rule are anger and grief.

Reciprocity

A mechanism exhibited by humans for overcoming selfishness. According to biologist Robert Trivers, "An organism helps another because it expects help in return." A form of externally rewarded helping. We scratch each other's backs. Can also occur indirectly. I'll scratch your back, you scratch someone's, and someone will scratch mine.

Group Selection

A mechanism exhibited by humans for overcoming selfishness. Groups of mutually supportive altruists outlast groups of non-altruists, according to Darwin. Back-scratching groups survive.

Kin Selection

A mechanism exhibited by humans for overcoming selfishness. The idea that evolution has selected altruism toward one's close relatives to enhance the survival of mutually shared genes. A form of intrinsic helping. Identical twins are more likely than fraternal twins to cooperate because of this. If you carry my genes, I'll favor you.

Increasing Positive Emotion

A reason why we help. Although helping others sometimes gives external rewards (helping someone attractive or someone whose approval we desire), there are also internal rewards that turn our mood positive.

Illusion of Transparency

A tendency to overestimate others' ability to "read" our internal states. People facing an emergency may presume their concern is more visible than it actually is.

Guilt and Concern for Self-Image

A way we can increase helping. Activate this, and people are more likely to help. Make them feel bad. Phrases such as "Even a penny will help," are difficult to turn down and still allow someone to maintain an altruistic self-image. Labeling people as helpful can also strengthen a helpful self-image.

Personalized Appeal

A way we can increase helping. Anything that personalizes bystanders, such as a personal request, eye contact, stating one's name, anticipating interaction, increases willingness to help. It also makes bystanders more self-aware, increasing consistency between attitudes and actions.

Socialize Altruism

A way we can increase helping. By teaching helping behavior to others, we prepare them to perceive and respond to others' needs.

Increase Responsibility

A way we can increase helping. Help people understand that they are responsible.

Reduce Ambiguity

A way we can increase helping. Make it obvious to people that you need help and prompt them to interpret it as an emergency.

Learning By Doing

A way we can socialize altruism. Children and adults are educated by performing helpful actions. Attitudes follow behavior. Helpful actions therefore promote the self-perception that one is caring and helpful. And that compassionate positive self-perception in turn promotes further helping.

Modeling Altruism

A way we can socialize altruism. If we see or read about someone helping, we become more likely to offer assistance. Prosocial TV models promote helping to a greater power than antisocial models.

Moral Inclusion

A way we can socialize altruism. Regarding others as within one's circle of moral concern. Counter the natural ingroup bias favoring kin and tribe by personalizing and broadening the range of people whose well-being should concern us. "All humanity is my ingroup."

Bystander Effect

Also known as Genovese Syndrome. The finding that a person is less likely to provide help when there are other bystanders. As the number of bystanders increases, any given bystander is less likely to notice the incident, less likely to interpret the incident, and less likely to assume responsibility for taking action.

Pluralistic Ignorance

Ignorance that others are thinking and feeling what we are. In emergencies, each person may think, "I'm very concerned," but perceive others as calm, "so maybe it's not an emergency."

Social Capital

The mutual support and cooperation enabled by a social network. Frequently holding a door for one or more people builds this over time. Works best when people respond publicly to deeds earlier done to them. Take caution, as overdoing this may undermine someone's competence; support should supplement, rather than substitute for, others' actions.

Moral Exclusion

The perception of certain individuals or groups as outside the boundary within which one applies moral values and rules of fairness. It justifies all sorts of harm, from discrimination to genocide. It also describes restrictions in the public empathy for the human costs of war.

Feel-Good / Do-Good Effect

The phenomenon where those who are in a good mood tend to be helpful people. This includes happiness and relief (that once was fear). A positive mood is, in turn, conducive to positive thoughts and positive self-esteem, which predispose us to positive behavior.

Do-Good / Feel-Good Effect

The phenomenon where we perform altruistic actions in order to increase our good feelings. Giving tends to increase that person's happiness, because it activates brain areas linked with reward.

Overjustification Effect

The result of bribing people to do what they already like doing; they may then see their actions as externally controlled rather then intrinsically pleasing. Therefore, to socialize altruism, we should have people attribute their helpful behavior to altruistic motives.

Social-Exchange Theory

The theory that human interactions are transactions that aim to maximize one's rewards and minimize one's costs. We subtly weigh the costs of helping and the benefits of helping. These calculations precede whether we help or not.