PSYC 170 Ch 14: Altruism

After learning about research on gossip, have your feelings about the behavior changed? Under what circumstances might gossip serve a useful purpose?

Gossip is a communicative act in which someone comments on the reputation of another person who is not present. This communication can be beneficial when it lets people learn about whom to trust and whom to avoid. Research suggests that when people have the opportunity to gossip, they are consequently more cooperative than when they don't. This may be because the threat of gossip serves as a warning that one's reputation could suffer if one behaves selfishly. Not all types of gossip are beneficial, however; mean-spirited comments about someone's appearance will not promote cooperation or goodwill.

Research indicates that lower-class people tend to be more empathic and giving than upper-class people. What factors might explain this difference? How might they relate to what you learned about power and prosocial behavior?

Lower-class people are more attuned to those around them, in part because social attunement is necessary for adapting to unpredictable, stressful, and at times threatening environments. Upper-class people, by contrast, can be more independent from others because they enjoy greater resources and opportunities. This pattern is similar to that seen in the context of power. High-power people tend to be less empathic. Upper-class people may also be less likely to be regularly exposed to certain forms of suffering, but this can be remedied. Research suggests, for example, that it's possible to increase compassion and prosocial behavior in upper-class people by exposing them to film clips portraying the suffering of children living in poverty.

Based on what you've learned about bystander intervention and diffusion of responsibility, what actions could you take to increase the likelihood that someone would help you in an emergency that happens in front of a large crowd?

People are less likely to help when other people are around, presumably because they believe that someone else will help. One way to reduce this diffusion of responsibility could be to single out one person and ask if that person can help you. People hesitate to help when they don't know whether a situation is actually an emergency and when they don't know what to do to help. To address this concern, you could clarify the situation by explicitly calling out and being specific about what you need people to do, such as helping you get up or calling an ambulance.

According to evolutionary theory, behaviors that optimize survival and reproduction are favored by natural selection and therefore more likely to persist. How, then, can we explain the evolution of altruism, which is by definition costly to the self?

There are a number of possible evolutionary explanations for altruism, including kin selection, whereby evolution and natural selection favor behaviors that increase the chances of survival of genetic relatives. Kin selection can explain altruism toward relatives, but not toward non-kin. On explanation for altruism toward non-kin is reciprocity, or helping others with the expectation that they will reciprocate in the future. Reciprocal altruism can reduce the likelihood of conflict and facilitate resource sharing.

Someone might argue that as long as you're helping, your motives don't matter. Do you agree? Why or why not? In what situations might motives matter most?

There are three primary motives for helping. Two of them are egoistic (selfish): the desire for social rewards and the desire to reduce personal distress. The third is unselfish: empathic concern. Although the two egoistic motives can lead to helping behavior, they do so less consistently than empathic concern. Getting social rewards or reducing personal distress can be achieved many ways, not all of which involve helping; by contrast, empathic concern has been shown to consistently lead to helping, often at a cost to the self. A person who is motivated by social rewards and distress reduction may help only when rewards are available and when there are no other ways to reduce stress, but may be less likely to help when helping behavior would be anonymous or when it's possible to easily escape the situation.

In what ways could the tit-for-tat strategy be relevant in your life, such as in a romantic relationship?

Tit-for-tat is a strategy to encourage mutual cooperation in the prisoner's dilemma game. This reciprocal strategy is cooperative, non- envious, non-exploitable, forgiving, and easy to read. It helps maximize outcomes in potentially competitive situations that occur in real life. In the context of a romantic relationship, this strategy could involve being supportive and giving toward your partner initially, and continuing to do so as long as your partner is supportive and giving toward you, but not if your partner mistreats you.

social reward

a benefit, such as praise, positive attention, something tangible, or gratitude, that may be gained from helping others, and serves a selfish motive for altruistic behavior

diffusion of responsibility

a reduction of the sense of urgency to help someone in an emergency or dangerous situation, based on the assumption that others who are present will help; each person feels less responsibility to help out

personal distress

a second selfish motive for helping others in distress that may arise from a need to reduce one's own distress

prisoner's dilemma

a situation involving payoffs to two people who must decide whether to cooperate or defect. In the end, trust and cooperation lead to higher joint payoffs than mistrust and defection

tit-for-tat strategy

a strategy in the prisoner's dilemma game in which the player's first move is cooperative; thereafter, the player mimics the other person's behavior, whether cooperative or competitive. This strategy fares well when used against other strategies.

kin selection

an evolutionary strategy that favors the reproductive success of one's genetic relatives, even at a cost to one's own survival and reproduction

bystander intervention

assistance given by a witness to someone in need

reciprocal altruism

helping others with the expectation that they will probably return the favor in the future

empathic concern

identifying with someone in need, including feeling and understanding what that person is experiencing, accompanied by the intention to help the person

volunteerism

nonmonetary assistance, when a person regularly provides to another person or group with no expectation of compensation

altruism

prosocial behavior that benefits others without regard to consequences for oneself

reputation

the collective beliefs, evaluations, and impressions people hold about an individual within a social network