Prosocial - lecture PDF

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PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR Learning Objectives • Prosocial behavior- Any action intended to benefit another • Outline the four major goals that prosocial actions can serve • How do we help others ? • Improve our own basic welfare • Evolution of helping behavior • Helping behavior is heritable (it is genetically passed on from parent to offspring) • Helping can help us gain genetic benefits • W.D. Hamilton – Kin Selection • The actions of an individual ensure that the genes making up an individual survive • Inclusive fitness = the survival of one’s genes in one’s own offspring AND in relatives that one helps • Predicts that we can be willing to risk our own survival • Other Evidence of inclusive fitness? • People prefer to help those they are related to • Non-human animals show a similar pattern of behavior! • Helping can also help us gain material benefits • Reciprocal aid = helping that occurs in return for prior help • Helping is often mutual and cooperative • Helpers benefit by receiving help in return • Example of Reciprocal Aid: Vampire Bats • Live in groups that are mostly related • Not always successful at feeding, and will die quickly without food • Incentive to cooperate – give blood to others when you’re successful, and they will repay the favor • They remember their regular companions • • Gain social status and approval • Helpfulness is a good thing!  SOCIAL REWARDS • People like and approve of those who help • Helping can also enhance perceptions of power • Cultures provide rewards for helping

• Increased liking and approval • Enhanced power and status in the community • • Manage our self-image • Prosocial behavior leads to feeling positively about oneself • Helping behavior can: ENHANCE the self and VERIFY the self • 87% of Americans who donated to charity said they did so because it was consistent with their PERSONAL VALUES • Labeling effects • Social labels are powerful in influencing our behavior • If people are labeled as helpful, then they should be more likely to help • • Manage our moods and emotions • Helping can be emotionally rewarding • Seeing suffering makes us feel bad • Helping relieves this unpleasant state • The Arousal/Cost-Reward Model • Applied for emergency situations • Conditions when helping is most likely: • When arousal is strong • When there is a “we” connection between victim and the helper • When helping can reduce arousal with small costs and large rewards • The Arousal/Cost-Reward Model • Strong arousal • ”We” connection • Small costs/ large rewards • The Negative State Relief Model • For non-emergency situations • People often help to relieve their sadness because it can be mood-enhancing • When engaged in charitable giving, reward centers of the brain light up • Experimentally inducing temporary sadness: • Read depressing/sad material

• Breaking equipment • Witnessing a misfortune (oneself OR someone else) • Negative moods  Helping • • Describe person and situation factors that influence helping behavior • Person – • Need for approval • Arousal • Negative mood/Emotion • Sense of “we” • Similarity • Familiarity • Male vs Female • Beliefs and values • Capability • • Situation • Relatedness • Reciprocity • Labeling • Small costs & large rewards • Emergency • Emotional situation • Group norms • Presence of Bystanders • Ambiguity • • Factors that influence helping • Expanded sense of “we” • Who is in my “in group? • Insiders versus outsiders “In group” vs “Out group” • People like to help those who belong to “’us” versus “them” • Examples: Family, cultural groups, human species, etc. • Similarity

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• One way people can estimate degree of genetic relatedness is through similarity • Identical twins are more likely to help each other than fraternal twins! • People are more likely to help those who are similar to them in appearance, personality, and attitudes Familiarity • Familiarity can also serve as a cue for relatedness • The more related individuals are, the more contact they have with each other • People are more likely to help others they are familiar with Male versus Female • Most people view women as the most helpful sex • “Who is more likely to help?” depends on what kind of help is needed & if it fits gendered-roles: • Emergency/strangers?  Men • Emotional/Indirect?  Women Instilled beliefs • People can learn that helping others is a way to promote one’s own interests! • People can be educated to believe that prosocial behavior can yield genetic and material gains Personal Norms = the internalized beliefs and values that combine to form a person’s inner standards for behavior • People who have strong beliefs that they should help are more likely to: • give blood • carpool • recycle • Etc. Religious and ethical codes • Certain groups have codes of conduct that encourage prosocial action E.g., Bodhisattva • a person has been enlightened and has the ability to reach Nirvana but holds back in order to help others

• Identify ways bystanders in emergencies influence the decision to help • The murder of Kitty Genovese famously demonstrated what is now known as “The Bystander Effect” • Bystander Effect = the tendency of a person to be less likely to help in an emergency if there are other onlookers present • People assume that if there are more people present then you are more likely to get help… Wrong! • Diffusion of Responsibility = The pressure to help is divided among everyone who is present • • Describe the five steps to helping • Notice that something is happening • People who are busy, preoccupied, or under time pressure are less likely to notice what is happening around them • Darley & Batson’s (1973) ”Good Samaritan” study • • Interpretation of the event • Events are often ambiguous • When it is easy to interpret that help is needed then people are more likely to intervene • • Taking responsibility • This is where diffusion of responsibility comes into play • • Capability • The person must be capable of helping • Research has shown that there is no bystander effect for people who feel competent to intervene directly • Remember the Theory of Planned Behavior?? • • Decision = To help or not to help? • Weigh the costs and benefits of helping •

• Define “pure” altruism and describe how it differs from other kinds of prosocial behavior • PURE (or TRUE) altruism = action intended solely to benefit another • Can any altruistic act be untouched by self-interest? • According to Batson… • Motivation for helping shifts from selfish to selfless if there is empathy involved • Note: Batson distinguishes this from reducing unpleasant arousal • Empathy = compassionate feelings caused by taking another person’s perspective • But according to others… • Feelings of empathic concern stimulate helping most often with similar, related, familiar others • Sound familiar? • Altruistic behavior can actually give us a genetic advantage! • Can the decision to help then be TRULY selfless? •...