Grade Buddy Social Psychology 1nd Edition Lecture 15 Outline of Last Lecture Helping Outline of Current Lecture Costs of Helping Current Lecture Cost of helping Time Money Physical danger Shame Overreacting Only help if benefits out way costs When helping in a situation that might kill you one might act in order to be remembered forever Prospect of altruism Another s suffering Benefits of helping cost of helping if benefits exceed you will help Altruism when empathy for another suffering drives you to help The Carol Marcy Study can you spare your notes study 1984 University of Kansas Intro psych students Student told they were going to listen to a radio interview that hasn t aired yet and you student make an evaluation of it Also told students they were the only one who would listen Interviewed girl carol Marcy o She had a car accident where she was put in a wheel chair and had to miss a ton of school o After interview she was saying she had a hard time in her introductory psych class Student gets an envelope to the person who hears the interview If student wants to help they should let the experimenter know One group first condition was told that she would be attending class while another group second condition was told she would not Percentage that helped in the group that were told she would be attending class was 70 that said they would help In the second condition every thing was the same except things are so bad that she would not make it back to class o Only 30 were likely to help There was guilt associated with seeing Marcy and not helping But if you do not see her there is no guilt If we empathized wee should be more likely to help Two other conditions were ask to put yourself in their shoes o Data stayed at 80 they helped without doing though cost benefit analysis 0 9 0 8 0 7 0 6 0 5 0 4 0 3 0 2 0 1 0 0 rn etu r ll wi etu tr n wo rn l wi n ur ret in eir th s oe sh ot li l n w Percent who would help es ho s eir th in rn u ret Suggest our default is not really to care much about others and to not empathize with others Moral Circle we all have a group of people we care about where we put ourselves in the middle How might empathizing with carol marcy change cost benefit analysis Her pain becomes my pain AGGRESSION Behavior intended to harm another who does not wish to be harmed o Instrumental or emotional o Physical or psychological Is aggression innate Nature vs nurture Philosophers debate Rousseau 1762 that other people are frustrating our desires o By nature we are peaceful Hobbes life is short and brutish o Authority in the absence of authority we would all be aggressive Freud s instinct theory o Eros the life instinct o Thanatos death instinct o Conflict between the two