DefinitionsProsocial motivations address the intentions of the helperAltruism - performing an act voluntarily as an “end-in-itself” rather than as a means to some other end… unselfish behavior that benefits others without regards to consequences for the self.Egoism - performing a prosocial act primarily out of self-interest or to avoid punishment (e.g., for recognition, money, reputation, etc.)Prosocial behavior is much broader and includes any act that helps others regardless of motives.i.e., Altruism always involves prosocial behavior, but not all prosocial behavior is altruistic.Why do people help and not help?—Situational Determinants of Helping1) Bystander InterventionBystander effect: the greater the number of individuals who witness a person in trouble, the less likely it is that any one person will help the person in need.Why does the bystander effect occur?Pluralistic Ignorance: Believing nothing is wrong because no one is doing anythingResults from informational social influenceIn ambiguous situations, we look to others to decide how we should actDiffusion of responsibility: The presence of other people makes us feel less responsible; Assume other people who are present during an emergency will provide help2) Cost of HelpingMore likely to help when you do not have to suffer a cost – seeing blood makes it less likely you will help3) Similarity of Victim to youMore likely to help those who are similar (racially, ethnically, etc.)4) Ambiguity/Unambiguity of harm and need for helpThe need for help must be made clear5) Gender of VictimIn general, women tend to receive more help than men from strangersMotives for Altruism1) Social Rewards: improving one’s image though praise, positive attention, tangible rewards, honors, and gratitude2) Experienced Distress: wanting to reduce our own discomfort when seeing a person who needs help3) Empathic Concern: identifying with another person and feeling/understanding what that person is experiencingEvolutionary Perspective on AltruismAltruism is not a selfless act – it is designed to help our survivalThere have been three evolutionary explanations offered for altruism:Kin Selection: favoring those who have your genesReciprocity: favoring nonkin by rules of reciprocityReputation/Social Rewards: Providing social benefitsImpact of ReputationReputation: the beliefs, evaluations, and impressions about an individual’s character that develop within a group or social networkWhether another group member is known as being cooperative or competitive changes the way people behave around themHaving a competitive reputation makes the people you interact with more competitiveInterpretation MattersPeople will cooperate more when they think the game is about cooperation. People will defect when they think others are going to defect.Whether people choose to cooperate or defect may be due to the interpretation/construal they give to the game.Can priming affect cooperation?Bring participants to play the prisoner’s dilemma gamePeople randomly assigned to get primed with hostility related words or neutral words for 60 ms.Hostility: “competitive,” “hostile,” “unfriendly”Neutral words: “house,” “looked,” “always”Researchers measure amount of cooperation and defection on during the prisoner’s dilemma gamePeople primed with hostility defected more often84% of the participants exposed to the hostile words defected on a majority of the trials55% percent of the participants exposed to the neutral words did so.Primed words made have change the interpretation participants have of the game.Culture and HelpingRegional Differences in Helping:Survey research indicates that people in rural areas report higher levels of empathic concernA review of 35 studiesConducted in communities of different sizes, andHad participants put in situation where they could help another personStrangers are significantly more likely to be helped in rural communities than in urban areas.For people who moved (e.g. rural to big-city), the area they currently lived in mattered the mostWhy do people in rural settings help more?1) Stimulus Overload in big-citiesConstruction, Traffic, Work Demands, People lead to distractionDistraction leads to not recognizing situations of need2) More diversity in big citiesIn rural settings, people are relatively the same demographicsWe are more likely to help people who are similar to us3) Diffusion of responsibility: too many people in urban settings places less responsibility on an individualClass and Helping:Class is a person’s relative status in societyFamily WealthEducation Level AttainedPrestige of your occupation and familyClass has a relation to charitable givingWealthy individuals give away smaller proportions of their income to charity than do the poor (Greve, 2009).People making less than $25,000 per year gave away an average of 4.2 percent of their income.People making over $100,000 per year gave away only 2.7 percentLower class people give more their allotted money in economic games done in the laboratoryWhy are there class differences?Empathy may play an important roleEmpathy could promote being attuned to needs of others and lead to stronger relationshipsLower-class people may be more empathetic than upper-class individualsbetter judges of the emotions of a stranger withbetter judges of a friend’s emotionsthey are more accurate in their inferences about what emotions are expressed in photographsReligion and ProsocialitySome evidence to suggest that spiritual concepts make people more prosocialWhen primed with spiritual conceptspeople give more money to a stranger in an economic gameMore likely to cooperate with an outgroup member in the prisoner’s dilemmaCheat less on a difficult task (Randolph-Seng & Nielsen, 2007)Self-reported spiritualityPositively associated with the value of Universalism (the acceptance of others as equal; Saroglou & Galand, 2004).Predicts willingness to help both an unknown target and a close family member or friendEffect of spirituality on helpingPriming concepts of God activate doing what you believe God wantsNeurological Reasons for CooperatingCooperation is vital to human survival. But when we cooperate, we risk being exploited by others.We don’t always see immediate monetary rewardsOur brains might help bridge the gap between cooperating and receiving a benefitDuring acts of cooperation, our brains fire as if we are receiving rewards.Reward-related regions of the