PSYC 3221 1st Edition Chapter 12 Helping others Lecture 20 Why do we help Prosocial behavior vs Altruism o Altruism Self less helping behavior Expecting anything in result wouldn t qualify Expecting having nothing in return Hard to find today Examples saving someone you hate in a almost certain death situation o Prosocial Behavior Helping behavior that s benefitting someone else o Difference Altruism is having no benefit for oneself to do this act of kindness Evolutionary psychology o We do what we do for two reasons individual survival or survival of the species o Kin protection Survival of the species o Reciprocity Returning the favor Reciprocate o Help those who are genetically similar to use especially if it involves risking our lives o More likely to find a parent risking their life for the child compared to the other way around Who do we help Social Exchange Theory o Helping as disguised self interest o We do things for others so they ll do things for us in return o No necessarily from the individual who you helped o Karma doing something good for someone we hope that something good will happen to us o Somewhere down the road I ll get return on my good deed Empathy Altruism Hypothesis Daniel Batson o If you feel empathy for someone you might engage in altruistic behavior towards that person o If you can feel their pain you re more likely to help them o Study manipulate empathy Listening to someone s story where she was hurt in a car accident High low empathy groups with half of each group was told they d see her again High empathy These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute o All helped regardless if told they d see her again or not Low empathy o Ones told they d see her again helped to avoid guilt Social Norms o Reciprocity norm Feel an obligation to reciprocate to repay it asap o Social responsibility norm Taught from an early age like sharing your toys with others as a child Extra Credit opportunity Smile 10 people frown 10 people or use some other facial expression People usually reciprocate the facial expression Jot down the level of reciprocation you received in return How helps Children Social Learning o Help at a certain age but before the ages of 4 5 years old are pretty selfish o Egocentrism and unable to put themselves in others shoes Altruistic Personality o Power of the situation the situation can tell how someone will respond regardless of their personality o Some people are going to be more helpful than other depending on their personalities Gender Differences o More likely to help when Men If it requires heroic action one shot deal Woman Long term attention nurturing o Depending on who they re helping certain men are more likely to help women Religiosity o Religious people tend to be more helpful compared to non religious Mood Effects o The mood you re in predicts how likely you re to help Good moods are more likely o Good moods helping The feel good do good effect If you re feeling good you re more likely to help Not necessarily have to be super happy to help o Bad mood helping Bad moods negative state relief hypothesis If we re in a negative state mood and we believe that helping behavior might relieve the bad mood we re more likely to help o Not seen in children o Depressed people When you feel guilty you re more likely Whom do we help People we like o We re more likely to help someone we like compared to people we don t like Gender o Who is offered help more Women are more likely to be offered help Men are offered less help Attractiveness Similarity o Similar in any way o Age religion background ect o Exception would be race sometimes people help other races over others Could be a soothing white guilt Deserving others o More likely to help those that we believe are more deserving o If they need help When will we help Rewards o We ll help if there is a reward o If we ve been rewarded in the past we ll do it again o When we see other people helping When others help o If we see other people helping conformity it increases the likelihood of you helping o If you ve witnessed someone helping Rural vs Urban environments o More likely rural people are more likely to help others Why believe that they ll see this person again o Urban overload hypothesis In big urban environments people are flooded with stimuli that they aren t aware that there is some thing wrong going on There are too many people to help Time constraints o When people feel like they re in a rush they re less likely to help o If they feel likely they have time to help then they help Good Samaritan study o Story from the bible is where the name is from Man is robbed many people pass him by Samaritan was the only person to help Don t judge a book by it s cover o Study Participants were seminary students visiting at another school Half of the participants were giving a speech about the Good Samaritan Half were rushed the other half wasn t rushed All ran into people who needed help on the way to give a speech Found that people in a hurry don t stop while non rushed people helped the random person who needed help When will we help Kitty Gen ve o Woman walking home at night o Was stabbed outside of an apartment complex yelled for help o People heard the murder happen but no one helped o After a long time someone calls the police o Why didn t people help if they heard it happen Situational Influences Latane Darley 1970 o Bystander effect Bystander effect attributed to Kitty s murder The more eyewitnesses there are to an emergency situation the less likely people are to help o Diffusion of responsibility make up the bystander effect Larger the group is that s witnessing the less individual responsibility people feel to help Feel less of a burden o Pluralistic Ignorance make up the bystander effect Idea that we get Stupid in groups Study Participants believed that they were in either a two three or five person group All the other people are really confederates Looking at how quickly they are to help someone having a seizure Large the group the slower someone is to respond believed they weren t the only person aware of someone having a seizure Ties back to diffusion of responsibility Study How quickly people respond to smoke coming from under a door with other people in the room with you Form of informational influence since no ones else is reacting to smoking coming in the room during the study o