Altruism and Pro Social Behavior o Pro social behavior behavior with positive consequence for others helping someone directly ex holding door open not Helping behavior donating to charity return Altruism helping someone without benefit or knowledge of benefit in Great debate of whether pure altruism exists Perspectives Theoretical Models o Evolutionary Perspective organisms because of competition for resources and survival and fitness impure altruism acts of altruism must benefit the Wouldn t help another organism if it didn t directly Kin selection benefit you we help those genetically related to us more because of genetic advancement carry on our genes and mating potential More likely to help younger relatives because they have more of a chance to survive and reproduce children first Men help more attractive women and women help richer men Reciprocal altruism symbiotic mutualism between two different species expect something in return impure Ex crocodile and bird cleaning food out of Esteem status enhancement gain power respect mouth resources If we help others we are viewed better can gain power and leadership Norm of reciprocity Social responsibility vs social justice return favor impure altruism Fairness can either be defined as equity helping those in need so we are equal or proportionality everyone carry own weight and work for own things karma just world o Social Norms o If defined as proportionality we are less likely to help those less fortunate Using the word because makes us more likely to help others as it provides an explanation o Social Exchange Theory economic perspective cognitive framework of cost benefits analysis what are costs benefits if you help Whether or not helping someone will require time effort resources danger blood Increase in these things causes someone to be less likely to help Ego depletion less likely to help when we have cognitive overload exhaustion and something requires effort and resources less altruism o Embodied social cognition Liking sweet foods is correlated with a sweet personality correlational Priming someone with sweet foods i e candy will increase their agreeableness and willingness to volunteer time resources help experimental o Learning Theory Operant conditioning reinforcement for contributing Ex writing donations off of taxes Modeling positive behavior more likely to perform act of altruism after witnessing someone else model it Ex salvation army gives money if person o Innate altruism walking in before them gives money spontaneous acts of kindness as a child independent of socialization genes and culture altruism may be innate Also present in other species supports evolutionary perspective o Empathy altruism Instinct behaviors even at cost to self instinctively drawn to pro social Evidence in support of pure altruism Feel moved by the suffering of others desire to help those who are suffering hurting want to understand and relate to them Feelings of spiritual elevation and awe when we witness acts of kindness and altruism unique to humans Increased activity in area of brain associated with pleasure and reward when we help others more dopamine released when we cooperate vs compete People benefit more when we provide social support and forgiveness than those who are actually receiving the support o Selective advantage for those who practice altruism great fulfillment development and growth for those who practice altruism Empathy state of mind in which people experience appreciate what others are experiencing in their minds trait like concern for others well being Mirror neurons if you observe someone who is doing an action same parts of your brain will light up as if you are actually doing that action you know you are not doing that action Is trait rather than situational variable predicted by degree to which people are concerned with equity and fairness Empathy predicts altruism blood and donations o We are motivated to be altruistic when we feel good approach but also when we feel bad avoidance o General positive affect o We are more likely to be moved psychologically by Suffering of one person in front of us rather than millions of people far away as we cannot see direct application of our helping Something we can relate to emotional salience rather than statistics Bystander effect even when help is clearly needed negative side tendency to not help Can be caused by desensitization perceptual errors and conformity don t want to stand out o Urban trance people are less likely to help those in need immune because they see homeless people everyday Even when people are aware that someone needs help fact that others are around decreases chance that someone would help and decreases response time o Diffusion of responsibility assume someone else will take up responsibility o Ex Kitty Genovese case murdered and no one helped even though they witnessed events o Morals and Ethics religion and altruism o Mixed evidence about altruism in religion o Correlational Correlational religious people help more by volunteering time and donating to charities Experimental experiments show no relationship between religion and altruism Religious people volunteer more effort time resources to charities perform more acts of altruism 300 more likely on Sundays for religious people charitable contributions are The Sunday Effect All other days of the week contributions of secular and non secular people were the same Power of religious situation over religious people trait o Experimental Priming acts with religious text The Good Samaritan does not increase helping altruism no difference between conditions secular and non secular If in a rush person is less likely to help Also people who identified as religious trait in this experiment were no more less likely to help than others no different in altruism Anonymous dictator primed religious ideas with word scramble then asked people whether they wanted to give money to others religious ideas increased likelihood of giving money However secular justice ideas also primed altruism so both had a positive effect New neighbors prime with words related to God wants you to help or religious leader wants you to help God increased universal altruism towards everyone ingroup and outgroup Religious leader increased altruism only towards those in specific religion ingroup only we are more likely to help save Life or death scenarios o Close kin distant kin o Young strangers old strangers o Healthy strangers sick
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