Pro Social Behavior Pro social behavior doing something that is good for other people or society as a whole example helping Cooperating forgiving o Everyone agrees that people should earn a fair share but what is What is fair fair Do we help others o Kitty Genovese Equality Equity in the real world March 13 1964 Queens NY Knifed and raped Attacker left twice and came back 35 min before someone called police o Plane crash Jan 13th 1982 Jet crashes into Potomac River A construction worker passing by jumped into freezing river to When do we help try to help bystanders increases o Darley Latane 1968 o Bystander Effect tendency to be less likely to help as number of other Participants sat alone in cubicles Thought they were participating in a conversation with 1 other person 2 other people or 5 other people One person mentions during a conversation prone to seizures A few minutes later this person has a seizure Did they help Mainly people helped when they were the only witness D L s model of bystander intervention 1 Notice situation Large of bystanders may interfere with this Lots of distractions at a crowded place miss important details 2 Interpret as emergency Pluralistic ignorance occurs when we look to other people to determine how to behave and other people are looking at us to determine how to behave This leads to collective misinterpretation which would lead to misinterpreting an emergency situation 3 Assume responsibility Diffusion of responsibility the belief that others will take responsibility for helping a person in need Practical advice point to someone and tell them to call 911 1 4 Know what to do 5 Judge that costs are outweighed by benefits Darley Batson 1973 o Seminary students told to learn sermon and go across campus to deliver sermon o Some Participants told plenty of time to get there o Some Participants told already late o Participants came across person slumped over in doorway o Did they help Helping only occurs after all 5 are true Judge that costs are outweighed by benefits You in the blue shirt I need help Call 911 Big picture question are people ever truly altruistic Do people ever help others without expecting to get anything in return What do people get for helping o Kitty Genovese revisited Notice situation Interpret as emergency Assume responsibility Know what to do o Money o Goods and service o Prestige o Pride self esteem o Avoid guilt o Pass on your genes Egoistic helping vs altruistic helping o Egoistic helping helping others for benefits to the self o Altruistic helping helping others for no expected benefit to the self Aversive arousal hypothesis o Seeing another person in distress in unpleasant so we help to reduce our own unpleasant feelings o Batson et al 1981 Watch another participants Elaine get shocked Manipulated ease of escape you can leave if you want Elaine complains about having severe reactions to the shocks Did the participants take her place The participants in the low empathy condition the decision to switch places with Elaine and thereby help her depended on how easy it was for them to escape People in the low empathy condition who 2 only had to watch two trials decided to leave most often o Empathy Altruism Hypothesis Empathy taking perspective of person in need and feeling their emotions can produce altruism Batson et al 1981 same experiment Elaine randomly assigned to receive shocks Manipulated empathy o Participants told they were similar or different Participants asked if they would switch places with from Elaine Elaine Having empathy for another person and thereby taking their perspective can produce altruism Lets look at participants in the low empathy condition The decision to switch places with Elaine and thereby help her depended on how easy it was for them to escape People in the low empathy condition who only had to watch two trials decided to leave most often o Evolution is about selfish genes so why aren t humans always selfish Reciprocal altruism you help me I ll help you Kin selection I ll help those who share my genes Having empathy for another person and thereby taking their perspective can produce altruism Kin Selection o Kinship Burnstein et al 1994 How likely would you be to help You family or an acquaintance Everyday chore vs life or death situation People are more likely to help family member in life or death situation Other Factors Influencing Helping o Mating Griskevicius et al 2007 Some Participants imagined going on a romantic date Some Participants imagined going to a concert with a friend Participants asked to rate how likely they would be to help Non heroic acts volunteering at a homeless shelter Heroic acts fighting off a bear with a stick But in the mating condition women were more likely than men to say they would engage in non heroic helping o Omoto Snyder 1995 5 reasons for helping in AIDs organization 1 Values because I enjoy helping others Altruistic 3 o Mood Weyant 1978 2 Community Concern because of my sense of obligation to the community Altruistic 3 Understanding to understand problem and what it does to people Egoistic 4 Personal Development to make new friends and meet new people Egoistic 5 Esteem Enhancement to feel less lonely Egoistic Compared to a group of people who don t volunteer at all the volunteers listed more altruistic reasons for helping Measured AIDs workers on these dimensions Who volunteered at all o Those with altruistic motives were more likely to volunteer The researchers then wanted to test whether they could predict how long AIDS workers continued volunteering based on their answers to the five different motivations for volunteering o Those with egoistic motives workers longer than those with altruistic motives o People with low social support stayed longer as volunteers getting support through volunteering Participants put into happy sad or neutral state Asked to help a nonprofit organization Some Participants asked to help raise monet for a little league low benefit to society or American Cancer Society high benefit to society Some Participants asked to sit at donations desk low cost or collect money door to door high cost Happy Condition Participants o Regardless of the cost and befit of helping quite a few people agree to help less in the low benefit high cost condition If you re in a good mood you re helpful Sure I can do that I feel great and helping a non profit organization could help me maintain my happy mood Neutral Condition Participants o These
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