Altruism Flashcards
(19 cards)
What is helping behaviour?
a form of prosocial behaviours (benefits others) including altruistic helping, sacrifice, rescue, donations, charity
What is altruism?
Helping others purely for their benefit, without any expectation of personal gain
According to the social exchange theory why do people help?
*Helping provides material or psychological rewards
*People perform a cost benefit analysis when deciding whether to help
*Motivations Include: Relief from distress, relief from guilt, Gaining approval
According to social norms why do people help?
*Helping is shaped by reciprocity and social responsibility norms
*E.g. helping someone who helped you in the past
*People are more likely to help if they attribute someone’s need to uncontrollable factors or if they deserve help
According to the evolutionary theory why do people help?
*Helping is driven by the goal to ensure survival of the species
*Kin Protection: Helping relatives increases gene survival
*Reciprocity: If you help someone now, they might help you later
According to genuine altruism why do people help?
*Helping is purely to benefit another person out of empathy
*Empathy: The understanding and sharing in another’s emotional state
*Sympathy: It is more detached than empathy (“I feel bad for you”)
What 2 routes to helping did Batson et al. suggest?
*Egoistic: Motivated by own distress, helps people feel better
*Altruistic: Motivated by empathy, helps reduce the other’s distress
Describe Batson et al. (1981) experiment?
Hypothesis:
*If helping is egoistically motivated, people will help only in hard to escape (to reduce own distress)
*If helping altruistically motivates, people will help regardless of escape difficulty (to reduce Elaine’s distress)
Procedure:
1) Participants consisted of 48 female psychology students
2) They watched a woman, “Elaine”, perform a number recall task and receive electric shocks when incorrect
3) Empathy Manipulation Condition
*High Empathy- Elaines answers were similar to the participants (easy to identify with)
*Low Empathy- Elaines answers were very different
4)Escape Manipulation Condition
*Easy Escape- Participant could leave after 2 trials and complete a questionnaire
*Hard Escape- Participant had to watch Elaine endure 8 more shocks unless they swapped with her
Results:
*High Empathy- Most helped, regardless of escape difficulty
*Low Empathy- In easy escape most chose to leave, but in hard escape more helped (to stop their own discomfort from watching her suffer)
*Supported empathy altruism hypothesis, where empathy can lead to genuinely altruistic behaviour
Conclusion: People can act altruistically, empathy induced altruism is part of human nature
What does the Negative State Relief Model by Schaller and Cialdini (1987) propose?
Empathy increases sadness which then motivates helping as a way to improve your own mood
Describe Schaller and Cialdini’s experiment
Procedure:
1) Participants listened to Carol (a woman in a car accident)
2) They were either told to empathize or remain objective
3) After the story, they were told to either
*Watch a neutral video (nature documentary)
*Watch a comedy (mood booster)
4) They were then given an opportunity to help someone else
Results:
*In Neutral Condition- High empathy led to more helping
*In Comedy Condition- High empathy participants didn’t help more
*Interpretation- Helping was a way to feel better, not just to help Carol
Describe Schroeder et al. (1988) mood fixing drug study
1)They replicated Batson’s escape paradigm, but added a mood manipulation
2) They gave participants a “mood freezing” drug (placebo) and told them it would fix their mood for the session
Findings:
*Empathic participants still helped, even when told their mood couldn’t change
*This undermines the negative state relief model
*It supports true altruism as empathy motivates helping beyond personal gain
What case inspired the beginning of research into the bystander apathy?
*In New York (1964), Kitty Genovese was murdered near her home
*38 residents heard her screams, but no one called the police or helped
*This is known as the bystander effect; people are less likely to help when others are present
Describe Latane and Darley’s “Where There’s Smoke…” (1968) experiment
1) Situation: Participants filled out questionnaires alone or in groups
2) Smoke began seeping into the room (simulated emergency)
Results:
*Alone: Noticed smoke in less than 5 seconds, 75% acted
*With Others: Around 20 seconds to notice smoke, 38% acted
*With Passive Confederates (who ignored the smoke): Only 10% acted
Describe Latane and Darley’s “Woman in Distress” (1969) experiment
1) Situation: Participants heard a loud crash and cry from a woman in the next room
Results:
*Alone: 70% helped her
*With a Stranger: 40% helped her
*With Passive Confederate: 7% helped her
*With a Friend: 70% helped her
Conclusion: We are more likely to help when we are with people we trust
Describe Latane and Darley’s “Having a Fit” (1968) experiment
1) Participants thought they were having a group conversation through intercom
2) 1 “participant” (actually a recording) had an epileptic seizure
3) Participants couldn’t see others, just heard the event
Results:
*Alone: 85% helped
*With 2 Others: 62% helped
*With 4 Others: 31% helped
*This shows diffusion of responsibility, as group size increases, each individual feels less personally responsible to act
What does the cognitive model of helping by Latane and Darley (1970) propose?
*There is a 5-step decision making process in emergencies
1) Notice the Incident: Requires attention, which is harder in a crowd or under pressure
2) Interpret the Situation as an Emergency: We use informational social influence, but we suffer from the illusion of transparency (we think others can read our inner states more clearly than they actually can)
3) Assume Responsibility: In groups, we assume someone else will act, this is known as diffusion of responsibility
4) Know How to Help: Skills and knowledge matter
5) Decide to Implement Help: Social fears, anxiety, or personal safety concerns may still hold us back
What are the explanations for bystander apathy?
*Diffusion of Responsibility: We expect others to act
*Audience inhibition: Fear of looking foolish or overreacting
*Social Influence: We copy others’ reactions
*Ambiguity: Unclear whether help is needed
*Communication: Easier to help with friends, not strangers
What are the situational influences on helping behaviour?
*Seeing Others Help: If someone else helps, we are more likely to follow (Study found that someone helping a woman with her car are more likely to stop and help too)
*Time Pressure: Study found that students late for a talk were less likely to help a man slumped in a doorway (10% helped when late, 66% helped when no in a rush)
*Similarity to the Victim: We are more likely to help people we see as similar to ourselves
*Danger: Study found that in dangerous, unambiguous situations, bystander effects disappear (whether alone or in a group)
*But when danger is low, typical bystander effects reemerge
How to increase helping behaviour?
*Reduce Ambiguity: Make it clear that you need help by expressing pain or danger loudly and clearly
*Increase Personal Responsibility; Single out individuals to act
*Personalise Requests: Build a connection or rapport, create empathy and obligation
*Use Role Models: Highlight prosocial behaviour in education and media, normalising helping encourages others to follow
*Exposure to prosocial Music:
1) A study asked participants to listen to prosocial songs or neutral songs
2) Then the experimenter “accidentally” dropped pencils
3) More pencils were picked up by participants who heard prosocial music
4) This suggests a link between media exposure and increased empathy/helping
