Prosocial behaviour Flashcards
What is prosocial behaviour?
Actions intended to benefit others (e.g., helping, sharing, donating).
What is morality?
Morality encompasses principles of right and wrong that guide behavior, often shaped by culture, upbringing, and evolutionary factors.
Altruism
A type of prosocial behavior that benefits others without regard to the consequences for oneself. Altruistic acts arise from feelings of sympathy and compassion.
Motives for altruism (Daniel Batson)
Two selfish reasons: social reward and personal distress. The third one os more oriented towards pure altruism - empathetic concern for others.
Social reward
Being esteemed and valued by others in the form of praise, an award, or recognition. These can be so powerful that they trigger “competitive altruism”.
Competitive altruism
People try to outdo one another in their altruistic acts, in order to be the most highly esteemed person.
Pure (True) Altruism
Helping others with no expectation of personal gain.
Driven purely by empathy and compassion.
Example: Running into danger to save a stranger.
Moral (Normative) Altruism
Helping others because of moral beliefs or societal expectations.
Rooted in culture, religion, and ethics.
Example: Donating to charity because it’s seen as the “right thing to do.”
Personal distress
People are motivated to help people in need in order to reduce their own distress. This tendency to feel personal distress when encountering someone else suffering appears to begin very early in life, when we are infants.
the pain regions in our brain are activated
Empathetic concern
The feeling people experience when identifying with someone in need, accompanied by the intention to enhance the other person’s welfare. This produces selfless altruism.
we volunteer to help others
What are the evolutionary theories of altruism?
- Kin Selection Theory (Hamilton, 1964)
- Reciprocal Altruism (Trivers, 1971)
Kin Selection Theory (Hamilton, 1964)
We are more likely to help those who share our genes (e.g., immediate family).
* An evolutionary strategy that favors behaviors that increase the chance of survival of genetic relatives. From this perspective, people should be more likely to help those who share more of their genes, for example siblings over first cousins. By helping relatives survive, people help their own genetic material pass to future generations.
Reciprocal Altruism (Trivers, 1971)
Helping others increases the likelihood of being helped in return.
Moral Dumbfounding
When people strongly believe something is morally wrong but struggle to justify why with logical reasoning.
Social Intuitionist Model of Moral Judgement (Jonathan Haidt)
Our moral judgements are the product of fast, emotional intuitions, which then influence how we reason about the issue in question. We feel before we think, then we find ways to justify our gut instinct.
e.g., the gut feeling that incest is wrong
Moral Foundations Theory (Haidt)
Our moral judgements are shaped by deep intuitions within five “foundations” or domains. These act as a universal blueprint for morality, influenced by the social, economic and religious aspects of each culture. These automatic intuitions are based on specific emotions that guide reasoning, leading to distinct social judgements.
What are the domains of the Moral Foundations Theory?
- Care/Harm
- Fairness/Reciprocity
- Ingroup loyalty
- Authority/Respect
- Purity/Sanctity
Care/Harm Domain
Centers around a concern for the suffering of others, especially vulnerable individuals. The moral intuitions are triggered by signs of vulnerability and pain, and they elicit emotions such as sympathy that orient us toward protecting the welfare of others, often at personal cost.
most common kinf od everyday morality
Compassion, protecting others.
Fairness/Reciprocity Domain
This foundaiton focuses on concerns that others act in a just, equitable fashion, and it is triggered by unfair acts (scamming, deceiving, failing to reciprocate a generous act, or taking more than one deserves). Anger is the quintessential emotion associated with violations of fairness because it fuels our passion for justice.
In one early test of moral foundations theory, Wilhelm Hofmann and colleagues pinged 1,252 adults on their smartphones
Justice, equality.
Ingroup Loyalty
Ingroup loyalty pertains to the commitments we make to those in the groups we belong to. It’s the foundation for strong, cohesive social collectives, and it evokes emotions such as group pride (loyalty) or rage (betrayal).
Group identity, patriotism.
Authority/Respect
Authority/respect is related to honoring one’s place in social hierarchies. Our intuitions about authority and respect are expressed in our experience of emotions such as embarrassment, shame, envy, and pride.
Respect for traditions.
Purity/Sanctity
Purity/Sanctity centers on avoiding dangerous diseases and contaminants and socially impure ideas or actions. Disgust is the emotion most closely associated with such intuitions.
the most studied foundation
avoiding contamination, wanting to be pure
Bystander effect
Situation in which a witness or bystander does not volunteer to help a victim or person in distress, expecting someone else to do it.
Bystander intervention
The phenomenon whereby people intervene to help others in need even if the other is a complete stranger and the intervention puts the helper at risk
