Disussion 5
Chapter 9
Prosocial Behavior
Today’s Outline
Why do people help others
Altruism vs. Egoism debate
Role of empathy
Who is likely to receive help and when will people help (or not help)
Good Samaritan study
Kitty Genovese case
5 steps to helping and obstacles that block helping
What can we do to increase helping
Education, modeling
Prosocial Behavior
Prosocial behavior: doing something that is good for society as a whole
Or any behavior that has a positive impact on other people.
Prosocial Behavior – Fairness/helping
Many animals are sensitive to fairness
E.g. if researchers give some animals better treats or more treats for doing the same task
Animals that get unexciting treats feel ‘underbenefited’ and get mad
But so far only humans will help others when they are ‘overbenefited’
If a human receives more for the same work, they will often help by giving some of it to those less fortunate
Remember learning about upward social comparison?
Humans are sensitive to overpforming and making others sad/jealous
Altruism vs. Egoism
Altruism
When we help out of the goodness of our hearts or because of empathy
Skeptics may argue we only ever help because we get something out of it:
Reciprocity
Positive feelings (feels good to help, selfish)
Relieve negative feelings that we feel due to empathy (E.g. you can feel less bad about a person being homeless if you bring them some food)
A sense of doing the right thing (feels good)
Empathy and Helping Others
Empathic arousal: emotional arousal that occurs when you feel some of the person’s pain, fear, or anguish
Empathy-helping relationship: we are most likely to help person in need when we feel emotions such as empathy and compassion
There is evidence that people will help due to both reasons, altruism & egoism
Altruism vs. Egoism
Batson et al. (1981) examined this
Participants met a confederate named Elaine, who they would have to shock
Later they overhear her telling the experimenter she had a bad experience with being shocked when young is now very afraid of electricity
Experimenters manipulated empathy in participants by telling them Elaine has similar traits to them (high empathy) or dissimilar traits (low empathy)
Participants given the opportunity to escape/leave the study
Some were in an easy-escape condition, ‘you can leave after Elaine gets shocked twice’
Some were in a hard-escape condition, ‘you have to watch all 10 shocks’
Altruism vs. Egoism
Low-empathy participants who could easily escape did so and left poor Elaine to her fate
But they didn’t have to watch her get shocked, which relieves negative emotions (Egoism)
About half of the participants in the Low-empathy, hard-escape condition took Elaine’s place and half escaped the study
Among high-empathy participants almost all chose to stay and help Elaine by switching places (supports Altruism)
Altruism vs. Egoism
My thoughts on the Batson et al. study: I’m not a skeptical kind of person, I believe in altruism
*But in response to that study’s claim: couldn’t you just say that someone felt better about taking Elaine’s place than they did about letting her suffer, and that out-weighted the annoyance of being shocked, so that’s still egoism?
In any event, I think if a study were able to show some people help out of duty and with no positive neurochemicals being released, that would be altruism
Who is likely to receive help:
Receiving Help:
Beautiful people, both men & woman
Similar people
E.g. club members helping other club members
Women in general
Those likely to give help:
Men, to strangers
Women, to family
Happy people
When will people help?
Good Samaritan Study (Darley & Batson)
Seminary Students (participants)
Asked to give a talk/lecture
Independent Variables:
Some asked to do a talk on the Good
Samaritan parable; others on career choices
Also, some put in a rush (you’re late for the talk) or others not in a rush
Dependent Variable: Helping
Will they help someone who is on the ground, moaning?
Results:
No difference between talks (wow...)
Participants in the 'no rush' condition: 6x more likely to help
Good Samaritan Study
It’s kind of amazing that despite having the Good Samaritan story primed, seminary students still didn’t stop to help
Even in the no-rush condition, no difference in helping behavior based on which talk was going to be given
Tragic case where no one helped
Let’s take a few minutes to review famous and tragic case of not receiving help…Kitty Genovese
Watch the following video before proceeding with the lecture
Just as a warning, what you’ll hear about will be sad/disturbing, proceed accordingly
If you opt not to watch it, please read up on a summary instead, as there will be questions on the test about this case
Kitty Genovese
So, why did no one help?
Researchers were motivated by this incident to find out exactly that, as you saw
Notes: the amount of witnesses may have been overblown by the media, but perhaps not
Either way, the case lead to some important findings, specifically, it lead directly to Darley and Latane’s study that you’ll read about in a minute
Helping Others
Bystander apathy: unwillingness of bystanders to offer help during emergencies
Related to number of people present
More potential helpers present, less likely people will give help
Steps to Helping & Obstacles to Helping
Darley & Latane’s 5 Steps to Helping:
1. Notice something is happening
Obstacle: self-concerns (running late, etc.)
2. Interpret as emergency
Obstacles: Pluralistic Ignorance (everyone looks to each other and no one moves); ambiguity
3. Take Responsibility
Obstacle: Diffusion of Responsibility (Darley & Latane): 6 people vs. 1 person. 6 = almost never helped, 1 = almost always helped); ‘surely someone else already called 911’
4. Decide how to help
Obstacle: competence issues, people don’t feel qualified to help
5. Actually helping
Belief in Just World Recap
A nice thought, but it leads to Victim Blaming
E.g. rape victim dressed proactively, poor people are just lazy, etc.
People with strong beliefs in a just world only help those who they feel deserve it
Typically, belief in a just world scales with wealth & power
Very wealthy: world is just
Average: world is somewhat just
Very poor: world is unjust
How can you secure help when needed?
Consider the 5 obstacles to helping and try to bypass them
E.g. Diffusion of responsibility
Bypass by pointing to someone in a crowd and say “You, please help me”
E.g. Bypass competency issues by telling him/her how to help
“Please call 911 for me” “Please see if the manager or a chef knows the Heimlich Maneuver”
By doing those two steps you’ll also bypass pluralistic ignorance. If you need help and someone hasn’t noticed the problem, ask anyway
Money & Helping
Is money the “root of all evil?”
Perhaps, perhaps not
But what we do know is that money increases self-sufficiency
Less likely to give help or to ask for help
It reduces prosocial behavior (helping, cooperation, & forgiveness)
In one study, participants who saw a money screensaver (vs. a fish screen saver) were less likely to help a confederate who spilled pencils
Money and helping
In another study, participants who were primed with money were less likely to help a confederate on a very difficult word puzzle when he/she asked for help
Finally, in a third study, those participants primed with money were more likely to choose to do the experiment alone rather than in a group
The greater issue/irony here is this:
If the people who have the means to help the most (those with money) are the least likely to help, then people will never get help from those who can provide it
Education
Just by virtue of having taken this lecture, you’re now more likely to be a helper! Congrats!
One study found that after having heard a lecture on the bystander effect vs. either a different lecture or no lecture
Participants who heard the bystander effect lecture were more likely to help someone who seemed passed out
67% vs 27% (no lecture/other lecture)
These findings persisted 2 months later as well
Other educational materials
Some TV shows for children have been found to be wholesome enough to increase helping behavior
E.g. Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street
Modeling helpfulness
Helping behavior can be very socially contagious!
In a game where students could donate gift cards to orphans or keep them, 0% donated
But in the condition that had an adult model who donated some of his, 48% donated
If you want to inspire your friends/family to do charity work or donate their time, start with you!
Final note
We’re more likely to help in-group members
But often the people who need help are not in our in-group, so it’s easy to turn a blind eye
Your textbook authors suggest trying to shift our view to where all people are our in-group
I agree, cheesy as that may sound, I think it’d be much for the better