Prosocial behaviour
Any action that helps another, regardless of motives
2 types of motives for pro-social behavior
- selfish
- altruistic
Altruism
- selfless motives that benefit others without regard to consequences for someone else.
Social reward examples
- praise, rewards, honors, gratitude
Why might people perform pro-social behaviour
- because they want positive attention
- activates circuits in the brain that are associated with rewards.
- seeing other people suffer makes you upset, (negative state relief hypothesis)
- might genuinely identify with another person is feeling, and wanting to help, same neural circuits active when you experience pain are active when seeing others in pain.
So 3 reasons: - social rewards, personal distress, empathetic concern.
Are out motives always selfish?
- it can be difficult to tell altruism from selfish desires
- what matters are the intentions
Batson et al shock study procedure and results
After first two shocks, researchers asked participants how much they felt distress (e.g., upset, worried) and empathy (e.g., sympathy, compassion)
•Participants were then asked if they wanted to take the student’s place (i.e., take some of the shocks for him)
Results:
•Participants who were high in distress were less likely to take the student’s place
•Participants who felt high in empathy were more likely to take the student’s place
Situational determinants o altruism
- being busy
- presence of others
- ambiguous situations
- victim characteristics
Bystander intervention
- when people help someone when observing an emergency
The bystander effect
- people showing a diffusion of responsibility when others are present.
Why does the presence of others cause altruism
- diffusion of responsibility - you assume others will help, so you don’t need to.
- pluralistic ignorance - if no one else helps, you use that as information to say that everything is ok
How can ambiguous situations affect altruism
People in rural areas report ———- than people in urban areas
Empathetic concern
- people are more likely to help strangers in rural areas.
- so smaller the community, the stronger the effect
Social class and altruism
- upper class: less likely to give compared to lower class
- lower class: people build stronger relationships to help weather difficult circumstances, so likely to judge people’s emotions, and lower class give more to charity.
Why do people of lower social class give more?
- they have fewer resources, so important to build stronger relationships connections
- upper class = more resources = more independence
- people who need help more likely to be similar
Effect of religion on altruism
- tends to increase altruism because of a focus of kindness
- eg religion priming experiment, giving half their money away if religiously primed.
Why is it difficult to explain altruism from an evolutionary perspective?
- it favors behaviour that encourages survival and reproduction
- and helping others is costly (resource wise) and leaves less to help relatives and ourselves.
Kin selection
- tendency for natural selection to favor behavior that increases chances of survival of genetic relatives
Reciprocal Altruism
- tendency to help others with the expectation that they will help us some time in the future.
Reciprocal altruism - why does it happen?
- it increases chances of survival and reproduction in both parties
- less conflict, more help overcoming scarce resources + more alliances.
Situational determinants of cooperation
- reputation
- anticipation of more future interactions (increases extent to which we cooperate
How can construal processes effect cooperation
- the way in which we label a situation can influence levels of cooperation and competition
