Altruism:Lecture #9 topics

Why do we help? evolutionary & motivational factors

When do we help? situational factors

Who do we help? interpersonal factors

Altruism

Altruism

Why do we help?

EVOLUTIONARY REASONS

______ ______:

helping ______ relatives so that your common ______ will survive e.g., squirrels warn nearby relatives of predators

we help others for our own ______ interests

Why do we help?

______ ______:

helping someone else ______ the chances that you’ll be helped in return chimps share their food; freeloaders get punished file-sharing services (e.g., Kazaa, Morpheus)

we help others for our own ______

Why do we help?

MOTIVATIONAL REASONS

helping feels good …especially if we feel ______ about something

helping is “the right thing to do” it affirms our ______ beware of ______ ______: when helping others for

personal gain is disguised as a moral act

Why do we help?

Is it altruism…or egotism?

Binti Jua withher daughter

Why do we help?

EMPATHY

perspective taking:_______ component; trying to see the

world through another’s eyes

empathic concern:_______ component; other-oriented

feelings (sympathy, compassion, tenderness)

EMPATHY-ALTRUISM HYPOTHESIS (Batson):

Why do we help?

Why do we help?

Why do we help?

The difference between altruists & egoists:

HIGH

LOW

High empathy Low empathy

% w

ho

hel

ped

Ela

ine

Hard escape

Easy escape

Why do we help?

EGOTISTIC REASONS

we feel ______ if we feel empathy but don’t help so we help to avoid those ______ feelings

helping makes a bad ______ better empathy makes us ______, so we help to feel better

helping makes us ______ empathy makes us sensitive to the other person’s

happiness after we’ve helped them

When do we help?

Kitty Genovese

When do we help?

SITUATIONAL FACTORS

the bystander effect:

the presence of other people ______ helping

the ______ bystanders there are, the ______ likely it is that anyone will help

When do we help?

deciding to intervene: ______ that someone needs help

crowds may divert attention away from them city dwellers are good at tuning out people needing

help

______ the situation as an emergency ______ situations reduce the chances someone will

help we can look at how others are reacting, but ______

______ can occur e.g., Latane & Darley’s (1968) “smoky room” study

When do we help?

deciding to intervene (cont’d):

taking ______ but who is responsible for providing help? ______ ___ ______: belief that ______ in the crowd

will/ should be responsible for intervening most likely to occur under ______ conditions

When do we help?

TIME PRESSURE

when we’re hurried, we...:

are ______ & don’t notice people in need are less likely to take responsibility for helping decide that helping takes too much ______

When do we help?

Darley & Batson’s (1973) “Good Samaritan” study:

Ahead ofschedule

On time Running late

% w

ho

sto

pp

ed t

o h

elp

Ahead of schedule

On time

Running late

When do we help?

social norms:

general rules of conduct established by society

______ – based on ______; quid-pro-quo transactions

______ – based on the idea that the ______ should help the ______

______ ______ – we have the duty to help others, especially those who need it most

Who do we help?

INTERPERSONAL INFLUENCES

______ we help the physically attractive e.g., people were more likely to mail back good-

looking applicant’s materials (Benson et al., 1976)

______ of responsibility we help people who help themselves e.g., lending notes to a person who tries hard to take

good notes