Altruism & Prosocial Behavior
Definitions
• Altruism
– voluntarily helping another person
– no expectation of benefit in any form
• Prosocial Behavior
– helping behavior, regardless of the helper’s
motives
• altruism is a type of prosocial behavior
• Egoism vs. Altruism
– does altruism truly exist???
Perspectives on Helping
• Evolutionary Perspective
– Darwin (1871)
• prosocial behavior in rabbits
– also noted in baboons, dolphins, nighthawks, soldier
termites, etc.
• runs counter to the “survival of the fittest” notion
– … but, parents sacrificing themselves for their
offspring makes it more likely their genes survive …
– what about prosocial behavior toward complete
strangers?
Perspectives on Helping
• Sociocultural Perspective
– social origin of prosocial behavior
• necessity for functional society
– encouragement of social norms
• Norm of Social Responsibility
– expectation to help those dependent upon us
• Norm of Reciprocity
– expectation to help those who help us
• Norm of Social Justice
– rules about fairness and the distribution of resources
Perspectives on Helping
• Learning Perspective
– Reinforcement
• rewards and punishments
– Observational Learning
• modeling
Perspectives on Helping
• Decision-Making Perspective
– Decision Tree Model of Helping
• Perceiving a Need
– notice situation & interpret as emergency
• Taking Personal Responsibility
– am I responsible for helping?
• Weighing Costs and Benefits
– is helping worthwhile?
• Deciding How to Take Action
– how can I help? am I able to help?
Decision Tree Model of
Helping
PERCEIVING A NEED
Does someone need help?
YES
TAKING PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY
Am I Responsible?
NO. There is no
problem. No further
action is necessary.
NO. It’s not my
responsibility. No
further action taken.
YES
WEIGHING THE COSTS AND BENEFITS
Is helping worthwhile?
YES
DECIDING HOW TO HELP
Do I know what to do?
YES
HELP GIVEN
NO. It’s too risky,
time consuming,
unpleasant, etc. No
further action taken.
NO. I can’t figure
out what to do. No
further action taken.
Perspectives on Helping
• Attribution Theory
– attributions we make about those in need
determine whether we help or not
• e.g., Unlikely to give money to a panhandler
talking on a new cell phone and wearing $200
shoes
– more likely to help people if we perceive their need
as being caused by external sources
The Helper
• Mood of the Helper
– good mood  more likely to help
– but, people in bad moods may be
motivated to help others too
• Negative-State Relief Model (Cialdini et al.,
1973)
– helping in order to diffuse a bad mood
– helping others can help us feel better
The Helper
• Motives for Helping
– Personal Distress
• reactions to the plight of others that result in feelings of
anxiety and apprehension
• primary focus on the self
• can cause a person to avoid a situation where help is
needed
• often results in egoistic behavior
– Empathy
• feeling sympathy for and actually experiencing another’s
situation
• motivates a person to offer assistance
• often results in prosocial behavior
The Helper
• Factors that increase empathy:
– person is similar to us
– situation is uncontrollable by the person
– focusing on the feelings of the person
rather than the objective facts of the
situation
The Helper
• Personality Characteristics
– “helpful” personality not apparent
– What motivates people to help?
• Good Samaritan study (Huston, 1981)
– interviewed interveners in violent and dangerous
situations (e.g., muggings, bank robberies)
– Commonalities:
» big, strong, usually male
» had lifesaving, medical, or police training
» motivated by a sense of personal responsibility
and competence
The Helper
• Gender Differences
– Eagly & Crowley (1986)
» men more likely to help if heroism is needed
» women more likely to help if nurturance is
needed
• Blood Donors
– often view blood donation as part of their selfconcept despite an initial aversion to the idea
• Rescuers of Jews in Nazi Europe
– Oliner & Oliner (1988)
» rescuers emphasized social norms, empathy,
and compassion
Bystander Intervention
• Cat-Flap Story
• Kitty Genovese Incident
– Bystander Intervention
• helping a stranger in distress
Bystander Intervention
• Explanations
– Situational Factors
• Diffusion of Responsibility
• Ambiguous Situations
• Evaluation Apprehension
– Environmental Factors
– Time Pressures
Bystander Intervention
• Latané & Darley (1970) Study 1
– Bystander Effect
• number of participants was the IV
• next door, an “emergency” occurred
• as number of participants , helping 
– replicated with staged thefts at a convenience store
Bystander Intervention
• Diffusion of Responsibility
– the norm of social responsibility suggests that we
help those in need …
– but who should help when there are many people
present?
– the expectation doesn’t change, but the number of
people witnessing the need can
– as the number of people , responsibility spreads
throughout the crowd
• not always though – being the only doctor in a crowd
doesn’t decrease his/her responsibility to perform CPR
Bystander Intervention
• Ambiguous Situations
– how others interpret a situation determines how we interpret
that situation
– even in a real emergency, if everybody acts like it’s no big deal,
we’re likely to assume the same
• Latané & Darley (1970) Study 2
• # of participants was the IV
• participants placed in a room, given a “filler” task
• smoke began to fill the room
– # of participants, time to seek help, + correlated
– in some sessions, the room was so smoky that participants couldn’t
even see each other
Bystander Intervention
• Evaluation Apprehension
– concern with self-presentation
• can make us more or less likely to help depending on the
situation
Bystander Intervention
• Environmental conditions
– Weather
• sunny & warm vs. cloudy & cold
– Time of day
• day vs. night
– City size
• large vs. small
• a person’s city of origin
Bystander Intervention
• Time Pressures
– Darley & Batson (1973)
• participants were seminary students
– Students asked if they could cover for their advisors
by giving a short talk to a group
– All said they could
Bystander Intervention
• Two Independent Variables
– Amount of Time
• ½ of the participants were told that they had plenty of
time to get to the building
• ½ were told that they were already late
– Type of Lecture
• ½ of the participants were told that the speech was to be
about the “Good Samaritan” Bible story
• ½ were told that the speech was to be about jobs
available to theology students
Bystander Intervention
• On the way to the talk, participants
encountered a person moaning, coughing, and
groaning
• Results:
– In a hurry: 10% helped
– Plenty of time: 63% helped
– Type of speech made no difference
Volunteerism
• Motives for Volunteering
– Values
– Understanding
– Social
– Career
– Self-Protection
– Self-Enhancement
Helping Close Others
• most helping behavior benefits family and
close others
– support for the evolutionary perspective?
• children that share, help, and comfort their
friends are more popular than those who do
not
• Gender roles
– female helping roles tend to be socioemotional
– male helping roles tend to be instrumental
Receiving Help
• Reactions to being helped are not
always grateful
– person being helped can feel overly
dependent and weak
– may feel that they have nothing to give in
return
• feel as if they’re violating the norm of reciprocity
Receiving Help
• Attributions
– How we attribute the causes of our need
for help determines whether we feel
justified to ask for help
– How we attribute the motives of the helper
determines our behavior toward him/her
Receiving Help
• Reactance
– threats to personal freedom (e.g., needing
to depend on someone for basic needs)
are often met with negative reactions
• Receiving help can be beneficial and
necessary in many aspects, but it can
also limit freedom, diminish power, and
lower self-esteem