Understanding human behavior V

Prosocial behavior
Why do people help others, at a cost to
themselves?
Why do people help others, at a cost to
themselves?
• People have various motives for offering help and support for others
• Rewards: material (financial incentives, special privileges, etc.) and social
(praise, fame, etc.)
 Why do people help others, at a cost to
themselves? – Social Rewards
• Each participant in a group is given Contribution to the group
100 coins 80
• Decide how much to keep for themselves
and how much to contribute to the 70
common good
• Contributed money is doubled and
redistributed equally between all group 60

members
50

• Two conditions: 40
• No reputation condition – participants
never know how much each person 30
contributed
• Reputation condition – after the first
round, everyone knows how much each 20
Round 1 Round 2
person contributed
No reputation Reputation

Hardy & Van Vugt (2006)

 Why do people help others, at a cost to
themselves? – Social Rewards

Who would you choose as the

group’s leader?

Hardy & Van Vugt (2006)

Why do people help others, at a cost to
themselves?
• People have various motives for offering help and support for others
• Rewards
• Emotional: Emotional regulation (reduce personal distress) and emotional
maintenance (maintain positive affect)
Why do people help others, at a cost to
themselves?
• People have various motives for offering help and support for others
• Rewards
• Emotional
• Empathic concern - Identifying with a person in need, including feeling and
understanding what that person is experiencing, accompanied by the intention to
help the person

• How can we distinguish other-focused, empathic helping from self-focused

helping?
• Egoism – a motivational state with the ultimate goal of increasing one’s own welfare
• Altruism – a motivational state with the ultimate goal of increasing another’s welfare
Altruism and Empathy
• Problem: we cannot observe other people’s motives, only their
behaviors.

• How do we know if people help because they care about the other
person and feel empathy, or because they experience personal
distress?
Altruism and Empathy

Easy escape condition:

Although the other participant will be Trade places?

completing 10 trials, it will be
necessary for you to observe only the First of all, let me say that you're under no obligation
first two Measured personal to trade places. If you would like to continue in your
distress and role as observer that's fine [..] If you decide to change
empathy towards places with them, what will happen is that they will
Difficult escape condition:
the other person come in here and observe you, and you'll do the
aversive conditioning trials with the shocks. Then
The other participant will be
you'll be free to go. What would you like to do?
completing 10 trials, all of which you
will observe
 Altruism and Empathy
% of participants choosing to help
100%

80%
Experience Experience
personal distress empathy
Help the other Help the other 60%
Difficult escape
person person Difficult escape
Help the other 40% Easy escape
Easy escape Walk away
person
20%

0%
Experience personal Experience empathy
distress

Batson et al., 1983

Altruism and Empathy
Low-empathy condition:
Social pressure
Try to focus on the technical aspects of the Would you like to
broadcast. Concentrate on those techniques and Most people before you chose to help
help this student?
devices that are used to make the broadcast (care for her
have an impact on the listener. younger siblings, No social pressure
fix things around
High-empathy condition: her house, provide Most people before chose not to help
transportation,
Try to imagine how this person feels about what etc.)
Control condition
has happened and how the events have affected
her life. Try to feel the full impact of what this
person has been through and how she feels as a
result
 Altruism and Empathy
% of participants choosing to help
100%

80%

Low empathy High empathy

Help the other Help the other 60%
Social pressure Social pressure
person person
Control condition
No social Help the other 40% No social pressure
Walk away
pressure person
20%

0%
Low empathy High empathy

Batson et al., 1988

Altruism and Empathy
• Empathy-motivated altruism exists (sometimes)
• Helping even when actions are anonymous
• Helping even when it’s easy not to help
• Helping even when people can relieve their distress in a different way

• Failures to act altruistically lead to negative emotions

• (“I tried my best” isn’t good enough)

• Effective altruistic acts by a third party lead to positive emotions

Altruism and Empathy
• Pure altruism exists ≠ every instance of helping is purely altruistic
• Altruistic motives are sufficient, but not necessary, preconditions for helping

• The difference between altruism and egoism is in the intention, not

the consequences
• An ineffective attempt to benefit others is still altruistic
• An act that accidently benefits others is not necessarily altruistic

• The ability to attribute a prosocial act to egoistic motives does not

mean that the act was indeed egoistically motivated
Situational determinants of helping
100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%
% helping
Low hurry Intermediate hurry High hurry

Darley & Batson, 1973

Situational determinants of helping – The
bystander effect
Situational determinants of helping – The
bystander effect
Situational determinants of helping – The
bystander effect
• The bystander effect – the decreased tendency to offer help or
assistance to those in need when other people are present
Situational determinants of helping - The
bystander effect
• “I-er-um-I think I-I necd-er-if-if could-er-er-
somebody er-er-er-er-er-er-er give me a
liltle-er-give me a little help here because-
er-I-er-I'm-er-erh-h-having a-a-a real
problcm-er-right now and I-er-if
somebody could help me out it would-it
would-er-er s-s-sure be-sure be good . . .
becausecr-there-er-cr-a cause I-er-I-uh-
I've got a-a one of the-er-sei er-cr-things
coming on and-and-and I could really-er-
use some help so if somebody would-er-
give me a little h-help-uh-er-er-er-er-er c-
could somebody-er-er-help-er-uh-uh-uh
(choking sounds). . . . I'm gonna die-er-er-
I'm . . . gonna die-er-help-er-er-seizure-er-
[chokes, then quiet]”
Situational determinants of helping - The
bystander effect
% offering help within a minute
100%
Alone
90% 2 additional people
80% 5 additional people
70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

Darley & Latane, 1968

Situational determinants of helping - The
bystander effect

Latane & Dabbs, 1975

Why does the bystander effect occur?
• Attention: The presence of others decreases the likelihood of noticing
the incident

• Interpretation: The presence of others decreases the likelihood of

construing the incident as an emergency

• Diffusion of responsibility: The presence of others reduces the

likelihood of feeling personally responsible (and capable) for
providing assistance
Interpretation - Pluralistic ignorance
Interpretation - Pluralistic ignorance
Interpretation - Pluralistic ignorance
% reporting the smoke
100%

90% Alone

80% With two other

70% participants
With two
60% confederates
50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

Latane & Darley, 1968

Interpretation - Pluralistic ignorance
% offering help
100%

90%

80%

70%

Alone Face-to-face Back-to-back 60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%
Alone Back-to-back Face-to-face

Darley, Teger, & Lewis, 1973

Interpretation - Pluralistic ignorance
% offering help
100%
90%
80%
Alone
70%
With other participant
60%
With passive confederate
50%
With friend
40%
30%
20%
10%
[LOUD CRASH] 0%
Oh, my God, my foot.. I… I… can’t move it. Oh, my
ankle… I... can’t get this... thing… off me.”

Latane & Rodin, 1969

Situational determinants of helping –
Geographic location
Situational determinants of helping –
Geographic location
% willing to help
100%

80%

60%

40%

20%

0%
Correct Help injured Help lost child Make change Tell your name Tell the time Return lost letter Given donation
overpayment pedestrian
Urban Rural

Steblay, 1987
Situational determinants of helping –
Geographic location
• Why are people in large urban areas less likely to help?

• Attention and Stimulus overload

• Diversity hypothesis
• Diffusion of responsibility
• No reputational concerns
What can people do to increase their chances
of being helped?
• Attention: People, especially in crowds, are less likely to notice an
emergency. Make some noise

• Interpretation: People will look to others to interpret the situation.

Emphasize that this is an emergency and that you need help

• Diffusion of responsibility: The larger the group, the less likely each
member is to feel responsible. Single people out and individuate
them with specific requests (”can you help me up?”, “would you call
an ambulance?”)
•NO NEED TO READ PAST THIS SLIDE
How can we explain altruism from an
evolutionary perspective?
How can we explain altruism from an
evolutionary perspective?
It is extremely doubtful whether the offspring
of the more sympathetic and benevolent
parents, or of those who were the most faithful
to their comrades, would be reared in greater
numbers than the children of selfish and
treacherous parents belonging to the same
tribe. He who was ready to sacrifice his life, as
many a savage has been, rather than betray his
comrades, would often leave no offspring to
inherit his noble nature.
How can we explain altruism from an
evolutionary perspective?
• Kin selection
How can we explain altruism from an
evolutionary perspective?
• Kin selection
• Reciprocal altruism & the evolution of gratitude
How can we explain altruism from an evolutionary
perspective? - Reciprocal altruism & Gratitude
% tip
26%
24%
22%
20%
18%
16%
14%
12%
10%
8%
6%
4%
2%
0%
No candy 1 piece 2 pieces 1+1 piece

Strohmetz, Rind, Fisher, & Lynn (2002)

How can we explain altruism from an evolutionary
perspective? - Reciprocal altruism & Gratitude

Chuan, Kessler, & Milkman (2018)

How can we explain altruism from an evolutionary
perspective? - Reciprocal altruism
How can we explain altruism from an
evolutionary perspective?
• Kin selection
• Reciprocal altruism
• Group selection and large group cooperation
How can we explain altruism from an
evolutionary perspective?
• When two tribes […] came into competition,
if [..] the one tribe included a great number
of of courageous, sympathetic and faithful
members, who were always ready to warn
each other of danger, to and defend each
other, this tribe would succeed better and
conquer the other […] Selfish and
contentious people will not cohere, and
without coherence nothing can be effected.
A tribe rich in the above qualities would
spread and be victorious over other tribes.
How can we explain altruism from an
evolutionary perspective?
Summary
• People help for different reasons, including rewards (social and otherwise), emotion
regulation (personal distress), and empathic concern
• The underlying motives for helping distinguish between altruism and egoism
• To examine whether “pure” altruism exists, one needs to create a situation where helping is not
rewarded (e.g., anonymous giving), and personal distress can be alleviated in non-costly manner
(e.g., walking away)
• Regardless of motives, whether people help is often influenced by situational factors
• The bystander effect and diffusion of responsibility
• Pluralistic ignorance
• Geographic location
• Evolution does not preclude altruism
• Kin selection
• Reciprocal altruism & the evolution of gratitude
• Group selection all help select for altruism