Culture & Prosocial Behaviour

1. Culture & Prosocial Behaviour • Are there differences in prosocial/helping behaviour? • Within a culture e.g. urban versus rural areas • Between cultures e.g. individualist versus collectivist cultures www.psychlotron.org.uk

2. Intra-Cultural Variations • Urban Overload Hypothesis (Milgram, 1970) • People who live in cities are exposed to high levels of environmental stimulation • They develop strategies to cut out excessive stimulation • One such strategy is to avoid interactions with strangers – this leads to a reduction in helping behaviour in some situations www.psychlotron.org.uk

3. Culture & Prosocial Behaviour • Most research into prosocial behaviour carried out in US and Europe • May be problems generalising • Values attached to prosocial behaviour likely to be affected by culture www.psychlotron.org.uk

4. Types of Culture • Individualistic • Based on values of independence, competition, achievement and self-interest • Prosocial concerns likely to be limited to immediate family/close relationships • Collectivistic • Based on values of mutual interdependence, loyalty and group membership • Prosocial concerns likely to be extended beyond family, at least to members of same social group www.psychlotron.org.uk

5. Research • Comparative studies of helping in children • Those from collectivist cultures (e.g. Kenyan, Mexican, Hopi Indian) generally more helpful, co-operative than individualist (US, UK) • US/UK children tend to compete even when working towards common goals. • Likely that individualist cultures raise less helpful, co-operative kids due to need to compete in later life (capitalism) www.psychlotron.org.uk

6. Research • Prosociality does seems to depend on child rearing to some extent • Collectivist cultures tend to have extended family structures in which children take responsibility for younger siblings from an early age (Whiting & Whiting, 1988) • May explain variation between e.g. Kenyan & UK kids www.psychlotron.org.uk

7. Research • Likely that individualist and collectivist cultures help others for different reasons • Individualist – helping motivated by personal rewards e.g. feeling good about yourself • Collectivist – helping motivated by continued survival of group, possible future reciprocation www.psychlotron.org.uk

8. Problems • ‘Individualist’ and ‘collectivist’ invite us to see all cultures as falling neatly into two camps. They don’t. • Research studies have used limited samples and generally involve a single favour, so not long term. • Usual problems of conducting cross-cultural research (e.g. trust, language) also apply. www.psychlotron.org.uk