Altruism: Lecture #9 topics

1. Altruism:Lecture #9 topics • Why do we help? • evolutionary & motivational factors • When do we help? • situational factors • Who do we help? • interpersonal factors

2. Altruism

3. Altruism

4. 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

5. 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 ______

6. 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

7. Why do we help? Is it altruism…or egotism? Binti Jua with her daughter

8. Why do we help? EMPATHY-ALTRUISM HYPOTHESIS (Batson):

9. Why do we help?

10. Why do we help?

11. Why do we help? The difference between altruists & egoists: HIGH Hard escape % who helped Elaine Easy escape LOW High empathy Low empathy

12. 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

13. When do we help? Kitty Genovese

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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 ______

18. When do we help? Darley & Batson’s (1973) “Good Samaritan” study: Ahead of schedule % who stopped to help On time Running late Ahead of On time Running late schedule

19. 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

20. 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