Helping Behaviour

Types of Helping Behaviour

Prosocial behaviour
Any action that provides benefit to
Casual helping others
Lending someone a pen

Emergency helping
Giving someone the Heimlich when they are
choking

Substantial personal helping

Proofreading a friends paper

Emotional helping
Accompanying someone to a funeral

Why Do People Help Others?

Egoistic motivation?
We help others to feel good about ourselves
i.e., to benefit ourselves by reducing personal
distress

Altruistic motivation?
We help others as an end in itself
Even if it involves a cost to the helper

i.e., to benefit others without

concern for ourselves

Evolutionary Explanations for

Altruism
Darwin realized early on that there was a
problem with evolutionary theory:
How can it explain altruism?

If peoples overriding goal

is to ensure their own
survival, why would they
ever help others at a cost
to themselves?

Evolutionary Explanations for

Altruism
Inclusive fitness
Helping as a means of preserving
our genetic material

Results in kin selection

We are more likely to help relatives than
friends or strangers
They share our genes!
If we help them, we have a better chance of
getting our genes passed on to subsequent
generations!

Empathy as an Explanation for

Altruism
Empathy
The ability to put oneself in the
shoes of another person with
respect to events and emotions that
others experience

Empathy-altruism hypothesis

Feelings of empathy altruistic behaviour

In high empathy situations, we are more
likely to help others

But is this altruism?

Factors Influencing Helping

Social norms
Modeling helpful behaviour
Mood
Individual differences
Gender
Culture

Blaming the victim

The Bystander Effect

Norms and Helping

Personal norms
We each have expectations about our
behaviour in particular situations

Norm of social responsibility

We feel that should help those who are
deserving

Norm of reciprocity
The expectation that helping others will
increase the likelihood that they will help us
in the future

Learning Social Norms

The best learners of a societys norms
and customs have a survival advantage
Why?

Helping others is considered a valuable norm

in virtually all societies

Modeling Helpful Behaviour

Exposure to models of helpful
behaviour can influence the likelihood
of our own helping
Remember when we talked about the
effects of socialization on aggression?
Modeling also has implications for the
development of helping during childhood!

The Effects of Mood on

Helping
Effects of Positive Moods: Feel Good,
Do Good!
Isen & Levin (1972)
84% of people who found coins researcher left
in mall pay phone slots helped a man pick up
papers
Only 4% of those who did not find coins helped
Effects seem to last about 10 minutes
after good mood has been induced

The Effects of Mood on

Helping
Effects of Positive Moods: Feel
Good, Do Good!
Research has shown that when people
are in a good mood, they are more
helpful in a variety of ways:
Contributing money to charity
Helping someone find a lost contact lens
Tutoring another student
Donating blood
Helping co-workers on the job

The Effects of Mood on

Helping

Being in a good mood can increase

helping for three reasons:
1. Good moods make us look on the bright side
of life

More likely to give others the benefit of the doubt

2. Helping others can prolong our good mood

Helping makes us feel good!

but not helping makes us feel bad

3. Good moods increase self-attention

Makes us more likely to behave according

to our values and ideals

The Effects of Mood on

Helping
Negative-State Relief: Feel Bad, Do
Good!
Some bad moods are associated with
increased helping as well
Guilt
People often act on the idea that good deeds
cancel out bad deeds
Harris, Benson, & Hall (1975)
People more likely to donate money
to charity before attending
confession
than afterward!

The Effects of Mood on

Helping
Negative-State Relief: Feel Bad,
Do Good!
Some bad moods are associated with
increased helping as well
Surprisingly, sadness can also lead to an
increase in helping

When sad, people are motivated to do

things that make them feel better
To the extent that helping is rewarding, it
can help put us in a better mood

The Effects of Mood on

Helping
Negative-State Relief: Feel Bad,
Do Good!
Some bad moods are associated with
increased helping as well
Surprisingly, sadness can also lead to an
increase in helping

When sad, people are motivated to do

things that make them feel better
To the extent that helping is rewarding, it
can help put us in a better mood

Individual Differences in
Helping
Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI)
A measure reflecting the extent to which
people feel empathy in response to
others experiences
Dimensions of empathy
Perspective taking
Empathic concern
Personal distress
Fantasy generation

Gender Differences in
Helping
Consider the following two scenarios:
1.Someone performs a dramatic, heroic act, like
storming the cockpit of a plane to fight
hijackers
2.Someone is involved in a long-term helping
relationship, such as assisting a disabled
neighbor with chores around the house

In each of these scenarios, is the

helper more likely to be
a man
or a
woman?

Cultural Differences in
Helping
People in all cultures are more likely to
help anyone they define as a member of
their in-group than those they perceive
as members of out-groups
In-group: The group to which an individual
indentifies as a member
Out-group: Any group to which an
individual does not identify

Why do you think this might be?

Cultural Differences in
Helping
Individualism-collectivism plays a role in
influencing helping
Cultural comparisons to Kenya, Mexico, Japan, India,
and the Phillippines have been made

People from individualist cultures are more likely

to discuss helpfulness publicly whereas people
from collectivist cultures consider it
inappropriate
Some other differences have been found as
well

Cultural Differences in
Helping
1. Many interdependent cultures focus
on the needs of in-group members
over personal needs
1. Focus on the in-group creates a
bigger distinction between us and
them
To be helped by other people, it is
important that they view you as a
member of their in-group, particularly in

Factors that Inhibit Helping

Blaming the Victim
We sometimes conclude that victims
cause their own misfortune

Why?
Belief in a Just World
People need to believe that the world is a fair
and just place
Can lead us to think that bad things happen to
bad people, and good things happen to good
people

Factors that Inhibit Helping

The Bystander Effect
The greater the number of bystanders
who witness an emergency, the less likely
any one of them is to help the victim
Latan and Darley (1970)
What would you do if you were in
the middle of a study when one of
the other participants
suddenly had a
seizure,
crying out for help, choking,
and finally falling silent?

Helping in an Emergency
A decision tree of helping:
1. Notice the emergency
2.
3.

4.
5.

Yes?

A no
Yes?
at any
Interpret it as such
one of
Assume personal
these
Yes?
responsibility for acting stages
will
Yes?
result
Choose a strategy
in no
Yes?
Implement strategy
HELP!
helping

Barriers to Helping in an
Emergency
1. Noticing the Event
Being in a hurry can affect your likelihood
of noticing that someone needs help
Darley and Batson (1973)
Only 10% of seminary students helped a man
slumped in a doorway when they were in a
high hurry situation
This, in spite of the fact that the reason they
were in a hurry was because they were late
to give a talk on being a
Good Samaritan!

Barriers to Helping in an
Emergency
2. Interpreting the Event as an
Emergency
If people assume that nothing is wrong
when an emergency is taking place, they
will not help
Pluralistic Ignorance
When people assume nothing is wrong in an
emergency situation because others who are
present do not appear concerned

Barriers to Helping in an
Emergency
3. Assuming Responsibility
Even if we interpret an event as an
emergency, we have to decide that it is
our responsibility to do something about
it
Diffusion of Responsibility
The phenomenon whereby each bystanders
sense of responsibility to help decreases as
the number of witnesses increases

Barriers to Helping in an
Emergency
4. Knowing How to Help
Suppose that on a hot summer day, you see a
woman collapse in the street. No one else seems
to be helping, and so you decide it is up to you.

But what should you do?

Has the woman had a heart attack? Is she
suffering from heatstroke?
Should you call an ambulance, administer
CPR, or try to get her out of the
sun?

Barriers to Helping in an
Emergency
5. Deciding to Implement the Help
Even if you know exactly what kind of
help is appropriate, there are still reasons
why you might decide not to intervene:
You might not be qualified to deliver the right
kind of help
You might be afraid of making a fool of
yourself
You might be afraid of doing the wrong thing
You may not want to put yourself in danger

Increasing the Likelihood that

Bystanders Will Intervene
Simply being aware of the barriers to
helping in an emergency can increase
peoples chances of overcoming those
barriers
People who know
about bystander
effects often realize
that if they dont act,
perhaps no one will

And now YOU

Negative Reactions to Help

Carefulnot everyone wants your help!
Norm of reciprocity
People can be upset if they are unable to
reciprocate the help they receive

Threats to self-esteem
People who want to be seen as independent or
self-sufficient can be threatened by receiving help

Attributions
If people think you are helping them because they
cant help themselves, they can be offended

Individual differences in gratitude

Some people are just more grateful than others

Questions?