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Class 14: Altruism and Attribution Theory

Class 14: Altruism and Attribution Theory. SCHEDULE: Today to Midterm Oct. 25: Class 14 -- Altruism and Attribution Theory Oct. 30: Class 15 -- Emotion Managment (Pennebaker "Confession..."; Harber & Cohen, "Emotional Broadcaster")

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Class 14: Altruism and Attribution Theory

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  1. Class 14: Altruism and Attribution Theory

  2. SCHEDULE: Today to Midterm Oct. 25: Class 14 -- Altruism and Attribution Theory Oct. 30: Class 15 -- Emotion Managment (Pennebaker "Confession..."; Harber & Cohen, "Emotional Broadcaster") Nov. 1: Review session. Bring PowerPoints, notes. Nov. 6: Midterm Discussant Schedule has been revised. Discussant Presentations: 6 min. summary MAX, 10 min questions.

  3. Do Humans Care About Other Humans? Batson (1990)

  4. Acts of Selfless (?) Heroism The “fifth man” in Air Florida crash Polish Concentration Camp Guard Question: What motivates this behavior?

  5. Why Do People Help Others? Altruistic explanation -- Caring Egoistic explanations Negative state relief: Stop personal discomfort Avoid social/self punishments: Shame, guilt Seek social/self rewards: Honor, pride

  6. A “Selfishness Bias” in Psychology? Freud: Behavior based on pleasure principle Skinner: Behavior based on pleasure principle Modern Self Theorists in Social Psychology: 1. Totalitarian ego: false uniqueness, false representativeness 2. Self affirmation 3. Self esteem 4. Self monitoring 5. Self efficacy 6. Downward social comparison

  7. The “Selfish Gene” Theory Fundamental goal of life-forms – pass on genes Who will pass on genes? Those who survive Therefore behaviors that promote survival are “adaptive” and are “selected in” Behaviors that jeopardize survival are maladaptive and are “selected out” Who is more likely to survive, the selfless helper or the selfish non-helper?

  8. Challenges to “Selfish Gene” Inclusive Fitness: Share genes with others Risk taking for others promotes their survival People more apt to sacrifice for those closest to them in terms of shared genes Reciprocal Altruism: I help you today, you help me tomorrow, and typically with interest.

  9. Prosocial Behavior vs. Altruistic Behavior 1. Prosocial: Helping others, for any reason 2. Altruistic: Helping others because you care about them. Note: Altruistic is a type of pro-social behavior.

  10. Emotions Consistent with Egoistic (Selfish) Behavior Emotions Consistent with Altruistic Behavior Envy Pride Jealousy Spite Greed Lust Gluttony Covetousness Scheudenfreuden Empathy

  11. Daniel Batson: Empathy and Altruism Batson conducts classic research on “bystander intervention”, showing how situations can prevent people from helping. Jerusalem to Jericho study, for example However, he becomes interested why some people help, others do not, regardless of the situation. Asks: Are we capable of caring?

  12. Empathy vs. Avoiding Shame: The “Elayne” Study 1. Subs. told: study about learning and shocks 2. Sub. is “observer”, confed. (“Elayne”) is “learner” 3. Sub. learnes Elayne is very similar (high empathy cond) or very dissimilar to him/her (low empathy cond) 4. Sub. sees Elayne's distress, upset 5. Exptr. calls a break, asks Elayne if OK, “yes, but water please.” Elayne is clearly distressed. 6. During break, Sub completes mood check-list. Purpose: ID people high/low on empathy 7. Elayne confides to Expt. childhood trauma w’ shocks. 8. Expt. asks Subs: “willing to switch places w’ Elayne?” 9. Subs. must qualify to help by performing well at test a. For ½ Subs. “easy test, most can do well” b. For ½ Subs. “hard test, most can’t do well”

  13. “Social Censure” Predictions “Empathy and Altruism” Predictions Justification for not helping Justification for not helping Low Empathy Condition Low Empathy Condition High Empathy Condition High Empathy Condition Weak Justif. Helps Helps Strong Justif. No Help No Help Weak Justif. Helps Helps Strong Justif. No Help Helps “Social Censure” vs. “Empathy and Altruism” Predictions

  14. Rates of Volunteering to Help Distressed “Elaine” as a Function of Felt Empathy and Opportunity to Avoid Social Censure Batson et al., 1988 Note: Easy test = Low Justification to avoid helping Hard test = High justification to avoid helping

  15. Effort Made to Qualify to Help “Elaine” as a Function of Felt Empathy and Opportunity for Face-Saving Out Batson, et al., 1988 Note: Easy Test = Low justification to avoid trying on test Hard Test = High justification of avoid trying on test

  16. S Solution to Selfishness vs. Altruism Debate – “The Shared Self” Problem: Do we ever intentionally act outside of self-interest? Solution: Reconsider what we mean by “self” and “other” Batson’s implicit definition – these are distinct entities O

  17. S O Solution to Selfishness vs. Altruism, Contin. What do people say when someone they love has died? What phases do they use to express this kind of loss? “Part of me is missing”, “It’s as if I lost a limb” What does this suggest about the self/other divide? In other words, can self/other be represented as overlapping, rather than separate? In this case “me” is not limited to my biological self, but to a shared self. Empathy  Altruism my require this “shared self”

  18. Explain These People! What Kinds of People Are These? Why are they doing what they are doing?

  19. Attribution Theory Harold Kelley 1921-2003 Lee Ross Edward Jones 1927-1993 Fritz Heider 1886-1988 Richard Nisbett How do we understand our own, and other people's, actions? Humans are "naive psychologists" -- meaning what? Seek reasons, explanations for events--esp. social events. Events are meaningful, lawful--have causes. Two broad reasons for why people do thing: Its because _______ and/or______. Internal reasons (personality, traits, abilities, motives, etc.) External reasons (situations: physical situation, social situation)

  20. The Adventures of Arnie: An Attribution Mystery Arnie and Abigail are at Coney Island on a date. Arnie sees and old lady trip and fall; he rushes to help her. WHY? Is this behavior "Arnie specific" or situational? Your best guess. Abigail tells Arnie he is too much a boyscout and ditches him. Arnies sees a 650 lb man unable to rise from his beach chair; no one is around, yet Arnie helps him. WHY How would you know if this was "Arnie specific" or situational? Your best guess If action was "all about Arnie" what is it about Arnie that explains his behavior? What information you would need to make a better judgment?

  21. Correspondence Theory (Jones) "Trait" and "Situational" explanations correspond to certain conditions: 1) Degree of choice 2) Expectedness 3) Outcomes 1. Did Arnie have a choice? ____ Y ____ N 2. Was Arnie's behavior expected? ____ Y ____ N 3. Is Arnie the primary beneficiary of his behavior? ____ Y ____ N 1 and 2 Which item(s) relate to internal/external dimension? Which item(w) relate to NATURE of Arnie's personality, motives, etc.? 3

  22. Covariation Theory (Kelley) People are naive statisticians. They look for correlations, or rather "covariations" between Behavior (X) and likely reasons (Y). Example: Noise level in Hoboken (X) covaries with days of the week (Y) My irritation with noise (X) covaries with cups of coffee consumed (Y) Other people's irritation (X) covaries with their neuroticism (Y) 1) Consensus: How others would respond to this event 2) Distinctiveness: How this particular person responds to different kinds of events 3) Consistency: How this person responds to sim. stims, but in different sits. 1. Did Arnie behave as most people would? ____ Y ____ N 2. Does Arnie exert himself generally? ____ Y ____ N 3. Does Arnie help in different ways, in diff. contexts? ____ Y ____ N Which items would tell us if Arnie was "pushed" by social conventions (most anyone would do this) or by Arnie-specific attributes? 1 and 2

  23. Fundamental Attribution Error (Ross) aka "Correspondence Bias" (Jones) What do you think people focus on most in assigning causes to others behavior, their character (internal causes) or the situation (external causes)? X _____ Character (internal causes) _____Situation (external causes) Tendency to over-weigh internal/character/trait reasons is "Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE)" Why do people commit the FAE? Behavior is more salient Behavior is more visible. Curious Case of the Dog In the Nighttime

  24. FAE Is Profoundly Stubborn Pro-Castro remarks (Jone & Harris, 1967): Believe responders attitudes reflect true beliefs, even when clear they are following situation demand. College Bowl Study (Ross): 1. Ss assigned one of three roles: Asker, Answerer, Observer 2. Asker--poses question from own knowledge base, Answerer attempts to answer 3. All parties know these are the rules--all know the SITUATIONAL CONSTRAINTS 4. DV: All parties rate how GENERALLY KNOWLEGABLE is Asker, is Answerer. Who is rated higher by Observer? Who is rated higher by Answerer? Who is rated higher by Asker? X ___Answerer ___ No Diff. ___Asker X ___Answerer ___ No Diff. ___Asker ___Answerer ___ No Diff. ___Asker X

  25. Egocentric Attributional Biases: False Concensus People tend to see own choices as normal and normative (i.e., as how others would act). "EAT AT JOE'S" STUDY (Ross, Greene & House, 1977) Ss asked to wear sandwich-board advertising "Eat At Joe's" around campus. DVs: Subject agree/disagrees to do so. Ss estimate likelihood others make same choice as self Ss make trait judgments about those who chose same/different from self

  26. Eat At Joe's Study: Likelihood Others Would Wear Sign

  27. Eat At Joe's Study: Trait Inferences

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