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The Science of Helping Others: Motivations, Situational Influences, and Personal Factors

Explore the theories, research evidence, and factors that influence altruism and helping behaviors, including social exchange theory, empathy, social norms, and evolutionary explanations. Learn about the Kitty Genovese murder case and the bystander effect. Discover how situational influences, such as rural/urban areas and fear of disapproval, affect helping, and how personal influences like guilt, mood, gender, and culture come into play. Find out effective strategies to increase helping, including personal appeals, the door-in-the-face technique, socialization, and teaching about altruism.

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The Science of Helping Others: Motivations, Situational Influences, and Personal Factors

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  1. Chapter 12 – Helping Behaviors April 20

  2. Altruism • Motivation to help others without concern over your well-being. • Why do we do it? Theories: • 1) Social exchange theory – all of our interactions minimize costs & maximize rewards. • 2) Empathy - Vicarious experience of another’s feelings

  3. 2) Empathy • If empathy  help others regardless of our gain • No empathy  social exchange comes into play • How does this work?

  4. 3) Social Norms • Beliefs that we ought to help others • A) Norm of reciprocity – expect that we’ll help those who help us. • B) Social responsibility norm – • belief that we should help, regardless of whether people can return the favor. • Cultural differences?

  5. 4) Evolutionary Explanations • Kin selection – altruistic towards our relatives to enhance survival of our genes. • What research evidence supports this?

  6. When do we help? • Kitty Genovese murder – NYC, 1964 • What were the details of this incident? • Situational influence of presence of other bystanders reduces our likelihood of helping • Called Diffusion of Responsibility

  7. Latane & Darley - bystanders • Diffusion of responsibility effect: • Confederate appears to have seizure • Whether subject helped depended on presence of others

  8. Why the Bystander Effect? • Darley & Latane – smoke filled room • 3 explanations of their results: • 1) • 2) • 3)

  9. Other Situational Influenceson Altruism • Rural/Urban areas – • More likely to get help in rural area • “Urban Overload” – what is it? • How does it affect helping others?

  10. Fear of Disapproval? • May explain lack of intervening in male-female conflicts • Shotland (’76) experiment w/staged fight • How did the experimental manipulation work? • What were the results?

  11. Personal Influences on Helping • Large impact of guilt – feel need to redeem ourselves by helping. • Impact of mood – • Negative mood reduces helping in kids • …but increases helping for adults • Why? • Does a positive mood then reduce helping?

  12. Gender, Culture, & Helping • Gender effect • There is a gender difference in helping based on the type of situation • How does it work? • Another gender diff in helping based on who needs help • How does it work? • Culture effect • Ingroup/Outgroup effects – how?

  13. Increasing Helping • Personal appeals for help are effective; especially if from friends • What do lab results show? • Door-in-the-face technique also effective • How does this work? • Socialization • Modeling helping • Get people to commit • Teaching about altruism

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