Motives for Helping

1. Motives for Helping • Altruism: A motive to increase another’s welfare without conscious regard for one’s self interests. • Egoism: Helping another as a means to self benefit.

2. Helping • Is this an example of altruism? • 1. A man puts money in a blind beggar’s tin cup. • 2. A mother gives her child a bath. • 3. A family hides a political prisoner. • 4. A man does the laundry for his family.

3. Empathy-Altruism Model (Batson) • Empathy is the compassionate understanding of how a person in need feels. • The empathy-altruism model suggests that empathy leads to altruistic behavior.

4. Measuring Empathy • Empathic Concern Scale (Davis, 1983) • Reverse items 3,6,9,12,16, 19, 20, 25, 27 • Components of Empathy: • Items 1-7: Fantasy • Items 8-14: Perspective taking • Items 15-21: Empathic concern  others • Items 22-28: Personal distress  self

5. Two Paths to Helping Behavior Personal distress Egoistic motivation Behavior (possibly helping) to reduce own distress Other person’s distress Empathy Altruistic motivation Helping behavior to reduce other’s distress

6. Elaine Study (Batson et al., 1981)

7. Elaine Study (Batson et al., 1981) • % of participants who agreed to help Elaine:

8. Carol Study (Toi & Batson, 1982) • % of participants who agreed to help Carol:

9. Carol Study (Toi & Batson, 1982) • % of participants who agreed to help Carol:

10. Negative Mood and Helping • Negative State Relief Model- people sometimes help others to relieve their own bad mood (e.g., guilt or sadness). • Camera Study (Cunningham et al., 1980): • Broken camera group: 80% helping • Control group: 40% helping

11. Good Mood and Helping • From cookies to kindness (Isen & Levin, 1971) • Cookie group: 69 minutes • No cookie group: 17 minutes • The sweet smell of helping (Baron, 1997) • Pleasant smell: 55% • Neutral smell: 19%

12. Bystander Intervention • Darley & Latane’s bystander intervention studies: • Response to a fellow subject having a seizure. • One bystander: 85% helped • Two bystanders: 62% helped • Five bystanders: 31% helped

13. Diffusion of responsibility: the tendency for people to feel that responsibility for acting is shared, or diffused among those present

14. D & L’s model of helping • To help, people must: • 1. Notice the incident • 2. Interpret it as an emergency • 3. Assume personal responsibility • 4. Decide there is something they can do to help

15. These steps are influences by situational factors: • 1. It took subjects longer to notice smoke in the room in groups than when alone • 2. Subjects sitting face to face were more likely to react to an emergency than subjects sitting back to back. • 3. Seizure study • 4. Subjects who have just failed at a task are less likely to help.

16. Cost/Reward model of helping • Besides D & L’s four stages, people also consider the costs and rewards they might experience if they help or do not help. • Subway studies (Piliavin): • Do people on a subway train help when someone collapses? • Ss help a man with a cane more than one smelling of liquor • Ss help a victim that simply collapses more than one who is bleeding

17. Factors that influence helping • Situational: • Number of bystanders present • Costs & rewards of helping • Being in a hurry • Social validation/conformity • Consistency • Authority • Reciprocity • Friendship Personal: Empathy Mood