ALTRUISM
-altruism: is selfishness in reverse. An altruisic person is concerned and helpful even when no benefits
are offered of expected in return.
Why Do We Help?
Social Exchange:
-several theories of helping agree that, in the long run, helping benefits the giver as well as the receiver.
One explanaion assumes that human interacions are guided by a “social economics”. We exchange not
only material good and money but also social goods: love, services, informaion, status (social exchange
theory). Subtle calculaions precede decisions to help or not.
Rewards:
-rewards that moivate helping may be external or internal (ie. a business donaing to
improve their image – external. Donaing to make yourself feel good – internal)
-helping’s boost to self-worth explains why so many people feel good afer doin going.
Making donaions acivates brain areas linked with reward. Generous people are
happier than those whose spending is self-focused
-we credit people with good deeds, only when we can’t explain their acions. When
external causes are obvious, we credit the causes and not the person.
-a weakness in social exchange theory: it easily degenerates into explaining-by-naming (retrospecive
explaining). To escape this cycle of naming afer the event has happened we must define the rewards
and costs independently of the helping behaviour.
Internal Rewards: the benefits of helping include internal self-rewards. When we are near
someone in distress, we feel distress.
-Guilt: people will do whatever can be done to expunge the guitar and restore their self-image.
Eagerness to do good afer doing bad refects both our need to reduce private guilt and restore
public image. We are more likely to redeem ourselves with helpful behaviour when other people
know our misdeeds
-Exceptons to the feel bad-do good scenario: one negaive mood, anger, produces anything but
compassion. Another excepion is depression, or profound grief – all states that make it very
difficult to be a giver. If not self-preoccupied by depression or grief, sad people are sensiive,
helpful people.
-Feel good-do good: happy people are helpful people. Helping sofens bad mood and sustains
good mood. A posiive mood, in turn, conducive to posiive thoughts and posiive self-esteem,
which predisposes us to posiive behaviour. Posiive thinkers are likely to be posiive actors.
, Social Norms:
-ofen, we help others not because we have consciously calculated that such behaviour is in our self-
interest but simply because something tells us what we ought to do. Norms, the “ought tos” of our lives,
are social expectaions.
-two social norms that moivate prosocial behaviour
1. The reciprocity norm
2. The social-responsibility norm
-1. The Reciprocity Norm: to those who help us, we should return help, not harm.
-in all such interacions, to receive without giving in return violates the reciprocity norm.
reciprocity within social networks helps define the ‘social capital’ – the supporive connecions
and cooperaion acions – that keeps a community healthy.
-when people cannot reciprocate, they may feel threatened and demeaned by acceping aid.
Thus, proud people rarely accept help
-2. The Social-Responsibility Norm:
-the reciprocity norm reminds us to balance giving and receiving in social relaions. The social-
responsibility norm is the belief that people should help those who need help, without regard to
future exchange.
-however, they usually apply the social-responsibility norm selecively to those whose need
appears not to be due tot heir own negligence. Give people what they deserve. If they are
vicims of circumstance, such as a natural distance, help them. if they seem to have created
their own situaion, then the norm suggests they don’t deserve hep
-Gender and Receiving Help:
-women offered help equally to males and females, whereas men offered more help when the
strangers in need were females. Of course, men’s chivalry may be moivated by other moives.
Women receive more offers to help in certain situaionss they also seek more help.
Evoluionary Psychology:
-another explanaion of helping comes from evoluionary theory. Evoluionary psychology contends that
the essence of life is gene survival.
-a biological reaffirmaion of deep, self-serving. Genes that predispose individuals to self-sacrifice in the
interests of strangers’ welfare would not survive in the evoluionary compeiion.
-we exhibit muliple mechanisms for overcoming selfishness, including the following:
Kin selectin: if we carry my genes, I’ll favour you
Direct recipricity: you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours
Indirect recipricity: I’ll scratch your back, you scratch someone’s, and someone will scratch mine
Griup selectinn back-scratching groups survive
-altruism: is selfishness in reverse. An altruisic person is concerned and helpful even when no benefits
are offered of expected in return.
Why Do We Help?
Social Exchange:
-several theories of helping agree that, in the long run, helping benefits the giver as well as the receiver.
One explanaion assumes that human interacions are guided by a “social economics”. We exchange not
only material good and money but also social goods: love, services, informaion, status (social exchange
theory). Subtle calculaions precede decisions to help or not.
Rewards:
-rewards that moivate helping may be external or internal (ie. a business donaing to
improve their image – external. Donaing to make yourself feel good – internal)
-helping’s boost to self-worth explains why so many people feel good afer doin going.
Making donaions acivates brain areas linked with reward. Generous people are
happier than those whose spending is self-focused
-we credit people with good deeds, only when we can’t explain their acions. When
external causes are obvious, we credit the causes and not the person.
-a weakness in social exchange theory: it easily degenerates into explaining-by-naming (retrospecive
explaining). To escape this cycle of naming afer the event has happened we must define the rewards
and costs independently of the helping behaviour.
Internal Rewards: the benefits of helping include internal self-rewards. When we are near
someone in distress, we feel distress.
-Guilt: people will do whatever can be done to expunge the guitar and restore their self-image.
Eagerness to do good afer doing bad refects both our need to reduce private guilt and restore
public image. We are more likely to redeem ourselves with helpful behaviour when other people
know our misdeeds
-Exceptons to the feel bad-do good scenario: one negaive mood, anger, produces anything but
compassion. Another excepion is depression, or profound grief – all states that make it very
difficult to be a giver. If not self-preoccupied by depression or grief, sad people are sensiive,
helpful people.
-Feel good-do good: happy people are helpful people. Helping sofens bad mood and sustains
good mood. A posiive mood, in turn, conducive to posiive thoughts and posiive self-esteem,
which predisposes us to posiive behaviour. Posiive thinkers are likely to be posiive actors.
, Social Norms:
-ofen, we help others not because we have consciously calculated that such behaviour is in our self-
interest but simply because something tells us what we ought to do. Norms, the “ought tos” of our lives,
are social expectaions.
-two social norms that moivate prosocial behaviour
1. The reciprocity norm
2. The social-responsibility norm
-1. The Reciprocity Norm: to those who help us, we should return help, not harm.
-in all such interacions, to receive without giving in return violates the reciprocity norm.
reciprocity within social networks helps define the ‘social capital’ – the supporive connecions
and cooperaion acions – that keeps a community healthy.
-when people cannot reciprocate, they may feel threatened and demeaned by acceping aid.
Thus, proud people rarely accept help
-2. The Social-Responsibility Norm:
-the reciprocity norm reminds us to balance giving and receiving in social relaions. The social-
responsibility norm is the belief that people should help those who need help, without regard to
future exchange.
-however, they usually apply the social-responsibility norm selecively to those whose need
appears not to be due tot heir own negligence. Give people what they deserve. If they are
vicims of circumstance, such as a natural distance, help them. if they seem to have created
their own situaion, then the norm suggests they don’t deserve hep
-Gender and Receiving Help:
-women offered help equally to males and females, whereas men offered more help when the
strangers in need were females. Of course, men’s chivalry may be moivated by other moives.
Women receive more offers to help in certain situaionss they also seek more help.
Evoluionary Psychology:
-another explanaion of helping comes from evoluionary theory. Evoluionary psychology contends that
the essence of life is gene survival.
-a biological reaffirmaion of deep, self-serving. Genes that predispose individuals to self-sacrifice in the
interests of strangers’ welfare would not survive in the evoluionary compeiion.
-we exhibit muliple mechanisms for overcoming selfishness, including the following:
Kin selectin: if we carry my genes, I’ll favour you
Direct recipricity: you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours
Indirect recipricity: I’ll scratch your back, you scratch someone’s, and someone will scratch mine
Griup selectinn back-scratching groups survive
