Bio Explanations
This term describes any action done for the benefit of another individual or group.
What is prosocial behaviour?
This is the key difference between empathy and sympathy.
What is empathy involves understanding how another person feels from their perspective, while sympathy is feeling sorry for them without that understanding?
This type of social influence explains why people in ambiguous situations look to others to determine the correct way to behave.
What is informational social influence?
This is the name for the phenomenon where the more people present, the less likely any individual is to help
What is the bystander effect (bystanderism)?
Cialdini identifies six principles of persuasion — this one involves people copying the behaviour of others when they are uncertain what to do.
What is consensus (social proof / descriptive social norms)?
This type of altruism is rooted in evolutionary explanations, while psychological altruism is driven by emotion.
What is biological altruism?
The empathy-altruism hypothesis predicts that the more empathy you feel for someone, the more likely you are to do this.
What is help them?
Social Identity Theory predicts that people are more likely to help someone who belongs to this.
What is their in-group?
Diffusion of responsibility occurs when the presence of others causes each individual to feel this.
What is less personal obligation (reduced responsibility) to help?
A descriptive social norm tells people what others are actually doing, making it different from a prescriptive norm, which tells people what they this.
What is should do?
This is the key difference between altruism and other forms of prosocial behaviour.
What is acting without any hope or expectation of reward or benefit for yourself?
According to the Arousal-Cost-Reward Model, bystanders are motivated to help because witnessing an emergency produces this unpleasant internal state.
What is emotional arousal?
Enculturation refers to the process by which individuals learn the norms and values of their culture — including norms around this type of behaviour.
What is helping (prosocial behaviour)?
In Latané & Darley's five-step model, a potential helper must complete all five steps to help — failing at any one of them results in this outcome.
What is bystanderism (not helping)?
Social Cognitive Theory suggests that exposing people to models who engage in prosocial behaviour can promote helping because of this process.
What is observational learning (modelling)?
According to evolutionary psychology, the ultimate goal driving biological altruism is not survival of the individual, but survival of this.
What are genes?
In the Arousal-Cost-Reward Model, a bystander can reduce their arousal without helping by doing one of these things instead.
What is leaving the scene, deciding the person doesn't need help, or finding another source of help?
Levine et al. (2001) concluded that less economically developed countries tended to show more helping behaviour, suggesting this sociocultural factor is negatively correlated with prosocial behaviour.
What is economic productivity (wealth/GDP)?
Step 2 of Latané & Darley's model is especially vulnerable to informational social influence because the potential helper must do this before taking action.
What is interpret the situation as one genuinely requiring help?
Staub (1979) argued that empathy — and therefore prosocial behaviour — can be increased through this type of hands-on experience.
What is community service (direct tuition / enculturation)?
Kin Selection Theory predicts that as genetic similarity between two individuals decreases, the likelihood of helping will do this.
What is decrease?
Batson et al. (1981) aimed to test this hypothesis by manipulating both empathy levels and the ease with which participants could avoid feeling guilty.
What is the empathy-altruism hypothesis?
Darley & Latané's smoky room study concluded that participants failed to report the smoke because they used the calm reactions of confederates to interpret the situation — demonstrating this type of social influence.
What is informational social influence?
Darley & Latané's (1968) intercom study aimed to test diffusion of responsibility and concluded that believing others are present does this to the probability of an individual taking personal responsibility.
What is lower (decrease) it?
Cialdini et al. (2008) aimed to test whether descriptive social norms increase compliance and concluded that framing a request around what others are doing is more effective than providing this alone
What is information (environmental facts/reasons)?
This theory proposes that even though genes have no consciousness, we are most altruistic toward those closest to us because they are most likely to share our genetic material.
What is Kin Selection Theory?
Batson et al. (1981) concluded that higher empathy led to more helping even when escape was easy — supporting the idea that truly empathic helping is driven by this, rather than a desire to reduce personal discomfort.
What is genuine concern for the other person (altruistic motivation)?
Whiting & Whiting (1975) concluded that children who were regularly assigned family responsibilities showed more helping behaviour, suggesting prosocial behaviour is shaped by this process.
What is enculturation (socialization/direct tuition)?
Levine et al. (1994) concluded that population density is the strongest predictor of helping behaviour — with helping declining in larger cities — and offered this as one explanation.
What is diffusion of responsibility (or Milgram's sensory overload)?
Bushman (1988) and Hofling (1966) both support using this Cialdini principle to promote prosocial behaviour — by having figures in positions of power model or require helping.
What is authority?
Warneken & Tomasello (2006) studied infant helping behaviour to test whether altruism has this quality — suggesting it does not need to be learned.
What is being hardwired (innate/a genetic predisposition)?
Piliavin et al. (1969) aimed to study how situational factors influence prosocial behaviour, and concluded that people take longer to help — or don't help at all — when they perceive this to be high.
What is the cost of helping?
Duclos & Barasch (2014) found that in-group favouritism in helping only appeared when participants were primed to think about group membership — concluding that simply belonging to a group is not enough, and that this condition must be met.
What is group membership being salient (actively top of mind)?
Milgram's sensory overload explanation for reduced helping in cities differs from diffusion of responsibility because it focuses on this cognitive mechanism rather than perceived shared obligation.
What is people in cities screening out information that is not personally relevant to cope with excessive sensory input?
Greitmeyer & Osswald (2010) concluded that playing prosocial video games increased bystander intervention in a real confrontation — suggesting that media can promote prosocial behaviour through this mechanism.
What is observational learning / priming prosocial thoughts and behaviours?
Marsh et al. (2014) compared extraordinary altruists to matched controls and concluded that structural and functional differences in the amygdala may explain why some individuals are more likely to do this.
What is perform prosocial or altruistic actions?
The Arousal-Cost-Reward Model supports the negative state relief model by suggesting that the decision to help is ultimately based on this cognitive process.
What is weighing the perceived costs and rewards of helping versus not helping?
Levine et al. (2001) used Hofstede's individualism/collectivism scale and found only a weak, non-significant correlation with helping — suggesting this cultural dimension may be a less important predictor of prosocial behaviour than economic productivity.
What is individualism vs. collectivism?
Bystanderism can be explained using multiple approaches from across the course — name one biological, one cognitive, and one sociocultural explanation.
What is (biological) smaller/less reactive amygdala reducing recognition of distress; (cognitive) high perceived cost of helping per the Arousal-Cost-Reward Model; (sociocultural) informational social influence causing misinterpretation of the situation?
A limitation of using authority to promote prosocial behaviour — as demonstrated by Hofling (1966) — is that obedience to authority can occur even when the helping action involves this risk.
What is potential harm (administering an unknown drug at double the safe dose without proper authorization)?