Altruism v. Selfinterest

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Altruism v. Self-interest
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• Thomas Hobbes
• Because I was in paine to consider the miserable
  condition of the old man and now my almes,
  giving him some relief, doth also ease me

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• Some methodological background
• The third variable problem
• An observed relationship between two variables
  is considered spurious (not real) when it is due
  to a third variable that was not taken into
  consideration.

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Accidents
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Tattoos
Accidents
Risk seeking
Tattoos
Accidents
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• Oneness and empathetic concern as predictors of
  helping.

Empathic concern
Helping
Oneness
Empathic concern
Helping
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Cialdini et al. (1997) view of empathy-altruism
link
Oneness
Closeness
Empathic concern
Helping
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• Cialdini et al. studies
• Participants imagined one of four types of
  individuals in a need situation.
• The needy person was either a near stranger, an
  acquaintance, a good friend, or a family member
  (preferably a sibling).
• The need situation involved either the person
  being evicted (Study 1), the person died, leaving
  two children in need of home (Study 2) or the
  person needing help to make a phone call (Study
  3).

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• Measuring oneness

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• Cialdini et al. findings across the three
  studies

Oneness
Closeness
Empathic concern
Helping
Within each level of closeness (e.g., close
friend)
Oneness
Empathic concern
Helping
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• Cialdini et al. conclusions
• Overall, then, our findings suggest that
  empathetic concern may have only appeared to
  mediate aid in much prior research because it is
  a concomitant of perceived oneness, a construct
  that offers a non-altruistic path to such aid.
  (p. 490)
• Empathetic concern signals unity with another,
  and it is precisely because the self is thereby
  implicated in the other that his or her welfare
  is valued (and promoted). (p. 491)

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• Batson et al. (1997) view of empathy-altruism
  link

Empathic concern
Helping
Perspective taking
Other considerations
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• Batson et al. studies 2 X 2 Experimental design

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• Low-empathy condition
• Try to be as objective as possible about what
  has happened to the person interviewed and how it
  has affected his or her life. To remain
  objective, do not let yourself get caught up in
  imagining what this person has been through and
  how he or she feels as a result. Just try to
  remain detached as you listen to the broadcast.
• High-empathy condition
• Try to imagine how the person being interviewed
  feels about what has happened and how it has
  affected his or her life. Try not to concern
  yourself with attending to all information
  presented. Just concentrate on trying to imagine
  how the person interviewed in the broad cast
  feels.

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• Non-shared group membership condition
• Katie Banks, a senior at Kansas State University
  whose parents were recently killed in a tragic
  automobile accident.
• Shared group membership condition
• Katie Banks, a senior at the University of
  Kansas whose parents were recently killed in a
  tragic automobile accident.

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• Interview with Katie
• Its its just a nightmare. I guess Im still
  numb pause The most important thing for me now
  is to graduate on time. I need to be able to get
  a good job and support my little brother and
  sister. pause You know, the help weve gotton
  so far has really been wonderful, but weve got a
  long way to go. If we dont get more help, Im
  afraid Ill have to drop out of school and find a
  job. pause And thats going to make things
  worse, I think, because everybody knows that
  without a college degree you cant make much
  money. pause If I have to drop out, Im afraid
  that Ill have to give up the children. I I
  just wont be able to make enough to support
  them.

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• Batson et al. findings across two studies

Helping
Empathic concern (self-reported)
Perspective taking
Oneness or care
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• Batson et al. conclusions
• In sum, across the three merging measures and
  across the two experiments, we found little
  evidence that empathy-inducing conditions
  produced self-other merging. We found even less
  evidence that empathy-induced helping was due to
  self-other merging. (p. 507)
• empathy evokes concern for the other,
  distinct from oneself, that is beyond
  self-interest. (p. 508)

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• Neuberg, Cialdini, et al.s response to Batson et
  al.
• Batson et al. failed to
• 1) consider plausible nonaltruistic alternatives
  for the observed empathy-helping effects.
• 2) validly and reliably measure oneness.
• 3) examine whether the empathy-helping
  relationship remained after removing the effects
  of a full complement of reasonable nonaltruistic
  alternatives

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• Re-analysis of data indicates
• Empathic concern predicts whether or not some
  help is provided
• but not how much help is provided.

Nonaltruistic motives
Help or not help
Closeness
Empathic concern
Nonaltruistic motives
Degree of help
Closeness
Empathic concern
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• Neuberg, Cialdini, et al. conclusion
• These findings have several important
  implications. First, they are consistent with the
  finding of Batson et al. (1983) that under
  conditions of substantial cost to the helper,
  empathic concern does not facilitate helping an
  outcome that led these authors to characterize
  empathy-based altruism as a fragile flower
  easily crushed by self-concern (p. 718). Indeed,
  our results reveal that the flower of empathy is
  more fragile yet, blooming only in the garden of
  superficial assistance. (p. 515)

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• Batsons rebuttal of Neuberg, Cialdini et al.s
  response
• Conceptual critique
• The empathy-altruism hypothesis does not claim
  that helping is purely altruistic or that
  altruism is the sole or even primary motivator of
  an empathically aroused individual. (p. 520)
• To claim that empathic concern evokes
  altruistic motivation and only altruistic
  motivation, as the empathy-altruism hypothesis
  does, is not to claim that the empathically
  aroused individuals is experiencing only
  altruistic motivation. (Batson, 1991, p. 88)

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• Methodological critique
• Cialdini and colleagues are guided by the purity
  assumption. Their research strategy is designed
  to assess whether there is a pure empathy-helping
  relationship, independent of all other
  antecedents of helping.
• A proper research strategy should aim to assess
  whether the nature of the motivation evoked by
  empathy is altruistic. Is the ultimate goal of
  this motivation to increase ones own welfare
  (egoism) or the increase the welfare of the
  person for whom empathy is felt (altruism)?
• Research strategy should allow participants to
  reach egoistic goal without having to necessarily
  reach the altruistic goal. If they are still more
  likely to help in the high empathy condition than
  in the low empathy condition, then the motivation
  evoked by empathy is likely altruistic.