Motives for Helping

1
Motives for Helping

• Altruism A motive to increase anothers welfare
  without conscious regard for ones 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 beggars 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 persons distress
Empathy
Altruistic motivation
Helping behavior to reduce others distress
6
Elaine Study (Batson et al., 1981)
Dissimiliar (low empathy) Similar (high empathy)
Easy Escape
Difficult Escape
7
Elaine Study (Batson et al., 1981)

• of participants who agreed to help Elaine

Dissimiliar (low empathy) Similar (high empathy)
Easy Escape 18 91
Difficult Escape 64 82
8
Carol Study (Toi Batson, 1982)

• of participants who agreed to help Carol

Low Empathy High Empathy
Easy Escape
Difficult Escape
9
Carol Study (Toi Batson, 1982)

• of participants who agreed to help Carol

Low Empathy High Empathy
Easy Escape 30 70
Difficult Escape 70 80
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 Latanes 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 Ls 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 Ls 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