Class 14: Altruism and Attribution Theory

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Class 14
Altruism and Attribution Theory
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SCHEDULE Today to Midterm Oct. 25 Class 14
-- Altruism and Attribution Theory Oct. 30
Class 15 -- Emotion Managment (Pennebaker
"Confession..." Harber Cohen, "Emotional
Broadcaster") Nov. 1 Review session. Bring
PowerPoints, notes. Nov. 6 Midterm Discussant
Schedule has been revised. Discussant
Presentations 6 min. summary MAX, 10 min
questions.
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Do Humans Care About Other Humans? Batson (1990)
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Acts of Selfless (?) Heroism
The fifth man in Air Florida crash Polish
Concentration Camp Guard Question What
motivates this behavior?
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Why Do People Help Others?   Altruistic
explanation -- Caring  
Egoistic explanations
Negative state relief Stop personal
discomfort   Avoid social/self punishments
Shame, guilt   Seek social/self rewards Honor,
pride
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A Selfishness Bias in Psychology?  
Freud Behavior based on pleasure
principle Skinner Behavior based on pleasure
principle   Modern Self Theorists in Social
Psychology   1. Totalitarian ego false
uniqueness, false representativeness 2. Self
affirmation 3. Self esteem 4. Self
monitoring 5. Self efficacy 6. Downward
social comparison
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The Selfish Gene Theory
Fundamental goal of life-forms pass on
genes Who will pass on genes? Those who
survive Therefore behaviors that promote survival
are adaptive and are selected in Behaviors
that jeopardize survival are maladaptive and are
selected out Who is more likely to survive, the
selfless helper or the selfish non-helper?
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Challenges to Selfish Gene
Inclusive Fitness Share genes with
others Risk taking for others promotes their
survival People more apt to sacrifice for those
closest to them in terms of shared
genes Reciprocal Altruism I help you today, you
help me tomorrow, and typically with interest.
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Prosocial Behavior vs. Altruistic
Behavior       1. Prosocial Helping others,
for any reason   2. Altruistic Helping others
because you care about them.
Note Altruistic is a type of pro-social
behavior.
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Emotions Consistent with Egoistic (Selfish)
Behavior
Emotions Consistent with Altruistic Behavior
Envy Pride Jealousy Spite Greed Lust Gluttony Cov
etousness Scheudenfreuden
Empathy
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Daniel Batson Empathy and Altruism
Batson conducts classic research on bystander
intervention, showing how situations can prevent
people from helping. Jerusalem to Jericho study,
for example However, he becomes interested why
some people help, others do not, regardless of
the situation. Asks Are we capable of caring?
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Empathy vs. Avoiding Shame The Elayne
Study   1. Subs. told study about learning and
shocks 2. Sub. is observer, confed. (Elayne)
is learner 3. Sub. learnes Elayne is very
similar (high empathy cond) or very dissimilar
to him/her (low empathy cond) 4. Sub. sees
Elayne's distress, upset 5. Exptr. calls a
break, asks Elayne if OK, yes, but water
please. Elayne is clearly distressed. 6. During
break, Sub completes mood check-list. Purpose
ID people high/low on empathy 7. Elayne confides
to Expt. childhood trauma w shocks. 8. Expt.
asks Subs willing to switch places w
Elayne? 9. Subs. must qualify to help by
performing well at test a. For ½ Subs. easy
test, most can do well b. For ½ Subs. hard
test, most cant do well
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Social Censure vs. Empathy and Altruism
Predictions
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Rates of Volunteering to Help Distressed Elaine
as a Function of Felt Empathy and Opportunity to
Avoid Social Censure Batson et al., 1988
Note Easy test Low Justification to avoid
helping Hard test High justification
to avoid helping
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  Effort Made to Qualify to Help Elaine as a
Function of Felt Empathy and Opportunity for
Face-Saving Out   Batson, et al., 1988
Note Easy Test Low justification to avoid
trying on test Hard Test High
justification of avoid trying on test
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Solution to Selfishness vs. Altruism Debate
The Shared Self
Problem Do we ever intentionally act outside of
self-interest? Solution Reconsider what we mean
by self and other Batsons implicit
definition these are distinct entities
O
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Solution to Selfishness vs. Altruism, Contin.
What do people say when someone they love has
died? What phases do they use to express this
kind of loss?
Part of me is missing, Its as if I lost a
limb
What does this suggest about the self/other
divide?
In other words, can self/other be represented as
overlapping, rather than separate?
In this case me is not limited to my biological
self, but to a shared self.
Empathy ? Altruism my require this shared self
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HOW MANY SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGISTS DOES IT TAKE TO
SCREW IN A LIGHTBULB?
DEPENDS ON THE SITUATION
Attribution Theory An Overview
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Explain These People!
What Kinds of People Are These? Why are they
doing what they are doing?
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Attribution Theory
Harold Kelley 1921-2003
Lee Ross
Edward Jones 1927-1993
Fritz Heider 1886-1988
Richard Nisbett
How do we understand our own, and other
people's, actions?
Humans are "naive psychologists" -- meaning what?
Seek reasons, explanations for events--esp.
social events. Events are meaningful,
lawful--have causes.
Two broad reasons for why people do thing Its
because _______ and/or______.
Internal reasons (personality, traits, abilities,
motives, etc.) External reasons (situations
physical situation, social situation)
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The Adventures of Arnie An Attribution Mystery
Arnie and Abigail are at Coney Island on a date.
A nun approaches them and asks for a donation to
the orphanage. Arnie gives her 10.00 WHY?
Is this behavior "Arnie specific" or situational?
Your best guess.
Abigail tells Arnie he is too much a boyscout and
ditches him. Arnies sees a 450 lb man unable to
rise from his beach chair no one is around, yet
Arnie helps him. WHY
How would you know if this was "Arnie specific"
or situational? Your best guess
What accounts for Arnies response to the nun?
To the guy in the beach chair? What information
you would need to make a better judgment?
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Correspondence Theory (Jones)
"Trait" and "Situational" explanations correspond
to certain conditions 1) Degree of choice
2) Social Expectedness 3) Outcomes
NUN Beach chair Man 1. Did Arnie have a
choice? ____ Y ____ N ___ Y
___N 2. Was Arnie's behavior expected? ____ Y
____ N ___ Y ___N 3. Is Arnie the
primary beneficiary of his behavior? ____
Y ____ N ___ Y ___N
1 and 2
Which item(s) relate to internal/external
dimension? Which item(w) relate to NATURE of
Arnie's personality, motives, etc.?
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Covariation Theory (Kelley)
People are naive statisticians. They look for
correlations, or rather "covariations" between
Behavior (X) and likely reasons (Y). Example
Noise level in Jersey City (X) covaries with
days of the week (Y) My irritation with noise
(X) covaries with time of night (Y) 1)
Consensus How others would respond to this
event 2) Distinctiveness How this particular
person responds to different kinds of events 3)
Consistency How this person responds to sim.
stims, but in different sits. NUN
Beach Chair Man 1. Did Arnie
behave as most people would? ____ Y ____ N
____ Y ____ N 2. Does Arnie exert himself
generally? ____ Y ____ N ____ Y
____ N 3. Does Arnie help in different ways, in
diff. contexts? ____ Y ____ N ____ Y
____ N
Which items would tell us if Arnie was "pushed"
by social conventions (most anyone would do
this)? Which items tell us if Arnies behavior
was Arnie-specific?
1 and 2
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Fundamental Attribution Error (Ross) aka
"Correspondence Bias" (Jones)
What do you think people focus on most in
assigning causes to others behavior, their
character (internal causes) or the situation
(external causes)?
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_____ Character (internal causes)
_____Situation (external causes)
Tendency to over-weigh internal/character/trait
reasons is "Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE)"
Why do people commit the FAE?
Behavior is more salient Behavior is more visible.
Curious Case of the Dog In the Nighttime
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Egocentric Attributional Biases False Concensus
People tend to see own choices as normal and
normative (i.e., as how others would act).
"EAT AT JOE'S" Study (Ross, Greene House,
1977) Ss asked to wear sandwich-board
advertising "Eat At Joe's" around campus. DVs
1) Do subjects ("Ss") agree/disagrees to wear
sandwich board. 2) Ss estimate likelihood
others make same choice as self 3) Ss make
trait judgments about those who chose
same/different from self
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FAE Is Profoundly Stubborn
Pro-Castro remarks (Jone Harris, 1967)
Believe responders attitudes reflect true
beliefs, even when clear they are following
situation demand. College Bowl Study
(Ross) 1. Ss assigned one of three roles
Asker, Answerer, Observer 2. Asker--poses
question from own knowledge base, Answerer
attempts to answer 3. All parties know these
are the rules--all know the SITUATIONAL
CONSTRAINTS 4. DV All parties rate how
GENERALLY KNOWLEGABLE is Asker, is
Answerer. Who is rated higher by
Observer? Who is rated higher by Answerer? Who
is rated higher by Asker?
X
___Asker
___Answerer
___ No Diff.
X
___Asker
___Answerer
___ No Diff.
___Asker
___Answerer
___ No Diff.
X
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Eat At Joe's Study Likelihood Others Would Wear
Sign
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Eat At Joe's Study Trait Inferences
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MENTAL BUSYNESS AND ATTRIBUTIONAL
CORRECTION Gilbert, Pelham Krull, 1988
Relaxing Topics Fashion trends World
Travel Great books Foreign films
Anxious Topics Public humiliation Hidden
secrets Sexual fantasies Personal failures
Control Cond Make a personality judgment after
watching the interviewee Mental busy cond
Personality judgment recall each discussion
topic.
Outcome Measures 1. Ratings of interviewees
trait anxiety 2. Predictions of interviewees
anxiety in stressful situations
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MENTAL BUSYNESS AND ATTRIBUTIONAL
CORRECTION RESULTS
Trait Anxiety Rating
Anxiety to Threatening Events
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Explanation for Mental Busyness Results
Daniel Gilbert
Attribution involves 3 sequential processes 1.
Categorization What is the person doing? 2.
Characterization What trait does persons
behavior indicate? 3. Correction What
situational pressures may explain
behavior? Busyness disrupts correction.
Why? 1. Categorization and Characterization
are automatic. No effort. 2. Correction is
less automatic. Requires conscious effort. If
mentally busy, less resource to
correct. Attributions default to disposition
(traits).