Prosocial Behavior Contd

● Environment ■ EX: Suppose you are walking down the street one day when you see a man suddenly fall down and cry out with pain. He rolls up his pants leg, revealing a bandaged shin that is bleeding heavily. What would you do? ■ Small towns: 50% the people who walked by stopped and offered to help the man ■ Large cities: Only 15% of the people who walked by stopped to help ■ What’s the stereotype about the helpfulness of people who live in New York City? ■ Urban overload hypothesis - people living in cities are constantly bombarded with stimulation and they keep to themselves to avoid being overwhelmed by it ■ Also consider: ● There is less anonymity in rural towns ● Diffusion of responsibility is less likely to occur ● Residential Mobility – how often you have moved ● BYSTANDER INTERVENTION MODEL ○ Bystander effect- The greater the number of bystanders, the less likely any one of them is to help ○ Latané & Darley, 1970 5-step model of bystander intervention… ■ Describes the steps that determine whether helping will occur in a bystander intervention situation ■ Step 1 Notice the event ● Problem: we often lack motivation/ability to help, or simply do not perceive help as being needed ● STEP 1 NOTICE THE EVENT ○ Darley & Batson, 1973 ○ Seminary students asked to give a talk, about either: ■ Good Samaritan parable ■ something else ○ They were either: ■ Late ■ on time ○ Passed a person slumped in a doorway ○ 63% of on time participants noticed and helped ○ 10% of late participants noticed and helped ○ Topic of speech had no effect ● STEP 2 INTERPRET SITUATION AS AN EMERGENCY ○ Pluralistic Ignorance - people think that everyone else is interpreting a situation in a certain way, when in fact they are not ○ Problem: emergencies are often ambiguous; informational social influence ○ Smoke room study ■ Participants complete survey alone or in groups of 3 ■ Experimenter pumps smoke into room ■ Who goes for help within 2 minutes? ● 50% of alone participants ● 12% of 3-person-groups ● Step 3 Assume responsibility to help ○ Problem: Diffusion of Responsibility – as the number of bystanders increases, each bystander’s individual sense of responsibility decreases ○ Would you stop someone from stealing a laptop if: ■ Asked to watch it vs. Simply witnessing it ○ Study ■ IV: Number of people in group (2, 3, or 6) ● One person in the group faked a seizure ■ DV: did people respond to help, and how quickly? ● Smaller groups responded more and faster ■ As Group Size Increased → Tendency to Seek Help Declined ● Step 4 Know how to help (i.e. have ability to help) ○ Problem: lack of knowledge of competence will prevent helping ○ Example: do you know CPR? ● Step 5 Decide to implement help (i.e. have the motivation to help) ○ Problem: costs to helping ○ Examples: Danger to self? Legal fears? Performance fears? ● Increasing Helping ○ Educate people about this research? ○ Yes. Research shows that this works. ■ Being aware of the barriers to helping in an emergency can increase people’s chances of overcoming those barriers. ■ People who know about bystander effects can realize that if they don’t act, perhaps no one will. ○ Single out individuals ○ Clearly define an event as an emergency ● REVIEW… ○ Theories of why we help ■ Evolution, social exchange, empathy-altruism hypothesis ○ Individual and situational factors that influence helping ○ Bystander intervention model ■ And all the problems that can prevent us from helping ○ How can we increase helping? ■ Educating the public