Altruism and Bystander Behaviour (29-Sep-2003)

Altruism

Walster and Piliavin define altruism as "helping behaviour that is voluntary, costly to the altruistic, and motivated by something other than the expectation of material or social reward".

The biological form of altruism is seen in certain animal species e.g. when an individual animal may give an alarm signal which helps other members of the group despite the risk of drawing attention to itself. This behaviour is regarded as a biologically programmed response, and is suggested (e.g. by Dawkins) to be a manifestation of the selfish gene.

While it is arguable that humans display biological altruism under certain circumstances (e.g. impulsive helping), humans also display what is referred to as the psychological form of altruism, where some cognitive element is involved (the individual makes a conscious decision to offer help).

There are various explanations offered as to why individuals behave altruistically:

• Universal egoism is the view that individuals always act selfishly, and so altruistic acts are just selfish behaviour in disguise.
• Piliavin suggests that a decision to help is based on a cost/reward judgement : if the costs of helping are judged to be less than the reward, then help will be offered. This is is a form of universal egoism.
• Batson (1987) states that when people feel empathy they become motived to act altruistically. This is referred to as the empathy-altruism hypothesis
• Cialdini et al (1987) suggest that altruism is motivated by negative state relief; that is, witnessing someone in need of help causes unpleasant feelings which are can be reduced by helping

• Sense of competence
• Sense of responsibility
• Perceiving a relationship to the person in need (research shows that it helps if you share the same physical characteristics)

• Physical attractiveness (more attractive victims are more likely to be helped
• Women are more likely to be helped than men (Eagly + Crowley)
• Similarity to helper (e.g. same ethnic group, social class etc.) (Hensley)
• Appearance of needing help
• Appearance of deserving help
• Appearance that help given will be effective

Bystander Behaviour

1. Does the bystander notice the event?
2. Does the bystander interpret the event as one requiring help?
3. Does the bystander assume personal responsibility?
4. Does the bystander select a way to help?
5. Does the bystander implement the selected decision?

• When others are present, an individual is less likely to regard a situation as requiring intervention: this is called pluralistic ignorance (may cause "no" at step 2)
• When others are present, an individual may assume that someone else will help - this is called diffusion of responsibility (may cause "no" at step 3)
• When others are present, an individual may assume that someone else is more competent to help (may cause "no" at step 3)

Piliavin et al's cost-reward model suggests that various situational factors combine with what they refer to as we-ness to produce a level of arousal, and the decision on whether to help is based on a cost/reward assessment of the best way to reduce that arousal.

Homework