SOCY 273 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Kin Selection, Distant Relatives, David Buss
14 Mar 2016
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Prosocial behaviour: behaviors that would benefit others. Often operationalized in terms of helping a stranger in an unexpected or emergency situation. Altruism: selfless concern for others; doing something at no gain or even expense to oneself. Theory that says engaging in selfless behaviours can happen even at your expense. Trial community service or jail pick community service (not altruistic) because you are doing to avoid jail. Batson and colleagues (1981) comparison for others is the motivating force behind truly altruistic behaviour (vs. helping based on personal gain) Conditions: empathy (confederate described as similar) or less empathy (confederate described as dissimilar) Watch confederate receive shocks on tv monitor; confederate indicates distress; told can switch places or experiment will be terminated. Findings: empathy condition tended to switch places with the participant. Attitudes as social: attitudes impact our beliefs and ideas. Not completely selfless because we do gain something happiness and joy that we helped (e. g. donating to charity)
