From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In social
psychology, the everyday concept of
helpfulness is really technically defined as (1)
the property of providing useful assistance, and (2) friendliness
evidenced by a kindly and helpful disposition [syn:
kindliness].
For many years, social psychologists have been searching for
answers to these questions:
- Why, and when, will people help?
- Who will help?
- What can be done to lessen indifference and increase
helping?
Why Do
People Help?
Several theories of helping agree that, in the long run, helping
behavior benefits the giver as well as the receiver. One
explanation assumes that human interactions are guided by a "social
economics". We exchange not only material goods and money but also
social goods - love, services, information status (Foa & Foa,
1975). In doing so, we use a "minimax" strategy - minimize costs,
maximize rewards.
- Arousal: Cost-Reward Theory. The arousal:
cost-reward theory suggests that people feel upset when they see a
person in need and are motivated to do something to reduce the
unpleasant arousal. People then weigh the costs of helping versus
not helping. The clearer the need for help, the more likely people
are to help. The presence of others inhibits helping behavior due
to diffusion of responsibility, a belief that someone else will
help. Environmental and personality characteristics also influence
helping.
- Empathy-Altruism Theory. According to the
empathy-altruism theory, helpfulness is seen in those who have
empathy with the person in need.
- Evolutionary Theory. Evolutionary theories
propose that people help others to ensure the survival of their
genes, at the risk of endangering themselves.
When
Will People Help?
Circumstances that inhibit or enhance helpfulness include:
- Number of bystanders. Victims are less likely
to get help when many people are around (Latane & Darley,
1975).
- Helping when someone else does. People are
more likely to help others if they have just observed someone else
modeling that specific helping behavior, e.g. Los Angeles drivers
offering help to a female driver with a flat tire (Bryan &
Test, 1967), New Jersey Christmas shoppers dropping money in a
Salvation Army kettle (Bryan & Test, 1967), British adults
donating blood (Rushton & Campbell, 1977).
- Time pressures. People leisurely on their way
to an unimportant appointment usually stopped to help, but those
late for an important date seldom stopped (Batson et al.,
1978).
- Similarity. People are more empathetic and
helpful toward those similar to them (Miller et al.,
2001), e.g. in dress (Emswiller et al., 1971; Gary et
al., 1991), in race (Benson et al., 1976; Clark,
1974; Sissons, 1981), in beliefs (Myers, 2005).
Who Will
Help?
- Personality traits. People high in positive
emotionality, empathy, and self-efficacy are most likely to be
concerned and helpful (Bierhoff et al., 1991; Eisenberg
et al., 1991; Krueger et al., 2001). Those high
in self-monitoring are attuned to others' expectations and are
therefore helpful if they think helpfulness will be socially
rewarded (White & Gerstein, 1987).
- Religious faith. People who rate religion as
"important" are more likely to report working among the needy
(Colasanto, 1989; Wuthnow, 1994; Deuser & DeNeve, 1995), to
campaign for social justice (Benson et al., 1980; Hansen
et al., 1995; Penner, 2002), and to give away higher
percent of their incomes (Hodgkinson et al., 1990, 1992),
especially over the long-term (Myers, 2005). Furthermore, they are
likely to give money to missionary causes, rather than secular,
objective organizations that have no motive of religious
conversion.
Whom to
Help?
- Victims of disaster, crime, and poverty
- People who are worse-off than the helper (to varying
degree)
How
To Increase Helping?
Research studies by social scientists have suggested that the
following factors can help to increase helping:
- Reduce ambiguity, increasing responsibility.
Personal appeals for help are much more effective than posters and
media announcements (Jason et al., 1984). Nonverbal
appeals can also be effective when they are personalized (Snder
et al., 1974; Omoto & Snyder, 2002). So does reduction
of anonymity (Solomon & Solomon, 1978; Solomon et al.,
1981).
- Guilt and concern for self-image. People who
have been reprimanded for their transgressions are more likely to
offer help than those who have not been reprimanded (Katzev, 1978).
People who have given door-in-the-face responses are likely to
agree to a smaller and more reasonable request (Cialdini et
al., 1975). Labeling people as helpful can also increase
helpful contributions (Kraut, 1973).
- Teaching moral inclusion. Broadening the range
of people whose well-being concerns us (Batson, 1983) and inviting
advantaged people to put themselves in others' shoes, to imagine
how they feel (Batson et al., 2003), helps.
- Modeling altruism. It's better not to
publicize rampant tax cheating, littering and teen drinking, and
instead to emphasize - to define a norm of - people's widespread
honesty, cleanliness, and abstinence (Cialdini et al.,
2003). Norms for generosity could perhaps be cultivated by simply
including a new line on tax forms that requires people to compute -
and thus to know - their annual donations as a percentage of income
(Ayres & Nalebuff, 2003). Modeling effects were also apparent
within the families of European Christians who risked their lives
to rescue Jews in the 1930s and 1940s and of 1950s (London, 1970;
Oliner & Oliner, 1988; Rosenhan, 1970; Staub,
1989,1991,1992).
References
- Bernstein, Penner, Stewart & Roy. Psychology, Sixth Edition (Online
outlines). Houghton Mifflin.
- Myers, D. (2005). Social Psychology. 8th ed. New York, NY:
McGraw-Hill.
See also
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