HELPING AND ALTRUISM

Brad Pitt Helping in New Orleans because we are human beings, and human beings (as
• Brad Pitt initiated a rebuilding project in New are many other species) are helpful.
Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, • In other cases our helping is more selfish, designed
contributing $5 million of his own money to get it to make ourselves feel better or even to gain rewards
started. such as praise, status, or money.
• He collaborated with architectural firms to create UNDERSTANDING ALTRUISM: SELF AND
ecologically friendly homes and flood-proof OTHER CONCERNS
designs. • Altruism refers to any behavior that is designed to
• Through the website, Pitt sought grants and increase another person’s welfare, and particularly
donations from businesses, religious groups, and those actions that do not seem to provide a direct
individuals for house projects. reward to the person who performs them.
• While Pitt focused on replacing homes, some o Altruism occurs when we go out of our way to
officials and politicians questioned the wisdom of help people who have lost their homes as a result
rebuilding in flood-prone areas. of a natural disaster such as a hurricane, when
• To raise awareness, Pitt had 150 large pink we stop to help a stranger who has been stranded
Monopoly-shaped houses built in the Lower Ninth on the highway, when we volunteer at a
Ward, describing them as a work of art to highlight homeless shelter or donate to a charity, or when
the area's needs and his redesign ideas. we get involved to prevent a crime from
• Pitt prioritized the rebuilding of the Lower Ninth occurring.
Ward over his movie career, committing to see the • As we will see, some of these represent true altruism,
project through to completion. whereas other represent helping that is motivated
• Hurricane Katrina, which struck the southern coast more by self-concern.
of the United States in 2005, caused extensive • n. And of course, there are also times when we do
damage and displaced thousands of people from not help at all, seeming to not care about the needs
their homes. of others.
• The disaster received widespread attention globally, • Helping is strongly influenced by affective variables.
leading to numerous financial contributions and o Amygdala and Prefrontal Cortex – the parts of
volunteer efforts to aid in rebuilding and recovery. the brain that are most involved in empathy,
• Many volunteers, both local and from around the altruism, and helping; areas that are responsible
world, assisted in cleanup and repair efforts, driven for emotion and emotion regulation.
by a desire to help those affected by the disaster. Kinship
• Why would people sacrifice so much of themselves • Evolutionary psychologists argue that the tendency
for others who cannot help them in return? Is helping to help others is a basic feature of human nature.
part of the normal human experience, or are these • Altruism may encounter costs to individuals but
acts unusual, unexpected, and rare? Who is most benefits the group as a whole, enhancing overall
likely to help, who are we most likely to help, and survival and prosperity.
under what social circumstances do we help or not • In an evolutionary perspective, the survival of an
help? And what biological, personal, social, and individual's genes is more important than the
cultural factors influence helping? individual's survival.
• The money and time that they volunteered might • Therefore, if a given behavior such as altruism
have been motivated by the desire to avoid being enhances our reproductive success by helping the
seen as selfish, or by the fear of feeling guilty if they species as a whole survive and prosper, then that
did not help. Perhaps our seemingly altruistic behavior is likely to increase fitness, be passed on to
behaviors are actually motivated not by the desire to subsequent generations, and become part of human
increase another’s welfare but by the desire to nature.
enhance the self. • If we are altruistic in part to help us pass on our
• Human nature has created a general tendency for genes, then we should be particularly likely try to
people to enjoy the company of others and to trust, care for and to help our relatives.
care for, and respect other people. • Research has found that we are indeed particularly
• This idea leads us to expect that we will, in most helpful to our kin (one’s family and relations).
cases, be helpful and cooperative, and perhaps even • Burnstein, Crandall, and Kitayama (1994) asked
altruistic. students in the United States and Japan to report how
• These decisions are influenced by the underlying they would respond to a variety of situations in
human motivations of protecting the self and which someone needed help.
reaching out to others. Some of our altruistic
behavior is part of our genetic endowment—we help

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 HELPING AND ALTRUISM

o Participants were more likely to help when a Reciprocity and Social Exchange
person's life was at stake, especially if the help • Although it seems logical that we would help people
required significant effort, time, and danger. we are related to or those we perceive as similar to
o The study found that individuals were more us, why would we ever help people to whom we are
inclined to help close relatives (e.g., siblings, not related?
parents, children) compared to more distantly • One explanation for such behavior is based on the
related individuals (e.g., nieces, nephews, principle of reciprocal altruism.
uncles, grandparents). • Reciprocal altruism is the idea that, if we help other
o Research suggests that people are more willing people now, they will return the favor should we
to donate organs, such as kidneys, to relatives need their help in the future.
rather than to strangers. o By helping others, we both increase our chances
o Even children show a preference for helping of survival and reproductive success and help
siblings over helping friends. others increase their chances of survival too.
• We are particularly helpful to people who share • Over the course of evolution, those who engage in
our genetic background. reciprocal altruism should be able to reproduce more
• Average extent to which we share genes with often than those who do not, thus enabling this kind
genetically related individuals. of altruism to continue. Reciprocal altruism means
• According to evolutionary principles, this degree of that people even may help total strangers, based on
genetic closeness should be positively correlated the assumption that doing so is useful because it may
with the likelihood that we will help each of those lead others to help them in the future.
people. • Many animals exhibit reciprocal altruism,
• Neyer and Lang (2003) Blood is thicker than suggesting its evolutionary adaptiveness.
water. o Examples include birds emitting alarms to warn
o Identical monozygotic twins share 100% of their others of predators, dolphins aiding sick or
genetic material. injured individuals, male baboons protecting
o Parents, children, siblings, and fraternal their troop, and bats sharing food with less
(dizygotic) twins share 50%. fortunate companions.
o Half-siblings, grandparents, and grandchildren • Altruism can even be found in low-level organisms,
share 25%. such as the cellular slime molds.
o Cousins, great-grandchildren, great- o Slime molds are groups of cells that live as
grandparents, great-aunts, and great-uncles individuals until they are threatened by a lack of
share 12.5%. food, at which point they come together and
o Unrelated individuals share 0% of their genetic form a multicellular organism in which some of
material. the cells sacrifice themselves to promote the
• Our reactions to others are influenced not only by survival of other cells in the organism.
our genetic relationship to them but also by their • Reciprocal altruism is one example of the general
perceived similarity to us. principle of social exchange.
• We help friends more than we help strangers, we o We frequently use each other to gain rewards
help members of our ingroups more than we help and to help protect ourselves from harm, and
members of outgroups, and we help people who are helping is one type of benefit that we can
more similar to us more generally. provide to others.
• It is quite possible that similarity is an important o We frequently use each other to gain rewards
determinant of helping because we use it as a and to help protect ourselves from harm, and
marker—although not a perfect one—that people helping is one type of benefit that we can
share genes with us. provide to others.
• Cialdini, Brown, Lewis, Luce, and Neuberg (1997) o In some cases, this exchange reflects overt
have proposed that it is the sense of perceived cooperation, such as when two students take
similarity—the sense of ‘‘oneness’’ between the notes for each other in classes that they miss or
helper and the individual in need—that motivates when neighbors care for each other’s pets while
most helping. one of them is away.
o In other cases the exchange may be more subtle
and indirect, for instance, when we help
someone we don’t really know, with the
expectation that someone else may help us in
return someday.

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 HELPING AND ALTRUISM

Social Reinforcement and Altruism: The Role of o European countries have enacted Good
Rewards and Costs Samaritan laws that increase the costs of not
• Helping is both part of our basic human biological helping others. These laws require people, with
nature and also in part learned through our social the threat of a fine or other punishment if they
experiences with other people. do not, to provide or call for aid in an emergency
• The principles of social learning suggest that people if they can do so without endangering
will be more likely to help when they receive themselves in the process
rewards for doing so. o “Angel of Mercy” law in many countries and
o Parents praise children who share and reprimand states – that decrease the costs of helping and
selfishness. encourage people to intervene in emergencies by
o People are more likely to help attractive offering them protection from the law if their
individuals of the opposite sex. actions turn out not to be not helpful or even
• Darley and Batson (1973) demonstrated the effect of harmful.
the costs of helping in a particularly striking way. o Law in California states that, no person who in
o Conducted study with religious seminary good faith, and not for compensation, renders
students. They were divided into two groups: emergency care at the scene of an emergency
one prepared a speech on the Good Samaritan, shall be liable for any civil damages resulting
emphasizing helping, while the other prepared a from any act or omission. The scene of an
speech on their favorite jobs. emergency shall not include emergency
o However, and again according to random departments and other places where medical
assignment, the students were told that they had care is usually offered.
plenty of time to get to the recording session, • Altruism is learned in part through observational
that they were right on time, or that should hurry learning of positive role models.
because they were already running late. • In addition to learning through reinforcement, we are
o On their way to deliver the speeches, they also likely to help more often when we model the
encountered a person in apparent distress helpful behavior of others.
(research confederate). The dependent variable • In fact, although people frequently worry about the
in the research was the degree of helping that negative impact of the violence that is seen on TV,
each of the students gave to the person who was there is also a great deal of helping behavior shown
in need. on TV.
o The researchers found that the topic of the o Smith et al. (2006) found that 73% of TV shows
speech didn't affect helping behavior. had some altruism and that about three altruistic
o However, time pressure did. behaviors were shown every hour. Furthermore,
o Of those who thought they had plenty of time, the prevalence of altruism was particularly high
63% offered help, compared to 45% of those in children’s shows.
who believed they were on time and only 10% • Viewing positive role models provides ideas about
of those who thought they were late. ways to be helpful to others and gives us information
o Expected on the basis of the principles of social about appropriate helping behaviors.
reinforcement—when we have more time to • Research has found a strong correlation between
help, then helping is less costly and we are more viewing helpful behavior on TV and helping.
likely to do it. • Hearold (1980) concluded from a meta-analysis that
• The principle of social reinforcement refers to the watching altruism on TV has a greater impact on
idea that social rewards and punishments influence promoting helping behavior than viewing TV
behavior. It suggests that individuals are more likely violence has on encouraging aggression. She
to engage in behaviors that are reinforced by positive encouraged public officials and parents to demand
social consequences and less likely to engage in more TV shows with prosocial themes and positive
behaviors that are punished socially. This principle role models. However, exposure to behavior that is
highlights the role of social interactions and not altruistic, such as violence in video games, can
feedback in shaping and maintaining behavior decrease altruism. (Anderson & Bushman, 2001)
within a social context. • There are still other types of rewards that we gain
• Of course, not all helping is equally costly from helping others.
(consequence or sacrifices). o One is the status we gain as a result of helping.
• Helping can be especially costly in dangerous Altruistic behaviors serve as a type of signal
situations or when it involves long-term about the altruist’s personal qualities. If good
commitments, like caring for a seriously ill person. people are also helpful people, then helping
• Because helping strangers is particularly costly. implies something good about the helper

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o When we act altruistically, we gain a reputation • Reciprocity Norm (help with expectation in return)
as a person with high status who is able and vs. Social Responsibility Norm (help without
willing to help others, and this status makes us expectation in return)
better and more desirable in the eyes of others. • We should be helpful to others that these goals may
• Hardy and Van Vugt (2006) discovered that people, not always be easy for us to follow because they
regardless of gender, tend to make cooperative represent a classic case in which one of the basic
choices over competitive ones when their decisions human motives (other concern) conflicts with
are public rather than private. Additionally, those another basic human motive (self-concern).
who were more cooperative in public settings were • Trying to do the best thing for ourselves in the short
perceived to have higher social status by others. term may lead us to take the selfish road—taking
• Finally, helpers are healthy! Research has found that advantage of the benefits that others provide us
people who help are happier and even live longer without returning the favor.
than those who are less helpful. ` Daniel Batson and his colleagues – investigated the
Social Norms for Helping conflict between self-interest and other-concern using a
• The outcome of reinforcement for and modeling of moral dilemma. Participants, student volunteers, were
helping is the development of social norms of told about two tasks:
morality—standards of behavior that we see as • Positive Task: Engaging and offered the
appropriate and desirable regarding helping. chance to compete for a $30 prize.
• One norm that we all are aware of and that we • Neutral Task: Described as boring and offered
attempt to teach our children is based on the no chance to win.
principles of equity and exchange. The moral dilemma arose when participants were told
• The reciprocity norm is a social norm reminding us they would decide who (including another student
that we should follow the principles of reciprocal supposedly participating) received each task. They were
altruism. informed the other student wouldn't know who made the
o —if someone helps us, then we should help them decision and were free to choose however they liked.
in the future, and we should help people now Notably, a coin was provided to aid their decision:
with the expectation that they will help us later • Heads: "SELF to POSITIVE" (participant gets
if we need it. the positive task).
o The reciprocity norm is found in everyday • Tails: "OTHER to POSITIVE" (other student
adages like “Scratch my back and I’ll scratch gets the positive task).
yours” and in religious and philosophical Participants were then left alone to decide the task
teachings such as the golden rule: “Do unto assignments and what they believed to be the morally
others as you would have them do unto you.” right course of action.
o The reciprocity norm forms the basis of human The Results
cooperation and is found in every culture. • What They Believed: When asked what they
o Because the rule is normally followed, people thought was the most morally right thing to do,
generally do help others who have helped them. most participants (31 out of 40) believed
• Because helping following the reciprocity norm is flipping the coin was the fairest option. Others
based on the return of earlier help and the (5) felt assigning the positive task to the other
expectation of a future return from others, it might student was best, while a few (4) saw no
not seem so much like true altruism to you. morally right way to decide. This suggests most
• But we might also hope that our children internalize participants valued fairness or at least
another relevant social norm that seems more generosity.
altruistic—the social responsibility norm. • What They Did: Interestingly, 12 participants
• Social Responsibility Norm - norm tells us that we didn't flip the coin at all. Among these, 10
should try to help others who need assistance, even assigned themselves the positive task,
without any expectation of future paybacks. prioritizing self-interest. The remaining 2
o The social responsibility norm involves a sense assigned the positive task to the other student.
of duty and obligation, in which people are Even those who chose to flip the coin (28 participants)
expected to respond to others by giving help to seemed to favor themselves. By chance, we would
those in need. The teachings of many religions expect roughly half (14) to assign the positive task to
are based on the social responsibility norm that the other student based on the coin toss results.
we should, as good human beings, reach out and However, only 4 actually did. The remaining 24 kept the
help other people whenever we can. positive task for themselves, significantly deviating
RESEARCH FOCUS: Moral Hypocrisy from what pure chance and fairness would dictate.

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 HELPING AND ALTRUISM

The Takeaway if they think that the helping is going spoil

This research by Batson and colleagues highlights the their good mood, even people in good
trade-off between self-interest and helping others. moods are likely to refuse to help (Erber
While most participants acknowledged fairness (other- & Markunas, 2006).
concern) as important, their actions often prioritized Relieving Negative Emotions: Guilt Increases
self-benefit when given the opportunity. This showcases Helping
a potential gap between what we believe is morally right • Although positive moods can increase helping,
and how we behave, especially when faced with negative emotions can do so too.
personal gain. • The idea is that if helping can reduce negative
feelings we are experiencing, then we may help
THE ROLE OF AFFECT: MOODS AND in order to get rid of those bad feelings.
EMOTIONS • One emotion that is particularly important in this
• Because our ability to successfully interact with regard is guilt.
other people is so important to our survival, o We feel guilt when we think that we (or
these skills have become part of human nature. others we feel close to) may have caused
• We determine whether to help in large part on harm to another person.
the basis of how other people make us feel, and o The experience of guilt increases our desire
how we think we will feel if we help or do not to create positive relationships with other
help them. people. Because we hate to feel guilty, we
Positive Moods Increase Helping will go out of our way to reduce any
• People help more when they are in good mood. feelings of guilt that we may be
• Positive moods have been shown to increase experiencing. And one way to relieve our
many types of helping behavior, including guilt is by helping. Put simply, feelings of
contributing to charity, donating blood, and guilt lead us to try to make up for our
helping coworkers (Isen, 1999) transgressions in any way possible,
• This can be anything from finding a penny on including by helping others.
the street to listening to a funny story. Even a Dennis Regan and his colleagues
friendly smile or a pleasant smell can make The Experiment: Students were tricked into
someone more helpful! believing they accidentally broke someone's camera
• Van Baaren, Holland, Kawakami, and van (feeling guilty). They were then given a chance to
Knippenberg (2004) – had students interact help another person in need.
with an experimenter who either mimicked them The Result: Students who felt guilty were more
by subtly copying their behaviors out of their likely to help the stranger compared to those who
awareness or did not mimic them. The didn't feel guilty.
researchers found that people who had been The Explanation: Guilt acts as a signal that we've
mimicked were more likely to help, by picking done something wrong and need to make amends.
up pens that had fallen on the floor and by Helping someone else becomes a way to reduce the
donating to a charity. It seems quite possible that negative feeling of guilt.
this effect is due to the influence of positive The Takeaway: Guilt motivates us to repair
moods on helping—we like people we see as relationships and restore balance after causing
similar to us and that puts us in a good mood, harm, even if it's to someone unrelated to the
making us more likely to help. I original situation.
• Reasons a good mood make us helpful: • Advertisers may try to invoke guilt to get people
o Felling safe - positive mood indicates that to contribute to charitable causes. This approach
the environment is not dangerous and is particularly effective when people feel that
therefore that we can safely help others. they are able to engage in the necessary helping.
o Liking People More – we like other • It's not just guilt! Sadness, fear, and even
people more when we are in good moods, thinking about death can also make people more
and that may lead us to help them. helpful, all because it makes us feel better.
o Feeling Good About Ourselves - helping Personal Distress and Empathy as Determinants of
makes us feel good about ourselves, Helping
thereby maintaining our positive mood. • The negative emotions that we may experience
o In fact, people who are in good moods are when we are perceiving another person’s distress
particularly likely to help when the help have a big influence on our helping.
that they are going to give seems likely
381 to maintain their positive mood. But

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 HELPING AND ALTRUISM

• Personal distress refers to the negative • Students were randomly assigned to either an
emotions that we may experience when we view "easy escape" or "difficult escape" condition:
another person’s suffering. o Easy escape condition: Students could
o Because we feel so uncomfortable, when leave after 2 trials.
we feel personal distress we may simply o Difficult escape condition: Students had to
leave the scene rather than stopping. watch all 10 trials.
• In other cases we may not feel so many negative • Researchers measured the students' emotions
emotions upon viewing another person in need (empathy vs. personal distress) and their
but rather more positive feelings of a close willingness to help the person in the recording by
connection with the person who is suffering. taking shock trials themselves.
• When we really experience the pain and the • To determine whether the person was feeling more
needs of the other person, we say that we are personal distress (if they indicated that they were
feeling empathy for the other. primarily feeling alarmed, grieved, upset, worried,
• Empathy refers to an affective response in disturbed, distressed, troubled, or perturbed) or
which a person understands, and even feels, more empathy (if they indicated that they were
another person’s distress and experiences events primarily feeling sympathetic, moved,
the way the other person does. compassionate, warm, softhearted, or tender.
o Empathy seems to be an inherent human The Results:
trait that promotes helping behavior. Batson and the team found a person-situation
• Empathy allows us to quickly and automatically interaction effect.
perceive and understand the emotional states of 1. Easy Escape: Students who felt empathy were
others and to regulate our behavior toward more likely to help, while those with personal
others in coordinated and cooperative ways. distress were not. (Empathy motivates helping even
• Empathy may also create other emotions, such if you can leave.) This makes sense because
as sympathy, compassion, and tenderness. empathy involves a real concern for other person—
• Whether you choose to help someone in need a concern that could not be reduced even by leaving
depends on the emotions you experience in that the scene.
situation. Personal distress discourages helping, 2. Difficult Escape: Students with personal distress
whereas empathy motivates helping. were more likely to help, while those with empathy
RESEARCH FOCUS: Personal Distress Versus were not. (People might help to avoid feeling bad
Empathy as Determinants of Helping themselves if they can't leave.) Batson and his
• We have seen that people may feel either colleagues interpreted this to mean that these people
positive or negative emotions when they see helped to avoid having to feel the negative emotion
someone who needs help. of personal distress which they were certain to
• They may help others in part for selfish experience as they continued to watch the other
reasons—for instance, to relieve their own person suffer the shocks.
negative feelings about the suffering of the other The Results
• Part for truly altruistic reasons—because they • The chance to leave the situation (easy escape) affected how
people with different emotions helped:
are experiencing empathy for the distress of the
Empathy: People who cared about the other person (empathy)
other person. were more likely to help regardless of escape.
• But which type of emotion leads us to help in Distress: People who felt bad seeing the other person suffer
which situations? Daniel Batson and his (distress) did not help more if they could leave easily.
colleagues attempted answer this questions • When leaving wasn't an option (difficult escape), things
switched:
Daniel Batson and his colleagues: Personal Distress
Distress: People who felt bad now helped more, likely to avoid
Versus Empathy as Determinants of Helping feeling worse by watching the suffering.
The Experiment: Empathy: People who cared about the other person didn't
• Male and Female college watched a recording of necessarily help more in this situation.
someone supposedly receiving electric shocks. The Takeaway:
• Students watched another person of the same sex The situation interacts with our emotions to influence
who they thought was working on series of tasks in helping behavior:
the next room (the person was actually on a • Empathy: True concern for others; motivates
prerecorded videotape, although the participants did helping regardless of the situation.
not know that). The women were told the person • Personal Distress: Negative emotions from
was named Elaine, and the men were told the person witnessing suffering; motivates helping only if
was named Charlie. escape is possible (to avoid feeling bad
ourselves).

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 HELPING AND ALTRUISM

This research suggests that empathy is a more reliable - Are we becoming a society that doesn't
motivator for helping than personal distress. care?
More Studies on Empathy and Helping - Or is there something about being in a
• The researchers did more experiments to see if crowd that discourages helping?
empathy or distress mattered more for helping. • Answer - Research suggests that having many
They tried different ways to make people feel people around during an emergency can actually
empathy or distress for someone in need. make it less likely someone will help!
• They found that when people felt strong empathy • Why? - Diffusion of responsibility: With more
(imagined the other's suffering), they were more people around, we feel less responsible to act
likely to help, even if they could easily leave. ourselves. Someone else will surely help, right?
However, people feeling mainly distress (upset by • So, the situation matters! Even if you feel
the situation) only helped if they couldn't leave. empathy for someone in need, being in a crowd
• In short, empathy is a stronger reason to help than might discourage you from taking action.
just feeling bad yourself. Latané and Darley’s Model of Helping
The passage argues that even helping motivated by • Two social psychologists, Bibb Latané and John
empathy might not be entirely pure altruism. Darley, found themselves particularly interested in,
• Helping due to empathy seems good: When we and concerned about, the Kitty Genovese case
help someone because we understand and share • They realized that emergencies are unusual and that
their suffering (empathy), it appears truly selfless. people frequently do not really know what to do
• But is it truly selfless? It's hard to say for sure. when they encounter one.
We might also help to: • Furthermore, emergencies are potentially
o Make the person we help feel better. dangerous to the helper, and it is therefore probably
o Feel good about ourselves (avoid guilt or pretty amazing that anyone helps at all.
sadness for not helping).
• The line is not clear: It's often a mix of motives. 1. Noticing
We might help partly because we care about the • Latané and Darley thought that the first thing that
other person (other-concerned) and partly because had to happen in order for people to help is that they
we want to feel good ourselves (self-concerned). had to notice the emergency.
• Does the reason matter? In the end, the outcome • Many studies have found that people who live in
is the same. Whether we help for selfish or selfless smaller and less dense rural towns are more likely
reasons, the person in need still receives help. to help than those who live in large, crowded, urban
• So, the passage acknowledges the complexity of cities.
helping behavior. Even when empathy seems to be • Although there are a lot of reasons for such
the driving force, there might be some element of differences, just noticing the emergency is critical.
self-interest involved. However, it emphasizes When there are more people around, it is less likely
that the result (helping someone) is ultimately that the people notice the needs of others.
more important than the exact motivation. • If you are like me, I bet you found yourself hearing
HOW THE SOCIAL CONTEXT INFLUENCES sounds that you never heard before—and they
HELPING might have made you pretty nervous. Of course the
Bibb Latané and John Darley’s model of helping sounds were always there, but when other people
behavior and indicate the social psychological variables were around you, you were simply less alert to
that influence each stage. them.
• Although emotional responses such as guilt, Latané and Darley's Smoke Experiment:
personal distress, and empathy are important Highlighting the Importance of Noticing in Helping
determinants of altruism, it is the social situation
itself—the people around us when we are deciding
whether or not to help—that has perhaps the most
important influence on whether and when we help.
• The Kitty Genovese Case
o This famous case involved Kitty Genovese,
who was attacked near her apartment
building. News reports (mostly inaccurate)
claimed many people witnessed the attack
and did nothing. This case made people Behavior
wonder:

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 HELPING AND ALTRUISM

This passage describes an experiment by Latané and base their judgments on what they think the
Darley (1968) that investigated how social situations others are thinking.
affect noticing emergencies. • Pluralistic ignorance seems to have been
The Setup: occurring in Latané and Darley’s studies,
• Participants were asked to complete a because even when the smoke became really
questionnaire in a small room. heavy in the room, many people in the group
• Some participants were alone, while others conditions did not react to it
were in groups of three. • Rather, they looked at each other, and because
• Unbeknownst to the participants, the nobody else in the room seemed very concerned,
researchers started filling the room with smoke. they each assumed that the others thought that
The Findings: everything was all right.
• People working alone noticed the smoke much • You can see the problem—each bystander thinks
faster (around 5 seconds) than those in groups that other people aren’t acting because they
(over 20 seconds). don’t see an emergency. Conclude that help is
• Most people working alone reported the smoke not required.
within 4 minutes, compared to only 12% in • Pluralistic ignorance is not restricted to
groups. emergency situations. (classroom)
• In some groups, nobody even reported the o This is pluralistic ignorance at its worst—we
smoke! are all assuming that others know something
The Takeaway: that we don’t, and so we don’t act.
This experiment suggests that the presence of others can
hinder our ability to notice emergencies. This might be 3. Taking Responsibility
because we subconsciously rely on others to be aware
of the situation. • Even if we have noticed the emergency and
interpret it as being one, this does not necessarily
mean that we will come to the rescue of the other
2. Interpreting person.
• We still need to decide that it is our
• Even if we notice an emergency, we might not responsibility to do something.
interpret it as one. The problem is that events are • The problem is that when we see others around,
frequently ambiguous, and we must interpret them it is easy to assume that they are going to do
to understand what they really mean. something and that we don’t need to do
• Because emergencies are rare and because we anything.
generally tend to assume that events are benign, we • Diffusion of responsibility occurs when we
may be likely to treat ambiguous cases as not being assume that others will take action and therefore
emergencies. we do not take action ourselves.
• The problem is compounded when others are • The irony of course is that people are more likely
present because when we are unsure how to to help when they are the only ones in the
interpret events we normally look to others to help situation than they are when there are others
us understand them (this is informational social around.
influence). However, the people we are looking Diffusion of Responsibility: : Darley and Latané
toward for understanding are themselves unsure (1968).
how to interpret the situation, and they are looking This passage explains how the social situation can
to us for information at the same time we are influence helping behavior. The concept of
looking to them. diffusion of responsibility is introduced, where the
o When we look to others for information we presence of others reduces the likelihood that a
may assume that they know something that single person will take action.
we do not know. This is often a mistake, • Participants believed they were in
because all the people in the situation are communication groups (1, 2, or 5 people).
doing the same thing. • One person (confederate) faked a medical
• None of us really know what to think, but at the emergency over the intercom.
same time we assume that the others do know. • People who thought they were alone were more
• Pluralistic ignorance occurs when people think likely to help quickly (85%) compared to larger
that others in their environment have groups (31%) responded by the end of the 6-
information that they do not have and when they minute session.

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 HELPING AND ALTRUISM

• You can see that the social situation has a rest of us just don’t know what to do and
powerful influence on helping. We simply don’t therefore may simply walk by
help as much when other people are with us. • On the other hand, today most people have cell
Diffusion of Responsibility in Online Settings phones, and we can do a lot with a quick call.
• Real-life Example: In 1998, a murder • In fact, a phone call made in time might have
confession on a large online forum (200 saved Kitty Genovese’s life.
members) resulted in only 3 people reporting it. • The moral: You might not know exactly what to
• Markey's Study (2000): do, but you may well be able to contact someone
o Researchers sent requests for help in online else who does.
chat rooms (2-19 people). • Latané and Darley’s decision model of
o Help requests were addressed either to bystander intervention has represented an
everyone or to a specific person. important theoretical framework for helping us
o Result: Gender of the person requesting understand the role of situational variables on
help made no difference, but that addressing helping.
to a single person did. o This model highlights the decision-making
o Requests directed at a single person received process of bystanders:
faster responses (37 seconds) compared to ▪ Noticing the event
general requests (51 seconds). ▪ Interpreting the situation as an
o A correlational analysis found that when emergency
help was requested without specifying a ▪ Taking responsibility to help
participant’s name, there was a significant ▪ Knowing how to help
negative correlation between the number of Research by Fischer et al. (2011)
people currently logged on in the group and Key Findings:
the time it took to respond to the request. • People are more likely to help when alone:
The Power of Imagination: Diffusion of Responsibility The study supports the idea that diffusion of
Even in Your Head responsibility reduces helping behavior. With
Garcia, Weaver, Moskowitz, and Darley (2002) fewer bystanders, the feeling of individual
• found that the presence of others can promote responsibility is greater.
diffusion of responsibility even if those other • Clear emergencies lead to more helping:
people are only imagined. When the emergency is unambiguous (e.g.,
• Participants imagined themselves winning a someone is clearly injured), the number of
dinner: bystanders has less impact on helping behavior.
o With 10 friends (group condition) Everyone is likely to recognize the situation and
o With 1 friend (one-person condition) intervene.
• Afterwards, they were asked to volunteer time • Sometimes, more people can be helpful: In
for another experiment (supposedly in another some situations, having additional people
room). around can be beneficial. For example, multiple
Results: bystanders might be needed to physically assist
• People who imagined dining with a larger group someone in danger.
were less willing to volunteer time for the extra The Latané and Darley model, originally designed for
experiment. emergency intervention, can be applied to broader
Takeaway: helping situations. This includes preventing drunk
Even imagining a social situation can influence our driving or deciding to donate a kidney.
willingness to help. The more people we imagine
being around, the less likely we feel responsible to
take action ourselves. OTHER DETERMINANTS OF HELPING
4. Implementing Action • Although we have discussed many of the most
important factors, there are still other variables
• The fourth step in the helping model is knowing that determine our willingness to help others.
how to help. These include characteristics of the people who
• For many of us the ways to best help another are potentially providing help as well as the
person in an emergency are not that clear; we are ways that others respond to the help they may
not professionals and we have little training in receive.
how to help in emergencies.
• People who do have training in how to act in
emergencies are more likely to help, whereas the

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 HELPING AND ALTRUISM

Some People Are More Helpful Than Others: adulthood, suggesting that they really were helpful
The Altruistic Personality people.
• We have seen that the social situation is a very • People with altruistic personalities seem to be people
strong determinant of whether or not we help. who have a strong other-concern—they like to be
• But although the effects of personality may not with, to relate to, and to help others.
generally be as strong as those of the social • The altruistic personality is in part heritable.
context, person variables do matter. • Research has found that identical twins are more
• Altruistic or Prosocial Personality – Some similar to each other in both their helping-related
people are indeed more helpful than others emotions (such as empathy) and their actual helping
across a variety of situations. than are fraternal twins, who share only a portion of
• Measuring the Altruistic Personality – have their genetic makeup.
four (4) dimensions of altruism. Gender Differences in Helping
Social Responsibility • On average there are no big differences between men
• No matter what a person has done to us, and women in terms of their helping. However, the
there is no excuse for taking advantage types of helping behaviors tend to differ by gender.
of them. • There appears to be a person-by-situation
• It makes sense to be very concerned interaction, such that gender differences show up
about how we act when we are sick and more strongly in some situations than in others.
feeling miserable. • The differences depend not only upon the
Empathy opportunity to help but also on the type of helping
• I sometimes try to understand my that is required.
friends better by imagining how things • In general, men are more likely to help in situations
look from their perspective. that involve physical strength.
• When I'm upset at someone, I usually • Women are, on average, more focused on other
try to "put myself in their shoes" for a concern, they are more likely than men to help in
while. situations that involve long-term nurturance and
Moral Reasoning caring, particularly within close relationships.
• My decisions are usually based on my • Women are also more likely than men to engage in
concern for other people. community behaviors, such as volunteering in the
• My decisions are usually based on what community or helping families.
is the most fair and just way to act. • Helping within the family is done in large part by
Self-Reported Altruism mothers, sisters, wives, and female friends.
• I have helped carry a stranger's • Women are not afraid to help in situations that are
belongings (e.g., books, parcels, etc.). dangerous. In fact, women have been found to be as
• I have allowed someone to go ahead of likely as men are to engage in dangerous behaviors
me in a line (e.g., supermarket, copying such as donating a kidney to others.
machine, etc.) Social Psychology in the Public Interest
• The altruistic personality involves both the Are the Religious More Altruistic?
cognitive and the emotional responses that we • Every major religion preaches the importance of
experience around others. compassion and helpfulness, and many faith-based
• People with altruistic personalities tend to show organizations help the poor and disadvantaged every
empathy and sympathy for others and feel that it year.
is appropriate and right to follow the norm of • Religious organizations help provide education,
social responsibility. food, clothes, financial support, and other essentials
• These people help more people in a wider to the needy across the globe.
variety of areas, including providing help to • There is support, based on surveys and
coworkers, donating organs, and volunteering, questionnaires, that religious people do indeed
and also have been found to help more quickly report being more helpful than the less religious.
than do people who score lower on these • Morgan (1983) found that people who reported that
measures. they prayed more often also said that they were more
A longitudinal study conducted by Nancy Eisenberg good, friendly, and cooperative toward others.
and her colleagues. • Furrow, King, and White (2004) found a significant
• Found that children who were the most helpful when positive relationship between religiousness and
they were measured in their preschool classes also prosocial concerns such as empathy, moral
were the most helpful later in childhood and in early reasoning, and responsibility in urban high school
students

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 HELPING AND ALTRUISM

• Benson, Donahue, and Erickson (1989) found that activating symbols relating to religion causes
adolescents who said that they were more religious increased altruism.
were also more likely to have been involved in a • Shariff and Norenzayan (2007) - showed their
volunteer service project in the last year. research participants religious words such as divine,
Batson and his colleagues (1989) God, sacred, and prophet and then later asked them
• wondered if religious people were actually more to contribute some money to a charity.
likely to help or if they simply indicated that they • The participants who had seen the religious words
would be on questionnaires were more likely to donate money to an anonymous
• To test this question, they recruited college students recipient than were a control group of people who
and first asked them to report on their religious had been exposed to nonreligious control words.
beliefs. On the basis of these responses, Batson • However, religion was not the only concept that
categorized the students into one of four groups: increased helping. Similar increases in altruism were
1. The nonreligious students were those who did not found when people were shown words related to
indicate much interest in religion. civil duty, such as civic, jury, court, police, and
2. Externally religious students used religion for self- contract.
concern, seeking comfort, social status, and support • When surveyed, religious people say that they are
for their lifestyle. more helpful than are the nonreligious, but whether
- The externally religious tended to agree they really help when helping conflicts with self-
with such statements as “The church is interest seems to depend on what type of religious
most important as a place to formulate good person they are.
social relationships” and “What religion • People who are religious for personal reasons related
offers me most is comfort when sorrows to self-concern generally are not more helpful.
and misfortune strike.” • On the other hand, those who are more quest-
3. Internally religious students integrated religion oriented—those who really believe that helping is an
into their inner experiences and daily life. important part of religious experience—are likely to
- The internally religious agreed with help even when doing so requires effort.
statements such as “I try hard to carry my • Furthermore, religion is not the only thing that
religion over into all my other dealings in makes us helpful. Being reminded of other social
life” and “Quite often I have been keenly norms, such as our civil responsibility to others, also
aware of the presence of God or the Divine makes us more helpful.
Being.” Who Do We Help? Attributions and Helping
4. Quest-oriented individuals valued religious • We do not help everyone equally—some people just
questioning and seeking answers to moral and seem to be more worthy of help than others. Our
religious questions throughout their lives. cognitions about people in need matter as do our
- “It might be said that I value my religious emotions toward them.
doubts and uncertainties” and “Questions • Bickman and Kamzan (1973) show that individuals
are far more central to my religious are less willing to assist someone seeking money for
experience than are answers” w a luxury item like cookie dough compared to
• Then Batson and his colleagues asked the someone seeking money for a necessity like milk.
participants whether or not they would be willing to • In addition to attempting to determine whether the
volunteer their time by helping a woman in need or help is really needed, we also tend to determine
by walking in a walkathon for a charity whether people are deserving of the help.
• Some were told others had already volunteered, or • We tend to provide less help to people who seem to
they'd have to do a tough physical exam. have brought on their problems themselves or who
• RESULTS don’t seem to be working very hard to solve them on
o Externally religious people were not more their own than we do to people who need help as a
helpful overall and were less likely to help with result of events that seem to be out of their control.
easy excuses. • People in unavoidable trouble get more help
o Internally religious students helped somewhat (e.g., illness not caused by them).
more, but not always if it got difficult. • People seen as causing their own problems get
o Quest-oriented individuals were the true less help (e.g., missing class).
altruists, helping even with difficult tasks and • Dooley (1995) had students read scenarios about a
ignoring easy excuses. person who had been diagnosed with AIDS
• Although most studies investigating the role of (Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome)
religion on altruism have been correlational, there is • Participants who learned that the person had
also some experimental research showing that that contracted the disease through a blood transfusion

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 HELPING AND ALTRUISM

felt more empathy and pity for the person, and also • We haven’t yet considered the cognitive and
expressed a greater desire to help them, than did affective reactions of the people who are receiving
participants who believed that the disease was the help.
caused by unprotected sex or by illicit drug use. • Although people who receive help often really need
• One reason we may be particularly likely to help the help and may indeed feel appreciative and
victims of hurricanes and other natural disasters, grateful to those who help them.
then, is that we see that these people did not cause • Receiving help may also have some negative
their own problems. consequences.
• It has been argued that a fundamental difference • When we help another person, it indicates that we
between individuals who hold politically have enough resources that we can afford to give
conservative views and those who hold politically some of them to the recipient; it also indicates that
liberal views is how they perceive the necessity or the recipient is dependent on our goodwill.
moral responsibility of helping others and that this • Thus helping creates a status disparity in the sense
relates to how they perceive the causes of people’s that the helper is seen as having higher status than
outcomes. the person being helped.
• Consider people who appear to need help because • This inequality makes giving help an indication of
they have inadequate food, shelter, or health care, for high status and power, and receiving help a
example. potentially self-threatening experience for the
o Liberals tend to attribute these 398 recipient.
Principles of Social Psychology outcomes • There are a variety of emotions that help recipients
more externally, blaming them on unjust might feel in these cases, including embarrassment
social practices and societal structures that and worry that they are, or are seen as, incompetent
create inequalities. Because they are likely or dependent.
to believe that the people do not deserve • Research has found that people frequently respond
their unfortunate situation, they are likely to negatively when they receive help and may in some
favor spending on social programs designed cases even prefer to endure hardships rather than to
to help these people. seek out help
o Conservatives, on the other hand, are more • Receiving help, then, can be a potential blow to our
likely to hold just world beliefs—beliefs self-esteem.
that people get what they deserve in life. • The negative feelings that we experience when
▪ Conservatives make more internal receiving help are likely to be particularly strong
attributions for negative outcomes, when the recipient feels that the implication of the
believing that the needs are caused by helping is that they are unable to care for themselves.
the lack of effort or ability on the part of • In these cases the help is perceived as being
the individual. dependency oriented. (recipient is incapable of
▪ They are therefore less likely than caring for themselves or solving their own problems)
liberals to favor government spending • When the helper takes control of the situation and
on welfare and other social programs solves the problem facing the individual, leaving
designed to help people little left for the individual to accomplish on his or
• Political conservatives, such as U.S. Representative her own, the behavior may be seen as indicating that
Eric Cantor of Virginia, tend to believe that people the individual cannot help herself.
deserve what they get and that the federal • The potential recipients of help are likely to reject
government should not spend money on health care offers of dependency-oriented help, refrain from
and other social programs. Liberals, on the other seeking it, and react negatively when it is offered.
hand, such as U.S. Representative Raúl Grijalva of • Another situation in which people may not
Arizona, tend to blame poverty and inequality on appreciate the help they are receiving is when that
external factors such as unjust social practices. They help comes on the basis of one’s presumed need
are more likely to promote policies designed to help (Assumed someone needs help because of a
the needy. disadvantage, not their own skills).
Reactions to Receiving Help o Blaine, Crocker, and Major (1995) found
• We have proceeded as if helping is always a good that people who imagined that they had been
thing—that people need to receive help and that they hired for a job because they were disabled
are appreciative of and thankful to the people who experienced lower self-esteem and felt that
help them. But perhaps this is not always true. they were less likely to work hard on the job
than those who imagined that they were
hired on the basis of their job qualifications.

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 HELPING AND ALTRUISM

• Autonomy-oriented help is partial and temporary increase willingness to help, particularly in

and provides information to the other, for instance, Western contexts like the United States.
by giving instructions or guidance or providing ideas • One important difference between Eastern and
about how to help oneself. Western cultures is that the importance of self-
• Autonomy-oriented help reflects the helper’s view concern (versus other-concern) is higher in the latter.
that, given the appropriate tools, recipients can help • Eastern cultures prioritize other-concern, while
themselves Western cultures, like the United States, prioritize
• Autonomy-oriented help allows help recipients to self-concern
retain their independence despite their reliance on • In fact, the strong individualistic norms in cultures
the more resourceful helper. such as the United States make it sometimes
• This type of help is less likely to clash with help inappropriate to try to help in cases where we do not
recipients’ view of themselves as capable people have a personal interest.
who can help themselves. • Ratner and Miller (2001) presented participants with
• There are also observed gender differences in the a scenario where a governmental funding agency
willingness to seek help. planned to reduce funding for disease research
o Boys and men are less likely to ask for help affecting only women or men.
overall, perhaps in part because they feel o Participants were asked if they opposed the
that asking for help indicates to others that funding reduction and how comfortable they
they are less capable of handling their own would be attending a protest meeting.
affairs or that they have low status. o In terms of their attitudes toward the reduction
• In short, when we help others we must be careful that in funding, there were no significant gender
we do it in a way that allows them to maintain their differences.
independence and that reminds them that they are o Men thought that the funding should be
still able to help themselves. This type of help will maintained even when the disease only affected
be more easily accepted and more beneficial in the women, and vice versa.
long run. o When asked how comfortable they would feel
Cultural Issues in Helping attending a meeting protesting the funding
Miller, Bersoff, and Harwood (1990) decreases, significant differences occurred.
• Children and adults in the United States, an o Men predicted feeling less comfortable
individualistic culture, were less inclined to believe attending a protest meeting when the disease
in an obligation to assist others compared to only affected women, and women predicted
individuals in India, a collectivistic culture, who feeling less comfortable when the disease only
perceived a strong obligation to help. affected men.
• Baron and Miller (2000) found that Indian students • Ratner and Miller proposed that Western cultures
were more likely than U.S. students to consider emphasize self-interest, influencing individuals'
donating bone marrow as morally required, willingness to engage in actions to help others.
highlighting cultural variations in perceptions of • In these cultures, people are often not expected to
altruism and obligation. volunteer or be involved in causes unless they
• Perlow and Weeks (2002) observed significant personally benefit from them.
cultural differences in the behavior of software • Altruistic behaviors that do not align with self-
engineers at similar companies in the United States interest may be viewed negatively by individuals in
and India. Western cultures.
o American engineers focused more on exchange • Participants in Ratner and Miller's study reacted
and reciprocity, offering help based on the unfavorably to altruistic actions that seemed
expectation of future benefits. inconsistent with self-interest.
o In contrast, Indian engineers were more inclined • There is still another example of the subtle role of
to help anyone in need, irrespective of potential self-interest in helping.
returns. o Often, individuals seeking contributions for a
o Perlow and Weeks interpreted these distinctions cause employ indirect methods, such as
as differing approaches to self-interest; in the selling goods or services.
U.S., helping was perceived as an unwanted o Bake sales, car washes, and address sticker
disruption, while in India, it was viewed as an and magazine subscription charity campaigns
opportunity for skill enhancement. are all examples of this.
o These findings suggest that framing help as o While these methods may generate funds,
beneficial to achieving personal goals may direct donations would likely be more
profitable for the charity.

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 HELPING AND ALTRUISM

o Some contributors may prefer direct — To understand AIDS and what it does with
donations over purchasing products. people.
• John Holmes and his colleagues (Holmes, Miller, & Personal development
Lerner, 2002) has supported this idea, finding that — To get to know people who are similar to myself.
people are more likely to help when they can pretend — To meet new people and make new friends.
that they are acting in their own self-interest. — To gain experience dealing with emotionally
• In one study, Holmes and his team found that difficult topics.
students were more likely to donate money to a — To challenge myself and test my skills.
needy charity when they were offered a small candle — To learn about myself and my strengths and
in return for their donation than when they were not weaknesses.
offered the candle. Community concern
• However, when the charity did not seem particularly — Because of my sense of obligation to gay
needy, contributions were smaller overall, regardless community.
of the candle offer. — Because I consider myself an advocate for gay-
• Again, it seems that people feel more comfortable related issues.
being altruistic when they can pretend that they are — Because of my concern and worry about the gay
really helping themselves—not violating the norm of community.
self-interest. — To get to know people in the gay community.
Increasing Helping — To help members of the gay community.
First, we need to remember that not all helping is based Esteem Enhancement
on other-concern—self-concern is important. — To make my life more stable
• People help in part because it makes them feel — To scape other pressures and stress in my life
good, and therefore anything that we can do to (e.g., from work, from home).
increase the benefits of helping and to decrease — To feel less lonely.
the costs of helping would be useful. — To feel needed.
Mark Snyder, who has extensively studied the • Omoto and Snyder (1995) found that the volunteers
people who volunteer to help other people who are were more likely to continue their volunteer work if
suffering from AIDS. their reasons for volunteering involved self-related
To help understand which volunteers were most activities, such as understanding, personal
likely to continue to volunteer over time, Snyder development, or esteem enhancement.
and his colleagues. • This result suggests that some volunteers were
• To help understand which volunteers were most using the volunteer opportunity to help them
likely to continue to volunteer over time, Snyder create better social connections.
and his colleagues (Omoto & Snyder, 1995) • On the other hand, the volunteers who reported
asked the AIDS volunteers to indicate why they experiencing negative reactions about their
volunteered. helping from their friends and family members,
• The researchers found that the people indicated which made them feel embarrassed,
that they volunteered for many different reasons, uncomfortable, and stigmatized for helping,
and these reasons fit well with our assumptions were also less likely to continue working as
about human nature—they involve both self- volunteers.
concern as well as other-concern. • These results again show that people will help
Values more if they see it as rewarding.
• Because of my humanitarian obligation to help • So, if you want to get people to help, try to
others. increase the rewards of doing so, for instance by
• Because I enjoy helping other people. enhancing their mood or by offering incentives.
• Because I consider myself to be a loving and Simple things, such as noticing, praising, and
caring person. even labeling helpful behavior can be enough.
• Because people should do something about • When children are told that they are “kind and
issues that are important to them. helpful children,” they contribute more of their
• Because of my personal values, convictions, and prizes to other children.
beliefs. • Rewards work for adults too: People were more
Understanding likely to donate to charity several weeks after
— To learn more about hor to prevent AIDS. they were described by another person as being
— To learn how to help people with AIDS. “generous” and “charitable” people.
— To learn about how people cope with AIDS.

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 HELPING AND ALTRUISM

• In short, once we start to think of ourselves as • We can also use what we have learned about
helpful people, self-perception takes over and helping in emergency situations to increase the
we continue to help. likelihood of responding.
• The nations and states that have passed Good o Most importantly, we must remember how
Samaritan laws realize the importance of self- strongly pluralistic ignorance can influence
interest: If people must pay fines or face jail the interpretation of events and how quickly
sentences if they don’t help, then they are responsibility can be diffused among the
naturally more likely to help. people present at an emergency.
• And the programs in many schools, businesses, o Therefore, in emergency situations we must
and other institutions that encourage students attempt to counteract pluralistic ignorance
and workers to volunteer by rewarding them for and diffusion of responsibility by
doing so are also effective in increasing remembering that others do not necessarily
volunteering. know more than we do.
• Helping also occurs in part because of other- o Depend on your own interpretation—don’t
concern. simply rely on your assumptions about what
o We are more likely to help people we like others are thinking and don’t just assume
and care about, we feel similar to, and with that others will do the helping.
whom we experience positive emotions. • We must be sure to follow the steps in Latané
Therefore, anything that we can do to and Darley’s model, attempting to increase
increase our connections with others will helping at each stage.
likely increase helping. • We must make the emergency noticeable and
o We must work to encourage ourselves, our clearly an emergency, for instance, by yelling
friends, and our children to interact with out: “This is an emergency! Please call the
others—to help them meet and accept new police! I need help!” And we must attempt to
people and to instill a sense of community avoid the diffusion of responsibility, for
and caring in them. instance, by designating one individual to help:
o These social connections will make us feel “You over there in the red shirt, please call 911
closer to others and increase the likelihood now!”
we will help them.
o We must also work to install the appropriate
norms in our children. Kids must be taught
not to be selfish and to value the norms of
sharing and altruism.
• One way to increase our connection with others
is to make those people highly salient and
personal.
o Charities and other organizations that seek
to promote helping understand this and do
the best they can to individualize the people
they are asking us to help.
o When we see a single person suffering, we
naturally feel strong emotional responses to
that person. And, as we have seen, the
emotions that we feel when others are in
need are powerful determinants of helping.
• In fact, Paul Slovic (2007) found that people are
simply unable to identify with statistical and
abstract descriptions of need because they do not
feel emotions for these victims in the same way
they do for individuals.
• As Joseph Stalin, the Russian dictator who
executed millions of Russians, put it, “A single
death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic.
• We can also use what we have learned about
helping in emergency situations to increase the
likelihood of responding.

15