People engage in prosocial behaviour from early developmental stages. Whether due to empathy or the perceived benefit of being a good person, we like to do good things and help people around us. As prosocial behaviour is important for maintaining cohesive societies, psychologists are interested in what makes people act prosocially and what factors might prevent us from doing so.
We will examine what factors can prevent us from helping in an emergency and how the presence of other onlookers affects our perception of responsibility to take action.
Prosocial behaviour intends to help and support others, freepik.com
Whether it's our time, energy or resources, being prosocial comes with a cost to us (the actor). So why would we engage in behaviour that comes at a cost to us? We act prosocially to benefit other people or to get something out of it, for example, when engaging in cooperation.
Prosocial behaviour definition
Prosocial behaviour refers to actions we take that benefit others (Eisenberg, 1982). Prosocial behaviour is often motivated by concern for others or feeling a responsibility to help.
Prosocial behaviour includes providing emotional support to your friends or taking care of the environment to donating money to charity.
When you and your friend work together on a group project, you both contribute to it and, in this way, benefit one another, which is an example of cooperation.
Helping your friend prepare for an exam because you know they struggle with the content and could use some help is an example of altruism. You don't necessarily gain anything out of it, but you do it to help your friend.
Conforming to social norms can also be an example of prosocial behaviour (e.g. respecting social rules like standing in queues helps keep order in society).
Prosocial behaviour and altruism
How is prosocial behaviour different to altruism? The term prosocial behaviour encompasses all actions that benefit others, no matter if we benefit from them. Prosocial behaviour includes cooperation (when both the actor and recipient benefit from a behaviour) and altruism (when only the recipient benefits).
Altruism occurs when we act to benefit others even though the action doesn't benefit us.
Cooperation is an example of prosocial behaviour, flaticon.com
Theories of prosocial behaviour
Different theories have been proposed to explain why we engage in behaviour that benefits others.
- Baumeister (2012) proposed that our innate need to belong drives us to cooperate and help others (the need to belong theory).
- According to the self-categorisation theory, we act prosocially toward the members of our group because we identify with the group.
- While Leary (2012) argues that people act prosocially to gain the approval and acceptance of the group.
- Evolutionary factors, empathy, and the influence of cultural norms have also been proposed to play a role in prosocial behaviour.
The bystander effect
Bystander behaviour refers to what we do when we witness an emergency (e.g. when someone's life or wellbeing is in danger).
The bystander effect refers to the social phenomenon of bystanders remaining passive when there are several other witnesses in an emergency, sometimes at a cost to the victim's life.
The most famous example of the bystander effect is the story of the murder of Kitty Genovese. Kitty was murdered in front of her apartment in New York in the 1960s; it was reported 38 people witnessed the murder throughout the course of her assault and eventual murder over the night, but no one stopped the murderer or called for help until it was too late.
Social factors that influence bystander intervention
Social factors refer to external environmental factors or the context of a situation. These include the presence of others and the cost of behaviour. Both of these factors are event specific and can affect people's likelihood to take action in an emergency.
Prosocial Behaviour: Presence of others
Counterintuitively, the more people witness an emergency, the less likely someone will react and attempt to help the victim. Bystanders feel less personal responsibility if there are more people around that could potentially take action, which is called diffusion of responsibility.
Diffusion of responsibility is a phenomenon that describes the relationship between the number of bystanders and the degree of individual responsibility. As the number of bystanders increases, the degree of individual responsibility decreases.
As the number of bystanders increases, individual responsibility decreases, - StudySmarter Originals
If you are in a busy city centre with hundreds of people around and you see a man faint, you feel less personally responsible for taking action, checking up on him and calling an ambulance. After all, many people saw it; surely someone else would take care of it. Perhaps someone more experienced than you. However, if you saw the same thing happen when in the room with the man alone, there is no one else that can help, and you feel more responsible for doing something.
Prosocial Behaviour: The cost of helping
In an emergency, the cost of helping could be the time and effort needed to help, embarrassment caused by not knowing how to offer appropriate help or exposing oneself to risk. One theory of bystander behaviour is that bystanders conduct a risk-benefit analysis and act accordingly.
There is also a cost to not helping, like feelings of guilt and powerlessness, while being the hero can bring positive feelings, such as satisfaction and pride.
Dispositional factors that affect bystander intervention
Dispositional factors refer to internal, individual characteristics (e.g. personality) that can influence one's behaviour to take action in an emergency. These can include the level of expertise and how similar we are to the victim.
Prosocial Behaviour: Expertise
Knowing how to intervene increases confidence in an emergency and makes bystanders more likely to help.
If it's your first time witnessing someone having a seizure, you might have no idea how to react and decide not to react, while someone who is medically trained or at least trained in first aid might feel more confident to take action.
Prosocial Behaviour: Similarity to victim
Similarity to the victim can make bystanders more likely to intervene no matter how many other people remain passive. Similarity involves sharing common identities with the victim (race, gender, common group membership), increasing empathy for them.
We tend to feel strongly for people we are similar to; therefore, we are more likely to take action to help them.
Prosocial Behaviour: Piliavin’s (1969) subway study
Piliavin (1969) found the victim's appearance can influence the likelihood of bystanders helping the victim. Piliavin measured people's responses on the subway in New York after witnessing a victim (an actor) fall over on the subway.
A victim who appeared to need help walking and dressed appropriately was helped 95% of the time.
A victim who appeared to be drunk was helped only 50% of the time.
Moreover, people on the subway took longer to help the drunk victim than the disabled victim.
One explanation for these findings is that a disabled victim evoked more empathy in people than a drunk victim, reflecting how people's attitudes to different groups affect their decision to help.
Prosocial Behaviour - Key takeaways
- Prosocial behaviour refers to actions that benefit others. Prosocial behaviour includes cooperation and altruism.
- Prosocial behaviour includes providing emotional support to your friends or taking care of the environment to donating money to charity. Altruism is a type of social behaviour.
- The bystander effect refers to the social phenomenon of bystanders remaining passive in the presence of other witnesses during an emergency, sometimes at a cost to the victim's life.
- Both social and dispositional factors can influence prosocial behaviour.
- Social factors influence the bystander behaviour, such as the presence of others and the cost of helping.
- More people make us less likely to intervene because of the diffusion of responsibility. As the number of bystanders increases, individual responsibility decreases.
- If the cost of helping is higher than the benefits of helping, bystanders are less likely to help.
- The bystander behaviour is affected by dispositional factors like expertise and similarity to the victim.
- Expertise makes bystanders more confident and more likely to help.
- Similarity to victim increases feelings of empathy and makes bystanders more likely to intervene.
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