Prosocial Behaviour
What is prosocial behavior?
Prosocial behavior, or intent to benefit others,is a social behavior that "benefit[s] other people or society as a whole", "such as helping, sharing, donating, co-operating, and volunteering". Obeying the rules and conforming to socially accepted behaviors (such as stopping at a "Stop" sign or paying for groceries) are also regarded as prosocial behaviors.These actions may be motivated by empathy and by concern about the welfare and rights of others,[5] as well as for egoistic or practical concerns, such as one's social status or reputation, hope for direct or indirect reciprocity, or adherence to one's perceived system of fairness. It may also be motivated by altruism, though the existence of pure altruism is somewhat disputed, and some have argued that this falls into philosophical rather than psychological realm of debate
Prosocial behaviors are those intended to help other people. These actions are characterized by a concern for the rights, feelings, and welfare of other people. Behaviors that can be described as prosocial include feeling empathy and concern for others.
Prosocial behavior includes a wide range of actions such as helping, sharing, comforting, and cooperating. The term itself originated during the 1970s and was introduced by social scientists as an antonym for the term antisocial behavior.
Benefits
In addition to the obvious good that prosocial actions do for their recipients, these behaviors can have a range of beneficial effects for the "helper":
- Mood-boosting effects: Research has also shown that people who engage in prosocial behaviors are more likely to experience better moods.1 Not only that, people who help others tend to experience negative moods less frequently.
- Social support benefits: Having social support can be crucial for getting through difficult times. Research has shown that social support can have a powerful impact on many aspects of wellness, including reducing the risk of loneliness, alcohol use, and depression.2
· Stress-reducing effects: Research has also found that engaging in prosocial behaviors helps mitigate the negative emotional effects of stress.1
Helping others may actually be a great way to reduce the impact of stress in your life.
Types
While prosocial behavior is often presented as a single, uniform dimension, some research suggests that there are different types. These types are distinguished based on why they are produced and include:
- Proactive: These are prosocial actions that serve self-benefitting purposes.
- Reactive: These are actions that are performed in response to individual needs.
- Altruistic: These include actions that are meant to help others without any expectations of personal gain.
Researchers also suggest that these different types of prosocial behaviors are often likely to be motivated by differing forces. For example, proactive prosocial actions were found to often be motivated by status-linked goals and popularity within a group. Altruistic prosocial behaviors, on the other hand, were more closely linked to being liked by peers and achieving shared goals.
Prosocial Behavior vs. Altruism
Altruism is often seen as a form of prosocial behavior, but some experts suggest that they represent different concepts. While prosocial behavior is seen as a type of helping behavior that ultimately confers some benefits to the self, altruism is viewed as a form of helping motivated purely out of concern for the individual in need.
Others argue, however, that reciprocity actually does underlie many examples of altruism or that people engage in such seemingly selfless behaviors for selfish reasons. For example, a person might engage in altruism to gain the acclaim of others or to feel good about themselves.
Difference between altruism and prosocial behavior
Situational and individual factors
Situational factors
One of the most common situation factors is the occurrence of the bystander effect. The bystander effect is the phenomenon that an individual's likelihood of helping decreases when passive bystanders are present in a critical situation. For example, when someone drops a stack of papers on a crowded sidewalk, most people are likely to continue passing him/her by. This example can be extended to even more urgent situations, such as a car crash or natural disaster.
The decision model of bystander intervention noted that whether or not an individual gives aid in a situation depends upon their analysis of the situation. An individual will consider whether or not the situation requires their assistance, if the assistance is the responsibility of the individual, and how to help.[26]
This model, proposed by Latane and Darley, describes five things that must occur in order for a person to intervene:
1. Notice the situation
2. Construe it as an emergency.
3. Develop feelings of responsibility.
4. Believe they have skills to succeed.
5. Reach a conscious decision to help.
The number of individuals present in the situation requiring help is also a mediating factor in one's decision to give aid, where the more individuals are present, the less likely it is for one particular individual to give aid due to a reduction in perceived personal responsibility.[26] This is known as diffusion of responsibility, where the responsibility one feels for the person(s) in need is divided by the number of bystanders. Another factor that comes into play is evaluation apprehension, which simply refers to the fear of being judged by other bystanders. Finally, pluralistic ignorance may also lead to someone not intervening. This refers to relying on the reaction of others, before reacting yourself..
Individual factors
Individuals can be compelled to act prosocially based on learning and socialization during childhood. Operant conditioning and social learning positively reinforces discrete instances of prosocial behaviors. Cognitive capacities like intelligence for example, are almost always related to prosocial likings. Helping skills and a habitual motivation to help others is therefore socialized, and reinforced as children understand why helping skills should be used to help others around them.
Social and individual standards and ideals also motivate individuals to engage in prosocial behavior. Social responsibility norms, and social reciprocity norms reinforce those who act prosocially. As an example, consider the child who is positively reinforced for "sharing" during their early childhood years. When acting prosocially, individuals reinforce and maintain their positive self-images or personal ideals, as well as help to fulfill their own personal needs. The correlation between a helper's state and helping tendencies are greatly restricted to the relationship between whomever takes part in the situation.
Emotional arousal is an additional important motivator for prosocial behavior in general. Batson's (1987) empathy-altruism model examines the emotional and motivational component of prosocial behavior. Feeling empathy towards the individual needing aid increases the likelihood that the aid will be given. This empathy is called "empathetic concern" for the other individual, and is characterized by feelings of tenderness, compassion, and sympathy.
Agreeableness is thought to be the personality trait most associated with inherent prosocial motivation. Prosocial thoughts and feelings may be defined as a sense of responsibility for other individuals, and a higher likelihood of experiencing empathy ("other-oriented empathy") both affectively (emotionally) and cognitively. These prosocial thoughts and feelings correlate with dispositional empathy and dispositional agreeableness.
Other factors
In addition to situational and individualistic factors, there are some categorical characteristics that can impact prosocial behavior. Several studies have indicated a positive relationship between prosocial behavior and religion. In addition, there may be sex differences in prosocial behavior, particularly as youths move into adolescence. Research suggests that while women and men both engage in prosocial behaviors, women tend to engage in more communal and relational prosocial behaviors whereas men tend to engage in more agentic prosocial behaviors. A recent study examining workplace charitable giving looked at the role of both sex and ethnicity. Results showed that women gave significantly more than men, and Caucasians gave significantly more than minority groups. However, the percent of minority individuals in the workplace was positively associated with workplace charitable giving by minorities. Culture, sex, and religion are important factors to consider in understanding prosocial behavior on an individual and group level.
Causes
Prosocial behavior has long posed a challenge to social scientists. Researchers seek to understand why people engage in helping behaviors that are beneficial to others, but costly to the individual performing the action.
In some cases, including acts of heroism, people will even put their own lives at risk in order to help other people, even those who are complete strangers. Why would people do something that benefits someone else but offers no immediate benefit to the doer?
Psychologists suggest that there are a number of reasons why people engage in prosocial behavior.
- Evolutionary influences: Evolutionary psychologists often explain prosocial behaviors in terms of the principles of natural selection. While putting your own safety in danger makes it less likely that you will survive to pass on your own genes, kin selection suggests that helping members of your own genetic family makes it more likely that your kin will survive and pass on genes to future generations. Researchers have been able to produce some evidence that people are often more likely to help those to whom they are closely related.4
- Personal benefits: Prosocial behaviors are often seen as being compelled by a number of factors including egoistic reasons (doing things to improve one's self-image), reciprocal benefits (doing something nice for someone so that they may one day return the favor), and more altruistic reasons (performing actions purely out of empathy for another individual).
- Reciprocal behavior: The norm of reciprocity suggests that when people do something helpful for someone else, that person feels compelled to help out in return. This norm developed, evolutionary psychologists suggest, because people who understood that helping others might lead to reciprocal kindness were more likely to survive and reproduce.
- Socialization: In many cases, such behaviors are fostered during childhood and adolescence as adults encourage children to share, act kindly, and help others.
The Bystander Effect
Characteristics of the situation can also have a powerful impact on whether or not people engage in prosocial actions. The bystander effect is one of the most notable examples of how the situation can impact helping behaviors.
The bystander effect refers to the tendency for people to become less likely to assist a person in distress when there are a number of other people also present.
For example, if you drop your purse and several items fall out on the ground, the likelihood that someone will stop and help you decreases if there are many other people present. This same sort of thing can happen in cases where someone is in serious danger, such as a car accident. Witnesses might assume that since there are so many other people present, someone else will have already called for help.
The 1964 murder of a young woman named Kitty Genovese spurred much of the interest and research on the bystander effect. She was attacked late at night near her apartment, but no one contacted authorities during the attack.
Later research demonstrated that many of the neighbors may not have had a clear view of what was happening, which explained why no tried to intervene or contact the police. However, the crime still spurred an abundance of research on the bystander effect and prosocial behavior.
Bystander effect on prosocial behaviour
Other Influences on Prosocial Behavior
Research on the bystander effect resulted in a better understanding of why people help in some situations but not in others. Experts have discovered a number of different situational variables that contribute to (and sometimes interfere with) prosocial behaviors.
- Fear of judgment or embarrassment: People sometimes fear leaping to assistance only to discover that their help was unwanted or unwarranted. In order to avoid being judged by other bystanders, people simply take no action.
- How other people respond: People also tend to look to others for how to respond in such situations, particularly if the event contains some level of ambiguity. If no one else seems to be reacting, then individuals become less likely to respond as well.
- The number of people present: The more people who are around, the less personal responsibility people feel in a situation. This is known as the diffusion of responsibility.
How to Take Action
Researchers have also have suggested that five key things must happen in order for a person to take action. An individual must:
1. Notice what is happening
2. Interpret the event as an emergency
3. Experience feelings of responsibility
4. Believe that they have the skills to help
5. Make a conscious choice to offer assistance
Other factors that can help people overcome the bystander effect include having a personal relationship with the individual in need, having the skills and knowledge to provide assistance, and having empathy for those in need.
Prosocial behavior can be a beneficial force for individuals, communities, and societies. While there are many factors that contribute to helping actions, there are things that you can do to improve prosocial actions in yourself and in others:
- Develop your skills: One reason why people fail to help is that they feel like they don't really have the necessary skills to be of assistance. You can overcome this by doing things like learning the basics of first aid or CPR, so that you'll feel better prepared if you do find yourself in an emergency situation.
- Model prosocial actions: If you are a parent, provide a good example for your children by letting them see you engage in helpful actions. Even if you don't have kids, prosocial behaviors can help inspire others to take action. Volunteer in your community or look for other ways that you can help people.
- Praise acts of kindness: When you see kids (or even adults) doing kind things for others, let them know you appreciate it.
Relationship between age and prosocial behaviour
A Word From Very well
Prosocial behavior can have a number of benefits. It ensures that people who need help get the assistance they need, but it can also help those performing prosocial actions feel better about themselves. While there are obstacles that sometimes prevent such actions, research suggests that acts of kindness and other prosocial behaviors are contagious.
The neuroscience of prosocial behavior
