You are quiet and suddenly a man on the ground falls down in front of you while he grabs his chest and stays still. What are you doing? Are you going to help the man, or are you waiting for others to help the man? The answer to this question will vary from person to person. Among other things, altru sme, empathy and situational factors play a major role and determine to what extent people help others disinterestedly. The so-called ,bystander effect, can also ensure that one will help or not.
Prosocial behaviour: helping and helping
Prosocial behavior is a helping action towards another that provides another advantage without providing the helping direct advantage. On the contrary, the helping behavior can even pose a risk to the helping.
Altru sme is behavior motivated by the non-egoastic concern for the prosperousness of others. The behavior towards the other person is completely disinterested and gives the helping no benefit. Hero sme is a kind of superlative of altru sme: prosocial behavior in which one runs a hefty risk, for example trying to save drowning in ice-cold water.
The Role of Prejudice in Helping Behavior
The French YouTuber Norni twice as if he became unwell in the middle of the street and filmed the behavior of the bystanders. One time he was dressed as a wanderer, the other time as a fancy businessman. Dozens of people pass Norni, who clearly do not feel well and need help. Dressed as a wanderer, Norni, sometimes after an indifferent look, is passed by. Dressed in an expensive-looking costume, bystanders flock to Norni to help him. The same need for help provokes various – distressing – reactions. Norni’s social experiment shows that prosocial behaviour is not self-evident. How did this get?
Why we come to the rescue or not
There are several factors that influence prosocial behavior. First of all, there are a number of crucial steps that one goes through around help:
- You should notice that something unusual is happening
- You must interpret the event as an emergency
- You can ignore pluralist: behave like other people interpret the event
- Then you can decide that it is your responsibility to help
- After that, you can decide that you have the skills and knowledge to help
- You can make the decision to help
In addition, there are some situational factors that help or do not help. In this way, one helps more quickly one who is allowed or people who one considers to be neighbors, something that is perfectly logical from an evolutionary point of view. And we verantwoordelijkalso help someone who is not responsible for the situation he is in. When we also have role models or examples that exhibit prosocial behavior, we also show this faster. Seeing help does help.
Even if people have positive emotions, they show prosocial behavior more quickly. However, someone who is extremely optimistic can also misinterpret an emergency more quickly. When people have negative emotions, they are less likely to exhibit prosocial behavior. When Norni was dressed as a vagrant, this probably evoked a feeling of disgust in several people, which prevented Norni from helping. While a man in an expensive suit evokes positive associations with many people and that makes Norni in suits quickly helped.
Bystander effect
When many people are present at an event, a completely different phenomenon still plays a role. When helping with an accident, for example, a number of things stand out. If the number of bystanders in an accident or similar increases, the percentage of individuals who help decrease. And in addition, if the number of bystanders increases in the event of an accident, the time before one helps increases. Researchers think that this is because one distributes, as it were, the responsibility one feels for the situation and the victims among those present. The more bystanders there are, the less responsible one feels. The thinking that other people will help so that they do not or do not immediately take action, is also called the ,bystander effect,.
Empathy and empathy
Empathy is a complex affective and cognitive response to other people’s emotional stress. One can feel the emotional state of the other, take perspective, feel sympathy and want to solve the problem. Through empathetic ability, you can empathize with your child bitten by a dog, you feel the pain that your child experiences. And when your best friend is struggling with heartbreak, you may feel sad yourself. People seem to develop empathy at an early age. For example, very young children can react to people with stress. For example, children feel in great detail when parents have argued with each other, even when they were not a witness.
There are three forms of empathic ability and perspective:
- Imagine how someone else perceives or experiences an event
- Imagine how you would feel if you were going through the event
- You can immerse yourself in a fictitious person and event
Some people enjoy the pain of another while others want to risk their lives to relieve someone’s pain.
According to Strayer, we are all born with a biological capacity for empathy, but it depends on our experiences to what extent we develop empathy or not. When we are safely attached and have a role model, we develop empathy faster. When we have aggressive parents, we develop less empathy, as well as when we have a bad influence from our friends. On average, women show more empathy than men. You feel empathy for someone more quickly when you can identify with the other person.
When people experience a moral dilemma around whether or not help, the following factors often play a role:
- Self-interest: ego-sme, doing what provides for yourself the most satisfaction
- Moral Integrity: Inclination to exhibit morale behavior
- Moral hypocrisy: Pretend to be morally busy while doing your best to make as much effort as much effort as possible
The dilemmas around helping behavior
Getting help from someone else can also be found unpleasant. For example, one can experience the resuffating a seat on the train as if the other person feels superior (I am in better condition than you). One feels best when one has the idea of being helped based on positive feelings towards oneself.
Altru sme: selfless help
An altru stic personality consists of characteristics associated with prosossal behavior:
- Empathy and empathy
- Believe in a fair and fair world
- The social responsibility
- Internal locus of control
- Low self-centeredness
Voluntary work
Volunteering is a form of prosocial behavior. Whether it is completely altru stianic is difficult to say. Not all the reasons why you do volunteer work is completely selfless. However, the reward for volunteering is usually not expressed in money.
Why do volunteer work?
- Values: Expressing important values of themselves
- Understanding and knowledge: learning more from the world or skills
- Strengthening: psychological growth and development
- Carri re: to gain experience we can use later
- Social: Strengthening social relationships
- Protection of the Self: to reduce negative feelings