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Summary Social Psychology theme 2 - The bystander effect
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This summary is about a theme in the social psychology: the bystander effect and all the associated theories.
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Thema 2 – ObstacleSocial Psychology [Kassin]
Chapter 10 (430-446)
The Bystander Effect – Darnley and Latane. (1964)
Theory that states that individuals are less likely to offer help to a victim in presence of other people
(Kitty Genovese).
Stimulus overload: People who live in noisy environments may become so used to seeing people lying
on sidewalks or hearing screams that they begin to tune them out.
The five steps to helping in an emergency
0) Emergency
1) Notice that something is happening
2) Interpret event as an emergency
3) Take responsibility for providing help
4) Decide how to help
5) Provide help
Pluralistic ignorance: the state in which people in a group mistakenly think that their own thoughts,
feelings, or behaviors are different from those of the others in the group. (Step 2)
Diffusion of responsibility: the belief that others will or should intervene. (Step 3)
Audience inhibition: when observers do not act in an emergency because they fear making a bad
impression on other observers. (Step 4-5)
Experiment: students give a talk about the Good Samaritan who helped a man on the road. The
experiment would measure time pressure. Participants were told either they are running ahead of
schedule, right on time, or already a few minutes behind schedule. -> passed someone -> helped:
ahead of schedule (63%), on time (45%), late (10%).
, Good moods and doing good – scents and sensibilities
People approached by a researcher in a mall reported being in a better mood and were more likely to
comply to a request for change if they were in an area of the mall with pleasant ambient doors than if
they were in an area with no clear doors.
(People are much more likely to help someone when they’re in a good mood)
Why feeling good leads to doing good:
- Desire to maintain one’s good mood.
- Positive thoughts and expectations.
When feeling good might not lead to doing good:
- Costs of helping are high.
- Positive thoughts about other social activities that conflict with helping.
When negative moods make us more likely to help others:
- If we take responsibility for what caused our bad mood.
- If we focus on other people.
- If we think about our personal values that promote helping.
When negative moods make us less likely to help others:
- If we blame others for our bad mood.
- If we become very self-focused.
- If we think about our personal values that do not promote helping.
Reluctant altruism: altruistic kinds of behavior that results from pressure from peers/other sources of
direct social influence.
Conscientiousness was associated with altruism toward family members, agreeableness was
associated with altruism toward friends and acquaintances, and openness was associated with
altruism toward strangers.
Empathy: the ability to understand/share the feelings of another. Trait with the most attention in
predicting helping behavior.
Chapter 10 (450-455)
Perceived characteristics of the person in need
- People who seem attractive, particularly nice, sociable, or happy, for example, are more
likely to receive help (Interpersonal attractiveness).
- People are less likely to help someone in need if they think the person can be blamed for
his/her situation.
- We are more likely to help others who are similar to us. Signs of dissimilarity decrease it.
- People consistently show greater empathy for the needs and suffering of ingroup
members than outgroup members (Ingroup members could also be people from the same
team (like football) – can be based on every group)
- Gender: on average men are more helpful than women, and women receive more help
than men.
- Connection to helping: genetic relatedness, empathic concern, sense of responsibility,
perceived similarity, shared group membership…
- Two kinds of connections with empathy-altruism hypothesis: the cognitive connection of
perspective taking and the emotional connection of empathic concern.
Exchange relationship: giving help with the expectation of receiving comparable benefits in return.
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