Prosocial Behaviour

Prosocial Behaviour

Prosocial behaviour is any action intended to help or benefit other people. It includes sharing, cooperating, comforting, volunteering and rescuing. Understanding why people help — and why they sometimes do not — is a key part of social influence.

What Is Prosocial Behaviour?

• Prosocial behaviour: voluntary actions intended to benefit others (e.g. helping someone who has fallen, donating to charity, volunteering)
• Altruism: a specific form of prosocial behaviour where the helper expects nothing in return — purely selfless
• Bystander behaviour: how people respond when they witness an emergency — do they help or not?

The Bystander Effect

The bystander effect is the finding that people are less likely to help in an emergency when other people are present.

Key study — Piliavin et al. (1969) — Subway Samaritan Study:

• A confederate collapsed on a New York subway train
• In some trials, the confederate appeared drunk (carrying a bottle); in others, he appeared ill (carrying a cane)
• Results: the "ill" victim received help 95% of the time within 70 seconds; the "drunk" victim received help only 50% of the time, and help came more slowly
• Conclusion: bystanders are more likely to help when the victim's need seems genuine and uncontrollable (illness) rather than self-inflicted (drunkenness)

Factors Affecting Bystander Behaviour

Factor	Explanation
Diffusion of responsibility	When many people are present, each individual feels less personally responsible for helping — "someone else will do it"
Pluralistic ignorance	Bystanders look to each other for cues on how to react; if no one acts, each person assumes the situation is not an emergency
Cost-benefit analysis	People weigh the costs of helping (danger, time, embarrassment) against the benefits (saving a life, feeling good). If costs outweigh benefits, they are less likely to help
Perceived similarity	People are more likely to help those who are similar to them (same age, gender, ethnicity, social group)
Competence	People are more likely to help if they have relevant skills (e.g. a nurse is more likely to help in a medical emergency)
Mood	People in a positive mood are more likely to help than those in a negative mood
Characteristics of the victim	Victims who appear deserving of help (e.g. collapsed with a cane) receive more help than those who appear undeserving (e.g. drunk)
Danger	If the situation appears dangerous, bystanders are less likely to intervene

Kitty Genovese Case (1964)

• Kitty Genovese was attacked and murdered outside her apartment in New York
• It was widely reported that 38 witnesses watched from their windows but none called the police (later investigations suggest this was exaggerated)
• The case sparked research into the bystander effect — why do people fail to help?
• Darley and Latane (1968) conducted experiments showing that as the number of bystanders increased, the likelihood of any individual helping decreased

How to Increase Prosocial Behaviour

• Reduce diffusion of responsibility — directly asking a specific person for help ("You in the red jacket, please call 999")
• Education — teaching people about the bystander effect makes them more aware and more likely to act
• Modelling — seeing others help encourages helping behaviour (social learning theory)
• Empathy — fostering empathy and perspective-taking increases willingness to help
• Community — strong social bonds and a sense of community increase prosocial behaviour

Exam Tips

• Know Piliavin et al. (1969) in detail — method, results and conclusions
• Understand diffusion of responsibility and pluralistic ignorance — these explain the bystander effect
• For AO3: Piliavin's study was a field experiment (high ecological validity, natural behaviour) but had ethical issues (no informed consent, potential distress to real passengers)
• Be able to explain the cost-benefit model of bystander behaviour
• For evaluation: Is prosocial behaviour truly altruistic, or is it always motivated by self-interest (e.g. feeling good, avoiding guilt)?