contrast two theories explaining altruism in humans

Contrast two theories explaining altruism in humans

Why would anyone be altruistic?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUO1k1YadXQ

Why would anyone be altruistic?

Kin Selection Theory• Hamilton 1963• We are more likely to

sacrifice ourselves for relatives than non-relatives.

• By sacrificing yourself for relatives (e.g. helping them at the cost of not having babies yourself) you still contribute to the survival of your genes by helping close relatives.


Kin and the likelihood of kidney donationsSimmons et al. (1977)

• The study investigated whether close relatives were more likely to be kidney donors.

• The results showed that 86% of parents said yes but only 47% of the siblings who could be donors agreed to donate a kidney to their relative when asked.


Kin and the likelihood of kidney donationsSimmons et al. (1977)

• This is a problem because what do you think Kin Theory would predict?

• Family over others (friends or strangers)

• Maybe closeness matters.• Side note…when the

siblings are closer in age they were more likely to donate.


Kin Theory..is it good?

Strengths of kin selection theory

• The theory is supported by empirical studies, which generally shows preference for helping close blood relatives (e.g. in organ donation).

Limitations of kin selection theory• The theory cannot explain why

people help individuals who are not relatives (e.g. cooperation among nonrelatives, spontaneous acts of bravery, or the adoption of children who are not relatives.

• Human kinship patterns are not necessarily based upon blood tie. Shared developmental environment, familiarity, and social bonding also contribute to kinship according to anthropologists.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teVtgmAPWHU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_1Rt1R4xbM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpzO8hYKZeg

The empathy-altruism theoryBatson et al. (1981)

• posits that some helpful actions are truly altruistic because they are motivated by the genuine desire to increase another’s welfare.

• It is the helper’s motives that determine whether a behavior is altruistic or not.



• Altruism can only happen if another person’s perspective is taken.

• Observing another person’s situation may either produce empathic concern (i.e. positive emotions like sympathy or compassion) or personal distress (i.e. negative emotions).

• “Empathy” evokes altruistic motivation to reduce another person’s distress whereas personal distress evokes an egoistic motivation to reduce one’s own distress.



Three factors facilitate perspective taking:

1. the observer has had similar experiences (lets say someone in school just got dumped)

2. the observer is attached to the victim

3. the person is instructed to imagine what it is like to be in the victim’s position.


Experimental testing of the empathy-altruistic theory

Batson et al. (1981)

Aim: To investigate participants’ motives to help when they had the opportunity to escape.

Procedure:Participants were students in an introductory psychology class at university. They were tested individually.




• Before they participated they filled out a questionnaire about themselves.

• Each participant was led to believe that he or she was an observer to a test where another student (Elaine) was being tested in recall of digit numbers.




• Participants read a short description of Elaine. Each description was manipulated so that the real participants could either identify with Elaine (high empathy) or not (low empathy).




• Participants then watched Elaine over a close-circuit TV (in fact a pre-recorded video).

• After two trials Elaine received electric shocks. She clearly expressed they were painful.




• Participants were asked if they would be willing to help Elaine by taking her place.

• Half of them heard that they could either take her place or fill out a questionnaire and then leave (easy escape situation).

• The other half were told that they could either take her place or watch Elaine go through the remaining eight trials (difficult escape situation).




• Then participants had to say what they wanted to do.

• When they had chosen, the experiment ended and they were debriefed.




Results:• High empathy

condition: Most participants agreed to help Elaine.

• It did not matter much whether it was easy or difficult to escape.




• Low empathy condition: Most participants withdrew in the easy escape condition.

• When it was difficult some preferred to offer help.




Evaluation:• The experiment involved

clever manipulations with operationalized variables.

• The participants were all psychology students and we cannot rule out that they guessed the aim of the experiment (demand characteristics and sample bias). Contrast two theories explaining altruism in

humans

Empathy-altruistic theory..is it good?

Strengths• The theory is supported by

many experimental studies.• The theory can, to some

extent, predict conditions under which altruistic behavior will happen (e.g. the more people feel empathy the more likely they are to help other people and people who do not feel empathy will probably not help).

Limitations• It is difficult to generalize findings

from experiments such as this one in real life.

• It is a problem that it is not possible to determine whether altruism is the result of empathic motivation or the motivation to escape one’s own negative emotions.

• It is clear that empathy does not always precede altruistic behavior. People may help for other reasons.


But is this truly altruistic?In fact is anything altruistic?

• Dawkin’s (1989)• selfish gene theory suggests

that what could look as self-sacrifice could, in reality, promote one’s own genes because it is not a question of individual survival but of the gene’s survival.

• Kin altruism is in reality “egoism”.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahDxg3hc5pM

Is there always a reason behind us doing good?

• The theory of reciprocal altruism (Trivers, 1971)

• This theory supplements kin selection theory.

• Is based on the strategy that altruistic acts are returned(“tit-for-tat” strategy) and therefore pays off long term.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahDxg3hc5pM

contrast two theories explaining altruism in humans

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