PSY 240 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Psych, Positive Psychology, Psy
4 Aug 2020
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Both good and bad moods can lead to helping. People can increase altruistic behaviour when the behaviour is modelled by parents, peers, or even media figures. When people witnessed someone helping someone change a tire first, they were 10x more likely to help than those who had not: same with seeing people donate into a salvation army kettle. Can also decrease helping: those who see more altruistic models are more likely to report being less altruistic than those with moderate models, ex. Volunteering while your roommate plays video games vs. volunteering while your roommate also volunteers. People from small towns more likely to help than urban cities: urban overload hypothesis constantly exposed to stimulation, leads to lower awareness of environment, less similarity, more anonymous, greater in number. When we feel empathy for someone, we are likely to help that person even if we take in the costs. Infants cry louder around other infants suggesting empathy may be human nature.
