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LACK OF

ALTRUISTIC
BEHAVIOR
Amy Wu

LACK OF MOTIVATION TO
HELP
Escape

from the distressing situation by ignoring


it or think others will help

For

example: the murder of Kitty Genovese

case
stabbed

to death in front of her apartment,


38 of her neighbors watched and listened while
she screamed for help
No one called the police
Did not want to get in involved

LACK OF MOTIVATION TO
HELP

Showed the egoism in human traits, which is an action of


individuals for their own good

People who show egoistic are unable to relate to the


others emotions or accept their need and choices

They also lack of empathy toward other people

BATSON THEORY OF HELP


Humans

willingness to help others is influenced by


self-serving and selfless considerations (Myers, 2013,
p.453).
distress

over someones suffering motivates people to


relieve their upset by either escaping the distressing
situation or by helping others
suffering = self-focused distress or empathy
If ones self-focused distress is evoked it might produce
egoistic motive, which result in reduce their own distress by
getting away the situation or reaching out to help the others
to for their own goods
if a persons empathy aroused by the distress events, it
might trigger altruistic motivation, which is to reduce
others distress by helping others

ALTRUISM
Altruism-

an unselfish action that benefits another

By

encouraging empathy, it can increase prosocial


behaviors and altruism, It can also decrease crime behavior

To

motivate altruism, one must have empathy toward


other people
Empathy-

the ability to put oneself into other peoples

shoes
Without

empathy, people will become selfinteresting and have less care for other people

RESEARCH STUDIES
According

to a study done by Sarah Konrath


(2010) showed that college students today show
40% less empathy toward other people than
students in the 1980s and 1990s
looked

at 72 studies that measured empathy around


14,00 college students for the past 30 years
found that the empathy started to decline during the
year of 2000
students with less empathy are less likely to agree
statement such as I often have tender concerned
feeling for people less fortunate than me or I sometime
try to understand my friends better by imagining how
things look from their point of view.

INTERVENTION

Research found that it is possible to increase empathy


through reading fiction books
Fiction

book often included stories about peoples mental


states and relationship

study done by Johnson and Cushman (2013) suggested


exposure to narrative fiction can improve an individuals
ability to understand what other is thinking or feelings.
The

result showed that participants in the imagery generation


group were over 3 times more likely to exhibit prosocial
behavior than people in the other groups and they also
experienced more transportation

REFERENCES
Johnson, D., R., Cushman, G., K., Borden, L., A., & McCune,
M., S. (2013). Potentiating Empathic Growth: Generating
Imagery While Reading Fiction Increases Empathy and
Prosocial Behavior. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and
the Arts, 7, 306-312. DOI: 10.1037/a0033261306
Jones, B. (2010, 8 6). College students have less empathy than
past generations. USA TODAY. Retrieved from
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-06-08empathyresearch08_st_N.htm
Myers, D., G. (2013). Social Relationship. In Myer, D., G.
(Ed.). Social Psychology (394-479). New York: McGrew.
Schroeder, D., A., Dovidio, J., F., Sibicky, E., M., Matthew, L.,
L., & Allen, J., L. (1988). Empathic concern and helping
behavior: Egoism or altruism?. Journal of Experimental Social
Psychology, 24, 333-353. Doi:10.1016/0022-1031(88)90024-8

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