Pro-social Behaviour

  • Pro-social behaviour is very similar to ‘altruism’, which means doing something for or thinking about the welfare of others without any self-interest (in Latin ‘alter’ means ‘other’, the opposite of ‘ego’ which means ‘self’).

Example, sharing things, cooperating with others, helping during natural calamities, showing sympathy, doing favours to others, and making charitable donations.

  • Characteristics of Pro-social behaviour:

It must:

  1. aim to benefit or do good to another person or other persons
  2. be done without expecting anything in return
  3. be done willingly by the person, and not because of any kind of pressure
  4. involve some difficulty or ‘cost’ to the person giving help.

Factors Influencing Pro-social Behaviour

  • Pro-social behaviour is based on an inborn, natural tendency in human beings to help other members of their own species, which facilitates survival of the species.
  • Pro-social behaviour is influenced by learning.

Individuals who are brought up in a family environment that sets examples of (a) helping others, (b) emphasises helping as a value, and (c) praises helpfulness, show more pro-social behaviour than individuals who are brought up in a family environment devoid of these features.

  • Cultural factors influence pro-social behaviour.

Some cultures actively encourage people to help the needy and distressed.

In cultures that encourage independence, individuals will show less pro-social behaviour, because people are expected to take care of themselves, and not to depend on help from others. Individuals in cultures suffering from a shortage of resources may not show a high level of pro-social behaviour.

  • Pro-social behaviour is expressed when the situation activates certain social norms that require helping others.

Three norms have been mentioned in the context of pro-social behaviour :

  1. The norm of social responsibility : We should help anyone who needs help, without considering any other factor.
  2. The norm of reciprocity : We should help those persons who helped us in the past.
  3. The norm of equity : We should help others whenever we find that it is fair to do so.
  • Pro-social behaviour is affected by expected reactions of the person who is being helped.

For example, people might be unwilling to give money to a needy person because they feel that the person might feel insulted, or may become dependent.

  • Individuals who have a high level of empathy are more likely to show pro-social behaviour.

Empathy is the capacity to feel the distress of the person who is to be helped.

Example such as Baba Saheb Amte and Mother Teresa.

Pro-social behaviour is also more likely in situations that arouse empathy, such as the picture of starving children in a famine.

  • Pro-social behaviour may be reduced by factors such as a bad mood, being busy with one’s own problems, or feeling that the person to be helped is responsible for her/his own situation i.e. when an internal attribution is made for the need state of the other person.
  • Pro-social behaviour may be reduced when the number of bystanders is more than one.

For example,

  1. The victim of a road accident sometimes does not get help because there are many people standing around the scene of the accident. Each person thinks that it is not her/his responsibility alone to give help, and that someone else may take the responsibility. This phenomenon is called diffusion of responsibility.
  2. On the other hand, if there is only one bystander, this person is more likely to take the responsibility and actually help the victim.