Exam 9: Prosocial Behavior: Doing What’s Best for Others

Conformity is more likely in larger groups than in smaller groups.

The concept of "pay it forward"-doing a favor someone and asking that person to do the same in the future-can promote prosocial behavior. Social scientists refer to this concept as ____.

According to the empathy-altruism hypothesis, ____.

A society in which people respect and follow the rules is said to have an effective ____.

During the hurricane and subsequent flooding in New Orleans several years ago, survivors reported that they were much more likely to search for displaced family members than for friends. This finding supports the idea of ____.

In one well-known study on empathy, participants were required to watch a confederate ("Elaine") receive electric shocks. They were told either that they had to watch her receive 10 full trials of shocks, or that they could leave after watching the first two trials only. They were also told that their values and interests were similar to Elaine's (similarity group), or that their values and interests were different from Elaine's (non-similarity group). After the first two trials were completed, participants were told that Elaine was unusually upset by the shocks due to a negative childhood experience related to electricity. Participants were asked whether they would be willing to switch places with Elaine. In this study, the 10-trial versus two-trial instruction was designed as a manipulation of ____, and the similar versus dissimilar information was designed to be a manipulation of ____.

Jude's dad helped him buy a car when he graduated from college. When Jude's son graduated from college, Jude felt he should help his son in the same way. Social scientists would call this ____.

Describe Stanley Milgram's classic research on obedience to authority. What was the setup of the study? What were the results? What are the implications?

Compared to people in good moods, people in bad moods do not tend to be especially helpful to others. This seems to be the case in particular when their bad mood is focused inward (i.e., when they are thinking about themselves).

If a bus full of mixed-sex beautiful people crashed into a bus full of mixed-sex unattractive people, would the beautiful group be more likely to receive top-notch help?

In social psychology, the story of Kitty Genovese's murder has been closely linked with the study of ____.

Briefly discuss gender differences in helping behavior. Are males and females different in terms of their overall levels of empathy, the degree to which they render help to others, or the kinds of situations in which they help?

Blaming the victim is an unfortunate consequence of the ________________ assumption.

As discussed in the text, the sociologist Phil Kunz once performed a study in which he sent 578 Christmas cards to a sample of complete strangers living in Chicago, Illinois. What happened?

Last weekend Victor helped his sister move into her new apartment. He didn't really feel like helping her, but he wanted to put her "in his debt," because he is planning to ask her if he can stay at her place for a couple of weeks. By helping his sister move, Victor was thus apparently engaging in ____.

The political scientist Robert Axelrod once held a computer tournament designed to determine the most successful prisoner's dilemma strategy (the strategy that would win most often for the longest period of time). The winning strategy was called ________________.

In general, in which of the following situations are women more likely to offer help than men?

Research indicates that in societies where there is an intact rule of law, people are ____.

Many people try to appear to be moral (like an actor playing a role) while quietly being selfish.

The text defines prosocial behavior as ____.