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Musing Posts

in musing-threads •  6 years ago 

What factors make people want to help others?

Prosocial behavior is a behavior that has the intention to change the physical or psychological state of the recipient of the assistance from the less good to the better, in a material and psychological sense. In this case it can be said that prosocial behavior aims to help improve the well being of others, with a view to supporting the welfare of others.

What factors make people want to help others?

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I think, these are the in the genes of the some people that they always wanted to help others.

There are some people who soft hearted and always ready to help those in need.

There might be peoples who started helping other as they themselves have suffered.

Then they are some people who are inspired/ motivated by other people to help other.

The people who are in such charity work have believe that god will reward them for such good deeds.

They are always will to contribute towards the society to make this world a better place.

Involving in such activities give them mantel peace and inner satisfaction.  

I am no expert of  psychology, however, in my own understanding, I believe the feel good factor is the most promising factor, that drives us to help others. And I think, the background of that feeling comes from how you understand life, what matters to us in different times (ages), what is that you brought here and what is that you are going to take when you finally depart. 

There are many people who are uber rich , and can definitely do a lot to help others directly or indirectly. However, they are busy with their own life mostly, and realize the truth when its very late. 

When we are past certain age ( say 60 or more), all we need is mental piece and strength. And no amount of wealth can buy it. So if you have done something good for others, then that goodwill is going to come back and help you live a better life at that time. 

After all, we have brought nothing here, nor we will take anything when we finally depart.

 
Maybe not everyone can help us but if you have heard the term that we are now experiencing a crisis of empathy, maybe the term isn't entirely wrong. News, videos on social media, even events around us have supported this thought. For example, when an accident, fight, harassment, murder or bad thing happened to someone else, did everyone around him immediately help him? Popbela.com believes that only a small percentage will react immediately, or even wait for one person to take the initiative to help the victim. The 'anti-empathy' phenomenon is called the bystander effect.  1. Mass indifference   Some studies reveal that someone will volunteer to help if he is the only eyewitness to the incident. In fact, the smaller the number of eyewitnesses, the more likely they are to show a reaction to help others. In other words, the events witnessed by many people may not get immediate help because many eyewitnesses. 

This usually differs person to person but the most common factors that makes people help others are:

  1. The Benefit they will get in return -It is human nature to be selfish. Even the most generous and helpful people want something in return for the things they do. This could range from simple things like attention or simply the satisfaction of achieving something  to more selfish reasons like money and a possible favour in the future. One is likely to help if they get something out of it.
  2. If it doesn't negatively affect them in any way - This might sound confusing after reading the one above but this goes mostly along with the that one. Consider a very rich person like Bill Gates helping those in-dire-need of money. One possible reason why he is likely to help is simply because he can and it doesn't directly affect his wealth. On a plus side, he might also get something from doing it and that is publicity. 
  3. Mood - Often times when one is in a a pretty good mood chances are he/she will be willing to help. Mood affects emotions and thus can empathize more to those in need.
  4. Can Relate to the Situation one is in - When one have personally experienced the same thing as those who are in-need of help, he/she is likely to help as they know what that person is currently going through

Some people want to help others if they believe that the person they are trying to help will be useful to them in the future...

some people want to help others because they genuinely have passion for helping people and they believe that is their own best way to give back to the society

some people also want to help others in other to get some sexual relationship with the person...

and there are also some people that help others just to use it as a way of seeking validation from the public or use it as a publicity stunt,,this is common among some celebrities especially those that love attention so much...

so the bottomline is that different people have different reasons why they help others....

Factors Affecting Helpful Behavior

Situational Factors 

1. The presence of others

Research conducted by Darley and Latane, 1970 (in Taylor et al., 2009: 479) shows the results that people who see an emergency event would prefer to help when they are alone rather than with others. Because if only one person witnessed the victim suffer, he was fully responsible for responding to the situation and would feel guilty if he did not intervene. But if several people are present in the situation, assistance will come from various sources.

Staub (1978) (in Sampson, 1976 in Dayakisni, 2009) precisely finds a contradiction with the above phenomenon, because in his research it was proven that individuals who pair up or with other people prefer to act prosocial than when individuals are alone. Because with the presence of others will encourage individuals to be more compliant with social norms that are motivated by hope of getting praise.

2. Helping those who are liked (Helping Those You Like)

Most studies are more interested in researching the help a person gives to strangers, because it is clear that the person will be very likely to help family members and friends. A person will tend to help strangers who become victims, if the victim has similarities (age, race) with the helper (Shaw, Borough, & Fink in Baron, Byrne, & Branscombe, 2006 in the thesis of Doris Evalina, 2010).

3. Sacrifice to be incurred

Although prospective rescuers do not experience obscurity of responsibility, but if sacrifice (for example, money, time, energy, risk of physical injury) is anticipated too much, then it is less likely for him to act prosocial (William, 1981 in Dayakisni & Hudaniah, 2009). On the other hand, if sacrifice is low with strong gurus, people will be better prepared to provide assistance (Baron & Byrne, 1994 in Dayakisni & Hudaniah, 2009).

4. Attribution to victims

A person will be motivated to provide assistance to others if he assumes that victim misfortune is beyond the victim's control (Weiner, 1980 in Sarwono, 2009: 133). Therefore, someone will be more willing to contribute to disabled and old beggars compared to healthy and young beggars. Thus, help will not be given if bystander assumes that a less favorable event on the victim is due to the victim's own fault (internal attribution).

Personal Factors

1. Mood (mood)

A person's emotions can influence his tendency to help

(Baron, Byrne & Branscome, 2006 in Sarwono, 2009). Own emotion

often divided into two parts, namely positive and negative emotions.

Positive emotions, In general, someone who is in a good mood will be more likely to display helping behavior. There is a lot of evidence that people are willing to help in a state of good mood, for example after finding money (Isen & Simmonds, 1978 in Taylor, 2009: 471), or when they have just found a gift (Isen & Levin, 1972 in Taylor, 2009: 471) or after listening to pleasant music (Fried & Berkowitz, 1979 in Taylor, 2009: 471). Positive mood causes us to have more positive thoughts and we help to maintain the positive mood (Taylor, et al, 2009: 472).

Negative emotions, In general, someone who is in a negative mood is less likely to help others. It is true, that a person who is not happy (unhappy) is focusing on the problem, tends to be less in prosocial behavior. The effects of bad mood on helping actions are more complex (Carlson & Miller, 1987 in Taylor, 2009), bad mood causes us to focus on ourselves and our needs, then this will reduce our chances of helping others. However, on the other hand negative emotions can have a positive impact on helping behavior. If we think that helping others causes us to feel better and reduce our bad feelings, then we are more likely to help (Cialdini, Darby, & Vincent, 1973; Schaller & Cialdini, 1988 in Taylor et al., 2009)

2. Nature

Some studies show that there is a relationship between a person's characteristics and his tendency to help. People who have forgiving nature (forgiveness), he will have a tendency to be easy to help (Karremans, et al, 2005 in Sarwono, 2009).

It really depends on the person who will lend a helping hand

In my case I do help those persons that really needs my help. As long as I have the capability to help them I always lend a hand for them.

I also like to help those persons who also help others

I remember when I was on college

Being a student that can make programs I was always asked to help others which I really like.

I like helping them, with this I also learn new things and help me improve my skills.

So there was this time that a bunch of my classmates ask for my help

Of course I didn't hesitate and help them, we spend a couple of days and night making their projects. I was the one who lend a hand when there are things that they don't really get.

I was like a human debugger at that time

So for those who was not a computer programmer or didn't know how to write codes. Debugger or Debugging is the process of  identifying and removing the error in the codes they have written. So i was like the human error checker for them, but I like it. I was encountering some problems that I didn't encounter in my own project and I was really learning many thing back then.

So going back, we all manage to pass our projects on time. They all thanked me, and of course the help was free of charge. I even spend my own money just to help them until one of them make a big mistake . . .

We are having a designing assignment, we need to make our own house design.

Of course not all have a talent at drawing and designing, I also myself don't have that talent but I still make my own.

One of my classmate ask for help, and I found out that a person whom I helped will ask for money just to make a house design. I was really angry back then, how could he ask for money despite me helping him for FREE!?

So from there I decided to not help him again, and if the time comes that he asked for my help I would also ask for some payment.

It's a good thing that my decision reached him and not ask for my help again


I really would help all the people around me but I guess if you end up being such a greedy person whom take payment for some help I would rather  throw my time sleeping at the house than use it to help you