Pro-social behaviour – Likelihood of rendering help

I would like to highlight the effect of gender on the likelihood of receiving help.

Are females more likely to be helped than males? The answer is 'Yes', according to research done. Research has shown that men usually provide help to women in need. There are many reasons why men are forthcoming to help women. In most situations or in emergency instances, certain skills and knowledge are required whereby these skills and knowledge are more common among males than females. It is true most of the time in instances like changing of flat tyre or fighting off an attacker (there are cases where females are also equally able to, if not better, change flat tyre and to fend off any attacker).

More frequently, (younger) males help attractive rather than unattractive females. Researchers attribute the above to be primarily due to romantic or sexual attitudes and not entirely due to pro-social or altruistic reasons in these instances.

Is there anything such as pro-social behaviour where hidden agenda is not displayed when rendering help not only to the opposite sex but to all in general?

Conformity

Conformity is a type of social influence in which individuals change their attitudes / behaviour in order to adhere to existing social norms.

Social norms are rules that tell us how we are expected to behave in a given situation. Instances like observing traffic signs (most of us still conform but in some instances some do not), observing silence in libraries (some of us do by taking a siesta), switching off mobile phones during theatre performances or when in cinemas.

There are several factors which determine conformity such as cohesiveness, group size, descriptive norms (what most people do in a given situation), and injunctive norms (approved or disapproved behaviour in a given situation).

Can you think of situations when some people might not conform?

Heuristics

Heuristics are basically simple rules for making complex decisions or making inferences in a quick and seemingly effortless way. Some may call it judgemental shortcuts.

Although heuristics do help us to come to decisions within a shorter time, they are also known to create biases in our judgement.

There are two known types of heuristics (available and representative) which people tend to use in everyday life. In this blog I would like to discuss about availability heuristics.

Available refers to how people base their judgements on information that are readily accessible to them. As such information which are easier to bring to the mind are viewed as important, they create an extensive impact on people's subsequent judgements. But on certain occasions making judgements based on available heuristics may lead to some errors.

Based on this principle, many people still think more people die from shark attacks than mosquito-related diseases. The fact is more people die from mosquito-related diseases. The sad part is that our media tends to magnify shark-attacked victims more than those dying of mosquito-related diseases. As a result, people killed by sharks are brought to our minds more easily and as such has a stronger impact on our judgements.

Can you think of any other available heuristics which has created a positive impact?

Halo Effect / Halo Error

Halo effect refers to when someone draws a general impression about an individual on the sole basis of a single characteristic or a trait.

It is somewhat very similar to stereotyping (when a person is perceived according to a single category) (refer to my previous blog).

Halo effect is a phenomenon that commonly occurs during an appraisal. During an appraisal a rater usually makes a judgement of a person being rated(ratee) based on total personality/performance on the discretion of a single trait such as intelligence, sociability, appearance, or cooperativeness.

This phenomenon is usually seen in university settings. Students have the tendency to appraise their lecturers based on a single characteristic. This tends to cloud the entire evaluation on how they perceive their lecturers. This became a reality for a friend of mine who is lecturing in a polytechnic in Singapore. Even though he is an intelligent, knowledgeable, and highly qualified lecturer, he received a low rating by some of his students just because he disciplined them.

I had also been subjected to halo effect during an appraisal on my previous job as a teacher. I was not given a promotion due to my fallout with my supervisor even though I had contributed significantly in terms of both my teaching and non-teaching duties.

In my opinion, halo effect distorts our judgement and creates negative consequences. Thus, it should be avoided at all costs as it can result in poor decision-making or even worse, employees being dismissed unfairly. Rater should exercise greater self-awareness and impartiality when rating.

Stereotyping

Stereotyping is a social phenomenon that we commonly display in our everyday lives. We tend to be quick in judging someone on the basis of our perception of the group to which that person belongs.

We hear comments or read in the papers that represent stereotyping. It is usually based on nationality, ethnicity and gender.

I have personally heard some non-Muslims commenting that Muslims (male) who sport a beard and a turban are likely to be terrorists. Even though they might have meant it as a joke (a very distasteful one definitely) but the underlying basis can be inferred to be stereotyping.

I have also read about how some Punjabis who have been mistaken to be terrorists and have been stopped at some western countries' airports and questioned. The West's perception of terrorists is that they sport beards or turbans and that they are mainly Asians. A classic example of stereotyping is the unfortunate incident where an innocent man who was thought to be a terrorist was shot dead in London by the police following the London bombings. The police stand was that he was a carrying a backpack which they had thought contained explosives. This is a fatal case of stereotyping.

Singaporeans have also been stereotyped by other nationalities. Singaporeans are thought to be 'Kia Su' (Hokkien for 'fear of losing'). They are the ones who tend to pile up their food on their plates during buffets. This cannot be solely attributed to Singaporeans. I have also witnessed other nationalities ( and not just Asians) displaying this characteristic.

In my opinion, one must always think before jumping to conclusions, and negative stereotypes do not do any good for anyone.

Welcome to That's Life!

This is my first post on my first ever blog!

That's Life! has been started to meet my Social Psychology module assignment requirements. I hope to be able to continue blogging even after completing this module. Wish me luck!