Multilevel Approach to Study of Helping Behavior Can Facilitate Better Understanding

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Would you help a stranded motorist on the side of a busy highway?  Would you contribute to a relief fund for the tsunami victims?  Would you work with your colleagues to complete an important project? A multilevel perspective may be the key to a more comprehensive understanding of the broad subject of helpful behavior and what motivates people to act helpfully in different types of situations, according to David A. Schroeder, a University of Arkansas professor of psychology, and his colleagues.

Schroeder’s research paper, “Prosocial Behavior: Multilevel Perspectives,” is one of the pieces featured in this year’s Annual Review of Psychology. He was joined by three other researchers from around the country: Louis A. Penner of the Karmanos Cancer Institute and the department of Family Medicine, Wayne State University, Detroit, and the Research Center for Group Dynamics at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor; John F. Dovidio of the University of Connecticut psychology department; and Jane A. Piliavin of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, sociology department.

The researchers identified three levels of analysis of the domain of prosocial, or helping, behavior. Studying the evolutionary processes and personality differences that determine whether a person will act helpfully are factors operating at the micro level. Studying the relationship between helpers and those in need and the situational context in which help might be given is seen as investigation at the meso level of analysis. Prosocial actions such a volunteering or cooperation that occur within the context of groups and large organizations are at the macro level. Identifying the common as well as the unique factors that affect helping behavior across these levels can provide new ways of understanding why people act in ways that benefit others.

According to Schroeder, significant research has been done at the level of helping behavior and bystander intervention, but much less work has been done with regard to reasons why people show concern for others and what factors bring people together for some common good.

“It’s as if everybody was looking at the interpersonal trees of helping instead of trying to see the bigger forest of prosocial behavior,” Schroeder said.

The researchers advocate a broader understanding of helping behavior by focusing more attention on the causes of helpful actions. The factors that often lead to helping, such as personality differences, egoistic and altruistic motives, cost-reward calculations, and responsiveness to situational demands, are not always consciously accessible. Studying implicit cognitive processes that immediately precede social behaviors may help in developing a more comprehensive understanding of when and why people do or do not act helpfully.

Though research has shown that in some cases, humans can be purely altruistic, Schroeder said, most helping is done for egoistic reasons.

“So why do people help? In some cases it is because they don’t want to hear people screaming and crying anymore,” he said. “Most of us help others because it makes us feel better, or to avoid feeling bad, or for the external rewards, such as praise or tokens of appreciation.”

The researchers also suggest that helping, cooperation and volunteering should be considered as parts of a spectrum of helping behavior, rather than thinking about these actions as separate and distinct forms of social behavior.

Studies of organizational citizenship, volunteerism and ways to promote cooperation can benefit people in nonprofit organizations, management positions and business settings.

“We need to look at the social dilemmas people must face: 'Should I do something just for me or something that will help my entire group?’” Schroeder said. “If I back off and let others do the work, we call that free riding.”

An example, he pointed out, would be listening to National Public Radio every day, but not contributing under the assumption that other members of the public will contribute.

The researchers recommended that future research investigate the contribution of helping action to ongoing interpersonal and intergroup relations — for example, as integral components of forgiveness, key elements of reconciliation and a means to reduce prejudice and discrimination.

Schroeder and the three other researchers have been meeting regularly for more than 20 years, two or three times annually to tackle psychological questions, and feeding off of each others’ unique experiences to turn out research papers or books. About 10 years ago, they published “The Psychology of Helping and Altruism: Problems and Puzzles.” Later this year they hope to see their second book published, “Prosocial Behavior: Helping, Volunteering and Cooperation.” The new book is based on this research and will build and expand on their new multilevel framework.