Page 582 - Understanding Psychology

Reading Check
How did experimenters create intergroup hostility at the Robber’s Cave camp?
illustration of the social trap can be seen in the way Americans have responded to the problems of pollution. We know that automobile exhaust pollutes the air. We know that one way to reduce air pollution is to carpool or use public transportation. Yet the driver who commutes 30 miles a day alone and who knows that he or she is polluting the air thinks: “Yes, I know my car exhaust is bad, but I am only one person. If I stop driving, it won’t make any difference.” As long as we fall into that social trap, we continue to destroy our environment.
Psychologists have been exploring ways to overcome social traps such as this one. One approach is to use laws to bring about behavior changes, such as the law requiring special exhaust systems in cars. Other ways to change people’s behavior include educating them concerning the issues and communicating the idea that “Yes, you do make a difference.” By publicizing the problems and solutions and organizing groups to act, individuals begin to believe that what they do does have an impact, and their actions are reinforced by the group. In this way, people find it more beneficial to cooperate than to act in a purely selfish manner.
ALTRUISM
Altruism means helping another, often with a risk to oneself, for rea- sons other than the expectation of a reward. Consider the following scene: You are walking on a crowded street and suddenly hear a scuffle off to the side. You turn to see a man trying to rip a woman’s purse from her grasp. Everyone else just keeps on walking past the scuffle. What do you do? Whether you help or not may depend on the diffusion of responsibility.
Diffusion of Responsibility
Sometimes when several people are faced with a common problem and there is no opponent, they may not even see themselves as a group. There have been many famous examples of muggings, rapes, and murders that were committed in public while a large group of people watched without intervening or calling for help.
By studying artificial crises, psychologists have tried to find out why these people did not act. In one experiment, college students were asked to participate in a discussion of personal problems. They were asked to wait in separate rooms. Some were told that they would be communicating with only one other person, and others were given the impression that they would be talking with as many as five other people. All communi- cation, the psychologist told each student, was to take place over microphones so that everyone would remain anonymous and thus would be able
altruism: helping others, often at a cost or risk, for rea- sons other than rewards
Figure 19.16 Us Versus Them
Intergroup conflict results when a group no longer sees the enemy as individual humans and thus can treat them indecently. This occurred in Bosnia-Herzegovina in the late 1990s. How does intergroup hostility develop?
568 Chapter 19 / Group Interaction