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The Importance Of Prosocial Behavior

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Prosocial behaviour, a term invented as an antonym for antisocial behaviour by social scientists (Batson & Powell, 2003), nurtures positive characteristics and builds relationships. Comforting, helping, as well as sharing materials or information are examples of prosocial behaviours which develop early in ontogeny and are fundamental to an individual’s social life (Liebal, Vaish, Haun, & Tomasello, 2014). There are many aspects that can influence and affect the prosocial behaviour of an individual, but the focus of the present study is to identify whether prosocial behaviour is affected by the presence of bystanders. As Latane and Nida (1981) had pointed out, the bystander effect is among the most deeply ingrained research in social psychology …show more content…

According to Kidron and Fleischman (2006), prosocial behaviour refers to positive actions – stimulated by compassion, ethics, beliefs, as well as a sense of responsibility – that benefits others, rather than the self. On the other hand, the bystander effect was similarly defined by several researchers as the phenomenon that an individual’s prospect of helping decreases when indifferent bystanders are present in dire situations (Latane & Nida, 1981; Latane & Darley, 1968; Darley & Latane, 1968). In simpler terms, the bystander effect refers to the inhibiting effect, triggered by the presence of others, on helping behaviour (Dovidio, Piliavin, Schroeder & Penner, …show more content…

A study on 144 male undergraduates was conducted by Rutkowski, Gruder and Romer (1983) to examine the effects of the presence of bystanders and group’s cohesiveness on helping behaviour. Subjects were divided into groups of two and four before the emergency situation was staged. The outcome of the study revealed that as bystanders become acquainted with one another, group cohesiveness increase. This increases an individual’s helping behaviour as it intensifies their personal responsibility to assist others. Therefore, the presence of bystanders is found to increase rather than decrease an individual’s intentions to

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