people help because they want to gain goods from the one being helped.[22] People calculate rewards and costs of helping others, and aim at maximizing the former and minimizing the latter, which is known as a “minimax” strategy.
Rewards are incentives, which can be materialistic goods, social
rewards which can improve one's image and reputation (e.g. praise) or
self-reward.[23][24][25][26]
Rewards are either external or internal. External reward is
things that obtained from others when helping them, for instance,
friendship and gratitude. People are more likely to help those who are
more attractive or important, whose approval is desired.[27][28]
Internal reward is generated by oneself when helping, for example,
sense of goodness and self-satisfaction. When seeing someone in
distress, one would empathize the victim and are aroused and distressed.
We may choose to help in order to reduce the arousal and distress.[29]
Preceding helping behavior, people consciously calculate the benefits
and costs of helping and not helping, and they help when the overall
benefit of helping outweigh the cost.[30]
Implications
Cultural differences
A major cultural difference is the difference between collectivism and individualism.
Collectivists attend more to the needs and goals of the group they
belong to, and individualists focus on their own selves. With such
contrast, collectivists would be more likely to help the ingroup
members, but less frequent than individualists to help strangers.[31]
Economic environment
Helping is influenced by economic environment within the culture. In general, frequency of helping behavior is inversely related to the country economic status.[32]
Rural vs. urban area
The
context influences helping behaviors. While there is a myth that small
towns are "safer" and "friendlier", it has yet to be proven. In a
meta-analytical study by Nancy Steblay, she found out that either
extreme, urban (300,000 people or more) or rural environments(5,000
people or less), are that worst places if you're looking for help.[33]
Choosing a role
Edgar Henry Schein,
former professor at MIT Sloan School of Management, assigns three
different roles people follow when responding to offers of help. These
generic helping roles are The Expert Resource Role, The Doctor Role, The
Process Consultant Role.[34]
The Expert Resource Role is the most common of the three. It
assumes the client, the person being helped, is seeking information or
expert service that they cannot provide for themselves. For example,
simple issues like asking for directions or more complex issues like an
organization hiring a financial consultant will fall into this category.[35]
The Doctor Role can be confused with the Expert Role because they
seem to overlap each other. This role includes the client asking for
information and service but also demands a diagnosis and prescription.
Doctors, counselors, coaches, and repair personnel fulfill this kind of
role. Contrary to the expert role, the Doctor Role shifts more power to
the helper who is responsible for the previously mentioned duties;
diagnosing, prescribing, and administering the cure.[36]
Schein describes the Process Consultant Role where the helper
focuses on the communication process from the very beginning. Before
help can start, there needs to be an establishment of trust between the
helper and the client. For example, in order for a tech consultant to be
effective, he or she has to take a few minutes to discuss what the
situation is, how often the problem occurs, what has been tried before,
etc. before transitioning into the expert role or the doctor role.[
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