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12.2 WHY PEOPLE HELP – MOTIVES BEHIND 
PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOUR : 
The following are the different views that explain helping behaviour. 
12.2.1 Empathy – Altruism : 
 
It refers to putting oneself in other’s shoes. Understanding 
the situation from other’s perspective. According to this perspective 
we help others because we experience empathy towards them; we 
want their plight to end. Batson, Duncan Ackerman Buckley and 
Birch (1981) gave the Empathy Altruism Hypotheses to explain 
prosocial behaviour. They suggested that at least some prosocial 
acts are motivated only by the desire to help someone in need. If 
such motivation is strong, the helper is willing to engage even in 
dangerous and life threatening activity (Batson & Batson et al 
1995). Batson and his colleagues devised an experimental 
procedure to test this view of helping behaviour. The participants 
were divided into two groups. One group of participants was told 
that victim is similar to themselves. The other groups were hold 
that a victim is not similar to themselves. 
The participants were presented with an opportunity to help 
victims. 
They were given a role of observer who watched fellow 
student on T.V. monitor as she performed a task while receiving 
electric shock (victim was actually a research assistant recorded on 
videotape) 
As a task was underway research assistant confided that 
she was in pain and in childhood had traumatic experience with 
electricity. But she said if it was required she would continue the 
experiment. 
Now experimenter asked participants if they were willing to 
exchange the victims place in the experiment. The result showed 

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that when participants were dissimilar (low empathy) they preferred 
to end the experience rather than engaging in painful prosocial act. 
Similar participant who had high empathy, were more likely 
take to victims place and receive shocks. 
It is difficult to experience empathy when there are many 
victims who are in the need of help. This is the reason why many 
charitable institutions mention the existence of large number of 
people in the need of help; they feature the photo of single child 
who is in the need. This allows individual for selective altruism, 
where helping one child may involve ignoring several others 
(Batson Ahmed et al 1999).