Promoting Social Behaviour

Studies of the bystander effect and other inhibitions to prosocial behaviour have identified several factors that can influence people's willingness to help others. These include reducing ambiguity; increasing personal responsibility; inducing guilt; and modelling helping behaviour.

Reducing Ambiguity
One reason bystanders may fail to help is that they have failed to notice or correctly interpret the signs of an emergency. If you hear someone scream, you may be unsure whether it is a cry for help or a peal of laughter. If you hear people arguing, you may be unsure whether you should call the police or stay out of their domestic affairs.

People who want help can reduce ambiguity by using specific signals whenever possible. A white handkerchief attached to a car aerial or window is a signal of distress. A cry of "Call the police, I'm being attacked!" is less ambiguous than the cry, "Somebody help!"

Increasing Personal Responsiblity
A part of reducing ambiguity is indicating which of the bystanders should help and what he or she should do. Crying to a crowd,"Somebody help me," is ambiguous because no one thinks of him or herself as "Somebody". Instead, it is more effective to point or to say "You in the green shirt, call the police!" or "You in the glasses, get the fire extinguisher near the elevator!" Such specific indications increase would-be helpers' self-awareness, and consequently increase personal responsiblity.

Inducing Guilt
Sometimes the help we seek is not a response to a sudden crisis but a form of ongoing support like a donation to charity or obedience of a rule. Researh indicates that people are more helpful when they first feel guilty, and then are shown that helping will reduce those guilt feelings.

For example, if a sign at a zoo says "Do Not Feed The Animals", it may make people feel reactant(stubborn and unwilling to take direction) so they will feed them anyway. But if the sign is worded, "Please remember that feeding people-food to the animals can make them sick", it can make tempted visitors feel guilty, so they will be more likely to obey.

Similarly, when asking for a donation, reminding would-be donors that "Even a penny will help!" may make them feel guilty about being completly ungenerous, so that they make an even larger donation than one cent.

Modeling Helping Behaviour
One of the most effective ways to prompt prosocial behaviour is to model. By doing the helpful thing, one demonstrates to others both how it is done and what its rewards are.

Many children's programs employ examples of prosocial modeling by having celebrities, puppets or cartoon characters demonstrates acts of kindness for viewers to emulate. Heartening research also suggests that the effects are just as powerful for adults and the media they watch.




Day And Night
The master walked with his disciples. He taught using questions full of content, riddles that kept within a whole wisdom of life. And he always surprised his disciples with his wise teachings.

On certain occasion, while dusking, he asked his disciples if they knew how to tell when the night ended and the day started.

The first of them said,"When you see an animal at the distance and you can distinguish if it is a cow or a horse."

"No," said the master.

"When you see a tree at the distance and you can distinguish if it is a pine or an eucalyptus."

"Not either ," said the master.

"It's Ok," said the disciples, "tell us, when is it?"

"When you look at a man at his face and recognize in him your brother; when you look at the face of a woman and recognize in her your sister. If you're not able to do this, then, be whatever hour it be, still it's night for you."