Can I pick your brain?

[Sunday21]

Can anyone remember back to your university/college days and recall a theory about why people defend others against authority? One theory is social identity. The idea that we consider some people to be part of our clan by kinship or adoption, thus we risk ourselves to protect them. I n other words, we adopt people into our clan because we perceive them to be similar to ourselves.

Can you think of anything? 

When are we altruistic? When do we put ourselves in danger to help others? 

When do we hide from authority?

Why am I asking? Normally I do research in which you survey people and use the results to pick between competing theories but..I have a student who wants to do an interview study. He is going to interview employee ( 1 ) who has observed a colleague ( 2 ) being mistreated in the workplace and ask employee (1) what they (employee 1), did to help. Even listening sympathetically counts as helping. So why do people help in this scenario? My job is to, regardless of the outcome, lots of help or no help, dress the findings up in some theory from sociology, political science, anthropology, psychology or whatever that describes this outcome. So any ideas? 

I have one idea, the degree to which employee 1 identifies with the organization. Whether or not, they picture the job to be long/short term. The ease with which they feel they can find another job (what is the threat if they are fired. 

I could use a decision tree to interview, eg decide to help ( D,o you perceive there to be a threat to yourself in supporting employee 2?

 

Don't help?

- Because you feel employee 2 deserved the ill treatment?

- Too many other people around? Bystanders less likely to help if others around- diffusion of responsibikity

-did employee 2 ask employee 1 for help? Maybe employee 2 needs to initiate?

Edited May 6, 2017 by Sunday21

[Blueskye2]

Altruism, self-preservation, or genuine compassion. 

Altruism reminds me of college biology course, where a paper published regarding an altruistic gene was discussed.  Tied to religion of course, and the so-called "God gene". My paper against, was that the authors provided no evidence of a altruism or God gene, i.e., which allele(s) had mutated from godless, self-preservation to altruism.  Things that make you go ?.

 

[Guest]

I believe what you are looking for is "Kin Selection" or "Kin Altruism" / "Biological Altruism."

I'm afraid I never learned this until I fell in love with my wife to be.

Edited May 8, 2017 by Guest