Oskar Schindler

•Member of Nazi party who risked own life to save hundreds of Jews during WWII
•Why? "Why you know people, you have to behave toward them as human beings."
•Only Nazi party member to be buried at Mt. Zion in Jerusalem

What is PSB?
•Doing what is good for others/society
- Altruism (not self-interested)
- Optional, can be risky
•Examples: saintly/heroic acts, volunteering, charity, forgiveness, tolerance, promising, favors,
etc.
•Builds a sense of shared identity
- Group or human categorization
•Shared identity related to social support, resilience towards stressful situations, and life
satisfaction.

The role of empathy

•Empathy: putting one's self in another's shoes to understand their TFBs.
- 33-50% of empathy based in genetics.
•Based on a process of mental simulation
- Mirror neurons
- Studies show that insula and anterior cingulate light up when we or our partners receive
painful shocks.
•Ps reporting high empathy

Gender differences
•Women express higher levels of empathy than men---but why?
- Nature (e.g., brain activation, oxytocin)
- Nurture (e.g., group norms)
•If nature, then should we excuse men when they do not empathize with us?

Types of perspective-taking
•Imagine self: imagine how you would TFBs in an event.
- Empathy, self-interest

1) Negative state relief

•People help others to reduce their own discomfort upon encountering the discomfort of others.
•Is it affect or emotion?
•We found that increased perceptions of harm from climate change affected willingness to
engage in pro-environmental behavior via collective guilt, rather than collective anxiety.
2) Self-interest (egoism)
•People help others to increase their own welfare (get rewards, avoid punishments)
3) Empathy-altruism hypothesis
•Empathy motivates people to help reduce others' distress through helping, comforting, etc.
- Good/fair, not self-interest
•Non-Jewish helpers during the Holocaust said they had no choice but to help.

Who do we help?
•Batson et al. (2002)
- Ps listened to an interview with a drug addict
- Ps induced to feel empathy for addict or not
- Reported more + attitudes toward drug addicts
- Recommended more funds be allocated to agencies that help drug addicts
•You can save five lives at the expense of one.
 - Trolley problem: flip switch to divert train onto spur
- Footbridge problem: push someone off the bridge
•Many think okay to flip switch, but not push off
- To push off, you must inhibit emotional response (past rules; anterior cingulate cortex)
and engage cognitive control (future consequences; PFC).
•The conflict on the footbridge represents presence of norms; what if we changed who's there?