Prosocial Behavior

Prosocial Behavior

Prosocial behavior is defined as responses that will benefit the recipient that have no benefit for the responder (Prosocial, 2004, Pg. 1). People carry out acts of kindness most every day without realizing their prosocial behavior. This essay will look into random acts of kindness, the difference between acts of kindness and altruistic behaviors, and how the presences of others impact those who are less fortunate.

The first random act of kindness that was conducted was opening the door at a restaurant for an elderly couple. The couple smiled and said thank you, which makes the responder happy to be appreciated. The second act of kindness was to purchase lunch for my daughter's friend that went to a specialty store to look around with us. When arriving to the store, there was a note on the door that they will return in 30 minutes. Rather than wait in the car, we went next door to a coffee shop. Upon looking through the menu, she said she would just have water that she didn't bring money, she was told to go ahead and order, that I was paying for it. She told me thank you several times, and later I found out that she is pregnant, and that she and her husband are saving all the money that they can for the expenses of the baby, making me feel very good about purchasing her lunch. The third act of kindness was to reach the upper shelf at a grocery store for a person who could not reach what they wanted. The person said thank you that they had been waiting to see an employee to ask for help for awhile making me feel good about helping her get what she needed. The fourth act of kindness was to purchase an entire box of candy from two children that were selling them to earn money towards a school trip. Once the children realized that I was purchasing their entire box, they became very excited, smiling and jumping up and down. There excitement made me feel good about helping them. The fifth act of kindness was to offer to purchase a refrigerator for my son and his girlfriend who will be moving into a new home together next month. This act of kindness, I know relieved a financial strain from them, making me happy that I could help them.

All five of these acts of kindness are prosocial behaviors performed to benefit another person, without expecting any kind of benefit for the responder. However, acts two, four, and five were acts of altruism, were there was a cost incurred to the responder as money was spent to provide for the benefit of another and act five being an act of kin selection (Aronson, Wilson, & Akert, 2010, Pg. 324), benefiting my son and his girlfriend.

When looking at prosocial behavior within social and cultural groups, it is found that people from all cultures that are involved within a social group will be more likely to help another person that is within their group that is from another culture. However, people from an interdependent culture will