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Write an essay on the following topic:

The psychological processes underpinning the response of the international
community to the Asian Ocean tsunami disaster.

Introduction
 It is generally acknowledged that the 2004 tsunami differed from other natural disasters
in terms of unprecedented global aid response and to the extent to which it was felt on such a
personal level around the world (Galea & Ghodse, 2006). There are three main elements about
another's behaviour which are generally accepted as being responsible for eliciting prosocial or
altruistic behaviour:
1. Perception of the other person’s need.
2. Perception of the deservedness of the other person.
3. Perception of the other’s similarity to ourselves (Tiernan, 2008, p.7-2).

This essay will examine how these elements operated in western societies and how they may have
affected the behaviour of donors of charitable aid in western countries to the 2004 tsunami relief
effort. The goal of this essay is to associate the causes of the exceptionally high level of western
aid relief with prosocial and altruistic behaviour theory. It will also focus on the link between the
aetiology of the response and the similarities between the western victims and the donors of aid
from western countries.
The aforementioned elements will be incorporated into the following questions in order
to more succinctly address them:
1. In terms of prosocial behaviour; how was the perception of deservedness and need of the
victims affected by the similarity of the western victims to the potential donors?
2. Because of the similarity between the western victims and donors of aid, was there an
altered perception of the social norm with respect to donating aid?

We will examine the aggregate psychological effect on western nations and how the individuals
within these nations may have been affected by reports of the tsunami.The essay will focus on the
macro level psychological affects and their influence on aid donation. The micro or situational
aspects of altruistic acts which took place at disaster sites are not addressed in this essay, rather I
will focus on psychological processes that occurred in the donors of aid to the relief effort. This
essay will consider aspects of psychosocial behaviour that involve the social categorisation
process, perspective taking and how the role of intention affects helping behaviour. The issue of
donating to the tsunami relief effort with respect to conformity and social norms and how their
formation may have led to increased pressure on white westerners to donate will also be
considered. A possible correlation between number of western victims and the high level of
donations by western donors will then be examined.
In answering these questions it is the intention to incorporate findings from past and
current research pertaining to the psychological processes that engender prosocial and altruistic
behaviour in people.

A Time for Giving?

It could be argued that the timing of the tsunami had an affect on the perceived need of
the victims. It was unique in terms of natural disasters in that it occurred on St. Steven's day. In
western countries the Christmas period is normally seen as a time to spend with family and
friends and is a time especially associated with giving. This atmosphere of 'giving' may have also
contributed to the general perception of wanting to give to the tsunami relief appeal (Galea &
Ghodse, 2006). As research has shown; when people are in a positive mood they are more likely
to donate to charity (Akert et al, 1999, p.435) and as Ard Heuvelman (2009) and his team
demonstrated when investigating the underlying social cognitive factors involved in donating to
disaster relief campaigns; the victims ‘‘Need for donation’’ has been shown to significantly
indirectly affect the ‘‘Intention to donate to a disaster relief campaign’’. Disaster aid appeals are
regular occurrences however, so were there any other psychological processes which may have
influenced our perception of the 2004 tsunami victims need and deservedness and caused the
huge reaction it did?
 From an evolutionary psychology perspective, there may by one such process– kin
selection. Since the 2001 September 11th attacks, no other disaster had effected so many western
citizens. We know that kin selection from an evolutionary psychology perspective attempts to
explain the dilemma of how altruistic behaviour has persisted in human genealogy as a
behavioural trait in the face of an apparent contradiction within the principles of natural selection
(Akert et al, 1999, p.420). Could kin selection have extended it's effective range outside the
normal boundaries of direct genetic relatives from the donors in the west; to the victims who
possessed the same language attributes, looked physically similar and conveyed familiar
experiences (being on holiday) in media reports of the disaster? There is some evidence that the
principles of kin selection can extend beyond the genes of those who are directly genetically
related but include those who are “genetically similar” (Rushton et al, 1984). Since many of the
victims portrayed in the media were white and western and their stories involved families who
were holidaying in locations familiar to many donors, there is a possibility that these factors
created an emotional connection leading to psychological processes closely related to kin
selection. To address this we must first ask what is in involved in the process of making this
connection and so must examine the subject of perspective taking and bear in mind how this
could feed into the donor's sense of connectedness to the victims.
The degree to which we can consciously control the processes at work in order for us to
attempt to imagine another's point of view varies from person to person (Cole et al. 2004) and
one view is that this is a largely primitive and non-cognitive process (Adelmann & Zajonc, 1989).
Related research suggests that we use existing knowledge structures formed from previous
experiences regarding a stimulus category in order to predict appropriate response behaviours in
others. These structures are known as “transformation rules”. For example, seeing a handicapped
child we might use the transformation rule “state/characteristic of the stimulus” (the handicapped
child) and link this to the response “pity” which is associated with our assumption regarding the
stimulus category; “life is difficult for handicapped children”. So we predict that when confronted
with the sight or image of a handicapped child, most people would feel pity for them (Karniol,
1986). Applied to the tsunami disaster, as families and other social groups in the west watched
victims recount their stories on television many of them may have used their personal memories
and idea of the self to build transformation rules since so many donors had direct contact with the
disaster sites through holiday experiences. Family members and friends observed each other react
to the news reports from the disaster sites and engaged in the process of predicting each others'
response to the news. It may have been that in this case the “state/characteristic of the stimulus”
was not perceived as the usual disaster victim, but instead was perceived as a person more like
“me” because of physical and cultural similarities of the western victims. Another factor involved is
the shared experience of being in the disaster sites and/or sharing the Christmas or holidaying
experience.
Attempting to predict behaviour is part of our social cognitive processes and correctly
interpreting the behaviour of others reinforces our confidence in our own cognitive abilities and
builds our self esteem (Akert et al, 1999, p.190). As previously mentioned, while formulating
transformation rules regarding the response of their family members and others around them,
donors may have felt a strong feeling of connectedness and similarities between themselves and
the western victims. These emotions could have led to donors forming intention to help. Intention
is described as a central condition of behaviour in the Theory of Planned Behaviour (Azjen, cited in
Heuvelman, 2008). This intention to donate was particularly acute due to the strong reactions
observed around them and that the reactions were so strong due to the feelings of connectedness
to the victims felt by observers of the reports. Since Azjen (cited in Heuvelman, 2008) argues that
the stronger the intention is to behave in a certain way, the more likely the behaviour is to be
performed, this would have resulted in increased aid in this situation.
There is another, perhaps more influential, determinant involved in our ability to put
ourselves in another's shoes - the use of our self knowledge. Research has shown that when
enticed to think about the emotional state of others, we tend to build a mental representation of
the subject which closely resembles our own idea of self (Conklin et al, 1996). Related research
investigating the negative-state relief hypothesis conducted by Robert Cialdini and his associates,
suggests that there are self motivated reasons for our desire to alleviate our feelings of sadness
when helping others (Cialdini et al, 1987). The motives for helping can be egotistical therefore
falling within the social exchange theoretical framework based on a system of rewards versus
costs, or they can be more driven by the empathy and altruism model which emphasises helping
for the sake of relieving the distress in another without the intention of personal gain. It could be
suggested that relief of negative state symptoms due to egotistical reasons were probably more
likely in the case of the tsunami relief appeal due to the following determination:
It is plausible that the combination of non-cognitive processes, the incorporation of
personal experiences by a high proportion of donors due to the popularity of many of the disaster
locations with westerners when formulating “transformation rules” and the inclination to use a
mental representation of the self when attempting to imagine another's point of view had a
powerful affect on donors while they put themselves in the place of western victims i.e.
perspective taking. In addition, the possibility of prosocial behaviour driven by kin selection that
incorporated genetic similarity theory further reinforces the possibility that when evaluating the
need for help from the white, western victims of the tsunami, many western donors felt that they:
1. Strongly identified with the victims through physicality and language.
2. Strongly identified with the physical landscape, which was destroyed .
3. Strongly identified with the situational characteristics of the victims (being on
holiday).
As opposed to the famine reports and other natural disasters which generally tend to be reported
from the views of the indigenous populations the tsunami was largely reported from a western
victims perspective. The above factors may have led donors of aid to the 2004 tsunami to
perceive the needs of the victims and their deservedness of aid as being greater than usually
perceived in relation to victims of other natural disasters forming a more acute intention to help
therefore donating more financial aid than would have normally been donated.

Can Similarity Create New Norms?

The next aspect to examine is the physical and cultural similarities of the victims and the
donors of aid and whether these similarities could have created and heightened sense of
obligation to donate with respect to the social norm. At this point it seems relevant to discuss
another factor involved in our decision to help others: the effects of in group and out group
membership and it's relationship with helping.
Formation of in and out groups is part of the social categorisation process and is
understood to be requisite to the basic functioning of social cognition in humans (Akert et al,
1999, p.508). Social categorisation, it is argued, helps us manage the diverse and numerous
social situations which we constantly encounter by grouping people into categories based on
certain characteristics (Akert et al, 1998 p.508). Evidence suggests that membership to a
common group creates a sense of what is termed “we-ness” which helps to facilitate the formation
of empathic relationships with other members of the group and this can lead to more prosocial
behaviour (Dovidio et al, 2005). There is a large body of evidence which suggests that help is
more likely to be offered to members of an in group than an out group (Hewstone et al. 2002,
Mullen et al. 1992, Flippen et al. 1996) and there have also been related experiments conducted
in order to investigate how the categorisation process functions and what it's affects on our
perception might be. The interpretation of the results of these experiments has been in terms of
our perception, both the degree to which in group members are similar to us, and out group
members are dissimilar to us both were shown to be overestimated (Hamilton, 1976). Since the
categorisation methodology involved in the in group/out group formation process may use basic
differences in physical appearance, it seems legitimate to suggest that white, westerners who
were witness to reports of the tsunami given by white western victims may have been more likely
to consider these victims to be members of their in group, as opposed to those not sharing the
same physical and cultural attributes.

The Numbers and Their Role

Considering then for the purposes of our discussion and in relation to the tsunami and
the donors of aid, the in group consists of those who are white and western; we can now ask
whether or not this was a typical scenario with respect to other disasters. As mentioned at the
beginning of the essay because of the dispersion and location of the effected areas, combined with
the timing of the disaster many western tourists were killed or directly effected. Between the
countries of Great Britain, France, Norway, Austria, Germany, Sweden, United States, The
Netherlands and Switzerland a total of 1,737 persons were killed or missing. Between 1999 and
2005 (excluding 2004), floods, storms, typhoons and earthquakes in China, the Philippines,
Vietnam, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan killed many thousands of people, but these
disasters for the most part killed and affected people indigenous to the areas and the disaster
sites were not inhabited by any significant numbers of white, western persons. The response of
the west to the relief efforts of these, and other disasters, in terms of aid was significant, but was
dwarfed by the aid given to the 2004 tsunami relief appeal[1]. The table below illustrates the
disparity of the donations given between three disaster types and seven non-western countries
over six years compared to the single event of the tsunami. Taking into consideration that India
did share a small number of the persons killed, aid contributed to the tsunami is almost double
the amount contributed to all the other relief efforts combined.

Name of Disaster Total Funding in

USD
All Floods, storms and earthquakes
Involving India, Bangladesh,Pakistan and Afghanistan 3,926,036,735*
plus
Typhoons in China, The Philippines and Vietnam for
the years
1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005
2004 tsunami and earthquake
Involving:
India
Indonesia
Kenya 6,249,583,899*
Malaysia
Maldives
Myanmar
Seychelles
Somalia
Sri Lanka
Thailand
United Republic of Tanzania
NOTE: "Funding" means Contributions + Commitments
• *Source - http://www.reliefweb.int
These numbers show that there was a significant increase in the amount of aid given to
the tsunami relief effort by the west than to previous and subsequent natural disaster appeals.
This could suggest that in the west there was a marked difference in aid giving behaviour on a
societal level and although precise numbers are difficult to obtain, given the huge response to the
2004 tsunami aid appeal, it is plausible to suggest that many of the donations were first time
donations or that the level of donations from existing donors rose dramatically. If this was the
case, in terms of the social norm did the tsunami relief appeal introduce a new paradigm in
donating, which changed the behaviour of the donating group?
Referring back to evolutionary reasoning for altruistic behaviour, the acquisition of social
norms is said to be genetically programmed in order for people to improve their chance of survival
and one of those norms is helping behaviour (Akert et al, 1999, p.421). There are different types
of social norms: injunctive norms are behaviours perceived as being approved by others or
socially sanctioned regardless of other people's actual behaviour; and descriptive norms, that is
the perception of people's actual behaviour regardless of whether or not it is socially sanctioned
(Akert et al, 1999, p.596). With respect to donating to charity the descriptive norm has been
defined as “...the individual donor's belief of what others are contributing” (Croson et al, 2009). In
the case of the tsunami, perceptions of a high level of donation among donors may have been
acute due to the level of media coverage apropos the aforementioned factors involving similarity
between donors and victims etc.
As previously mentioned, assuming that western victims portrayed in the media were
construed by donors as part of the in group and this was combined with attributes of “the self”
associated with the victims during the perspective taking process; donating to the tsunami relief
appeal may have been perceived as a form of “self-helping” in the minds of the donors. Donating
to the tsunami appeal and donating a greater amount than usual then became as much a process
of conforming by way of the perceived descriptive social norm. As Cronson et al(2009) state
during their study of how social information can influence perceived descriptive social norms and
subsequent giving behaviour, “The desire to conform to this perceived descriptive social norm
causes behavioral changes and thus increases contributions”. It is plausible then to posit that
psychological constructs including conformity, were activated during the donation process which
facilitated an increase in the amount of individual donations as well as rise in actual donations.

Conclusion
The objective of this essay was to illustrate how psychological processes in the minds of
donors in the west contributed to the unprecedented level of aid given to the tsunami relief appeal
and how this was associated to the fact that there were many western victims of the 2004
tsunami. There were a number of different psychological processes shown to interplay in order to
facilitate this phenomenon. The timing of the event was related to how donors perceived the
victims need and deservedness of helping behaviour. Physical and cultural similarities may have
played a role in defining the western victims as more closely aligned with the donors in terms of
the donors idea of themselves when they attempted to take the perspective of the victims.
Transformation rules and their role in the interaction of donors while exposed to reports
of the tsunami were a powerful determinant in the behaviour of the group and how it judged the
others' need for help. If these predictions about the reactions of others in relation to the plight of
the victims as reported in the media were incorrect, then there could have been the danger of a
degree of pluralistic ignorance being introduced into the pool of donors which could have
detrimentally affected overall donations. This however in relation to the 2004 tsunami does not
seem to have been the case, as the donation amounts illustrate the tsunami relief appeal out
performed other disaster appeals combined by a significant margin. This could have been due to
the process of social categorisation and the placement of the western victims in the in group and
hence a predilection for people to help their fellow group members more than those not perceived
as members of the group. Finally, social norms and peoples' requirement to conform to them is
indicted as a possibility to explain the severe increase in donations and the actual amount of aid
given to the tsunami. This requirement to conform is prefixed by the assumption that the norm
was in part composed with the understanding that the similarity of the western victims and the
donors of aid was responsible in some way for the marked increase in aid.
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http://ocha.unog.ch/fts/pageloader.aspx?page=search-customSearch (Relief Web website

address)
Search Criteria - Destination country(ies): Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, India,
Vietnam, Pakistan, Philippines Emergency year(s): 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005
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[1] One exception was hurricane Katrina in 2005 in the US but most of the victims of this disaster were also non-white
and investigating the response to this disaster is outside of the current remit.