Antisocial Behavior In Toy Story

The relevant scene being analysed in the 1995 movie ‘Toy Story’ is the scene where Woody asks for help from Sid’s toys, who are virtually strangers to him, to save Buzz Lightyear who is strapped to a big rocket outside in Sid’s backyard, ready to be blown up by Sid. When Woody shouts for help to the group of Sid’s toys to help him save Buzz, the toys all flee and hide in the shadows as they feared Woody was being aggressive towards them. Woody then pleads with the toys for assistance, stating that a Buzz is good toy who is out there in danger he is the only friend he has got now. Almost immediately after Woody says that, one toy signals to the other toys to come out of hiding and help Woody save Buzz, to Woody’s delight and gratitude. Woody

A fairly common behaviour among almost all individuals, prosocial behaviour can be witnessed on a daily basis. A term originated by a group of scientists as means of an ‘antonym’ to the word antisocial, as claimed by CD Batson in “The Handbook of Social Psychology, Volume 2”. Some of the theories and hypotheses under the target phenomenon of prosocial behaviour that will be implemented in the context of the specific movie scene mentioned above include the empathy-altruism hypothesis (Batson et al., 1981), the kin selection theory (Cialdini et al., 1997) and the ‘reciprocal altruism theory’ (Korsgaard et al., 2010). The empathy-altruism hypothesis primarily involves empathy, which is the ability to feel and experience other’s emotional situation by looking at it from the other’s perspective. This hypothesis implies that at minimum several prosocial deeds are entirely motivated by the yearning to assist someone in need. On the other hand, the kin selection theory takes a more biologically evolutionary outlook, in which we all share a prime objective to pass on our genes to the future generation. Lastly, the reciprocal altruism theory proposes that our desire to help strangers stems from the idea of reciprocation; simply put, I help you, you help me, and in the end both parties benefit from the mutual assistance, which can incidentally result in a higher rate of survival of both parties (Korsgaard et al.,