Liberty Mutual-Social Psychology

This commercial definitely illustrates helping/prosocial behavior, which is any behavior that benefits others or has positive social consequences. Throughout the whole commercial, people are doing whatever they can to help others and attempt to make society a better, more comfortable place. The behaviors they were performing can be considered altruistic because they had no expectataions for rewards--they were merely doing the behaviors out of the goodness of their hearts.
There are many different motivations that expalin why people are altruistic and help others without thinking of rewards. One reason is that we may feel empathy--we might be able to identify with what the other person is going through. For example, we may understand the stress that a particular situation can bring upon someone, so we are compelled to minimize that stress for others. Another reason is that we may feel personal distress--feelings of fear, alarm, or disgust from seeing a victim in need. Although there were no extreme examples of a victim in need in this commercial, distress is a compelling reason to help. A third reason that we may perform an altruistic behavior is because of our norms and values--we may feel morally or socially responsible to help those in need.
At least 2 theories have been developed to explain helping behavior. One theory is the decision-stage model, which says we go through 5 stages when making a decision on whether or not to help. Stage 1 is noticing the situation, stage 2 is interpreting it as a situation that needs help, stage 3 is assuming personal responsibility, stage 4 is choosing a form of assistance, and stage 5 is carrying out the assistance. Many people stop at stage 3 because they do not feel responsible for helping, but some do continue on through all 5 stages.
Another theory that explains helping behavior is the arousal-cost-reward model. This model says that we make decisions to help by calculating the costs and rewards of helping. When we are faced with an uncomfortable situation/a situation in which somebody needs help, we are often emotionally aroused, a feeling we want to reduce. When trying to figure out how to reduce the unpleasant feelings, we calculate the costs and rewards of helping.

This commercial relates to every sense of a good person and doing the right thing. It deals with kharma, the Golden Rule, etc. It's like the movie "Pay It Forward" in a minute long clip. It relates to the everyday person too because most of the good deeds we all do go unnoticed. In this commercial, it's like we are indirectly getting recognition for the small things we do in life and the little ways we help people out. This commercial tugs at our "Awww" strings and deals with the Emotional Appeal of advertising. We all want to think that the little things we do make some sort of difference and that someone recognizes them. Libert Mutual wants us to know that they do recognize the little things each of us do, and that other people do too and we all make the world a better place. This commercial definately reflects societal norms and the behavior we expect from people. I love it becuase this commercial is in a big city and when I think New York, I think assholes. I can't picture very many people jumping in front of crates to help someone. I think most people would let it fall and laugh about it. It's a story to tell your friends at lunch. They're also not going to make a commercial about all the things you didn't do or the time you did let the crate fall and laughed about it. The commercial wouldn't be very understanding that way. Who cares if you are in a hurry and late for work. Slow down and help someone dodge the crate!