forms of helping direct vs. indirect emergency, short-term versus long-term behavioral versus...
TRANSCRIPT
Forms of Helping
Direct vs. Indirect
Emergency, Short-term versus Long-term
Behavioral versus Emotional
(From New York Times, March 27th, 1964) For more than half an hour 38 respectable, law-abiding citizens in Queens watched a killer stalk and stab a woman in three separate attacks in Kew Gardens.Twice the sound of their voices and the sudden glow of their bedroom lights interrupted him and frightened him off, Each time he returned, sought her out and stabbed her again. Not one person telephoned the police during the assault; one witness called after the woman was dead.
That was two weeks ago today. But Assistant Chief Inspector Frederick M. Lussen, in charge of the bor ough’s detectives and a veteran of 25 years of homicide investigations, is still shocked.
He can give a matter-of-fact recitation of many murders. But the Kew Gardens slaying baffles him — not because it is a murder, but because the ‘good people’ failed to call the police. ‘As we have reconstructed the crime,’ he said, ‘the assailant had three chances to kill this woman during a 35-minute period. He returned twice to complete the job. If we had been called when he first attacked, the woman might not be dead now.’
~ Kitty Genovese Story ~
Basic Assumption
Groups should be more likely to help in emergency situations
But what if the situation is relatively ambiguous (as most emergencies may be, or at least start off as such)?
Presence of others as a source of information (social cues)
Latane and Darley’s Model of Emergency Intervention (1970)
Notice the Event?
Define as Emergency?
HELPHave the
qualifications to help?
Take Responsibility?
Decide to Help?
Smoke-Filled Room Study
Procedure?
Did the presence of others affect how quickly participants noticed the smoke in the room?
Alone = Less than 5 seconds (63% noticed within 5 sec.)
Group = About 20 seconds (26% noticed within 5 sec.)
What if a condition existed where a confederate signaled the need to help?
Epileptic Seizure Study
Procedure?
Epileptic Seizure Information
You are driving along a city street and you notice that a car has slid across the shoulder and into a ditch. A middle-aged woman is standing next to the car, bewildered. You are in a hurry to meet someone in town, but it’s obvious that the woman needs help. What would you do?
% helping
60
50
40
30
20
10
0Ahead of schedule
On schedule Behind schedule
Time Pressure and Helping
In a local grocery store you notice a small child in a shopping cart. A woman, likely the mother, slaps him in the face and yells for the child to shut up or get more. You fell bad for the child but you wonder if you’d make things worse if you say something. What would you do?
Piliavin and Piliavin’s Cost Analysis of Emergency Intervention
How do perceived costs for helping and not helping affect our willingness to intervene in an emergency?
Piliavin and Piliavin (1972) proposed that a moderately aroused bystander to an emergency assesses the costs of helping and not helping before deciding whether to intervene. The table below predicts what a bystander is most likely to do in an emergency when the costs for helping are low or high and the costs for not helping are low or high.
Costs (to helper) for Directly Helping VictimCosts (to victim
) if No
Direct H
elp G
iven
High
High
Lo
Lo
ww
LowLow HighHigh
Direct Intervention
Intervention or nonintervention largely a function of perceived norms in situation
Indirect intervention or
Redefinition of the situation, disparagement of victim, etc., which lowers costs for no help, allowing
Leaving the scene, ignoring, denial
Blood on Victim
No Blood on Victim
Perceived Costs & Helping
Strangers Arguing
Couples Arguing
Country # Helpful Acts
Philippines 280
Kenya 156
Mexico 148
Japan 97
U.S. 86
India 60
Culture and Helping
*Source: Whiting & Whiting, 1975
You a watching the TV news about a large-scale national disaster across the world. Men, women and children are shown blankly starring at the TV screen. Immediate financial support is requested to but food and medicine before the death toll rises. How would this make you feel? What would you do?
Ask for directions
Give help
Thanked for helping
“Punished” for helping (“I cannot understand what you’re saying. Never mind, I’ll ask
someone else”
Less likely to provide assistance
in future
Impact of Past Experience on Helping
What are the “big picture” implications of such a finding, especially for long-term helping efforts?
Rank Charity Program Expenses Professional Fundraising
1 Disabled Veterans Associations 4.6% 94.3%2 Children's Charitable Foundation 10.3% 87.3%3 Firefighters Charitable Foundation 8.3% 86.4%4 Disabled Police Officers Counseling Center 11.8% 85.7%5 Law Enforcement Education Program 2.2% 84.1%6 Operation Lookout 12.6% 80.8%7 Wishing Well Foundation USA 10.3% 78.3%8 Children's Charity Fund, Inc. 5.7% 78.1%9 Coalition Against Breast Cancer 18.3% 78.1%10 Children With Hairloss 24.5% 72.3%
The United Nations Special Envoy to Haiti has reported that only 40 percent of money raised for Haiti in 2010 has been distributed, and only 15 percent of needed temporary housing has been built.
From: The Oakland Press, Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Helping request (e.g.,
stranger asking for
spare change)
Physiological arousal
External attribution (e.g., poor
economy is at fault)
Analysis of the
situation
Internal attribution
(e.g., stranger is lazy)
Positive emotions
Helping
Negative emotions
No helping
Attributions & Helping
Break camera
Versus
Camera malfunctions
Before confession
Versus
After confession
Helping?
Moods (Guilt) on Helping
Male Female
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
90
30
70
35
Homosexual making request
Heterosexual making request
Wrong phone number study
From Shaw, Borough, & Fink, 1994
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