Piliavin, I.M., Rodin, J.A. & Piliavin, J. (1969)
Good Samaritanism: An underground phenomenon? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 13, 289 -99)
Previous research into bystander apathy (now referred to as bystander intervention) identified several key concepts:
Pluralistic Ignorance Diffusion of Responsibility Cost of helping
Most of the early studies were laboratory experiments. What are the major disadvantages in studying social behaviour in this way?
Piliavin et al’s study is a FIELD experiment. What advantages do you think that this has over a laboratory based experiment?
Overview of study: a male ‘victim’ collapses on the subway during a non-stop 7.5 minute journey, between the hours of 11am and 3pm on weekdays. Sometimes the victim is a white man and sometimes a black man. Sometimes he is sober, but unsteady on his feet and walking with a cane. Sometimes he is drunk and carrying a bottle in a brown paper bag. Two female observers record what happens.
Identify the variables in this experiment:
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Independent variables |
Dependent variables |
Results
Display the results of this study in an appropriate graph. Make sure you add all the necessary labels!
How did the following variables affect helping?
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Appearance of victim (drunk / cane) |
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Race of victim |
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Number of people on the train |
Did men or women offer the most help? How could you explain these results?
Why were there different numbers of trials for the drunk / cane conditions?
Why is there no data for the effect of the model?
What difference might it have made if:
the victim had been female (and sober)?
the victim had been female and drunk?
the victim was a child, or a very elderly person?
the victim had been with someone?
the study had been conducted on the street, rather than on a non stop train?
Conclusions
The diffusion of responsibility hypothesis predicts that as the number of bystanders increase, then the likelihood that any individual will help decreases. Do the results from this study support this hypothesis?
How do Piliavin et al explain their results?