Explaining What Psychologists Have Learned About Helping Behavior

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Psychologists found this study important, as this would help to understand better Social Psychology.

Whether or not an individual will actually stop and help someone when faced with a real life situation is what psychologists have tried to determine and also if individuals faced with this type of decision will either become a helper or a bystander, they also tried to find out if the individuals decision depends on one’s physic space, empathic feelings and moral values.

A good example of bystander behaviour is the case of Kitty Genovese. In the early Sixties, Kitty Genovese was murdered. This murder was unusual, as many people who alerted by the screams, had looked out of their apartment windows to watch witnessed it. Even though the attack had taken place in the daylight and over a period of about half hour, nobody called the police until was too late to save Kitty’s life.

In an effort to explain why people had not helped, three experiments were carried out; two in a laboratory by Latane et al. in 1968, and one field experiment carried out by Piliavin et al. in 1970. The first laboratory experiment was with male colleague students to look at the effects of the presence of other helping behaviour. Participants sat in individual booths connected by an intercom system; they believed they were taking part in a discussion on college. They conducted it in three conditions; in each condition there were a certain number of people present. During the discussion the other person says they are having an epileptic fit, and they were then recorded on their responsive time.

The results showed that the average response time was 50s in a group of one and as the group size got larger to five it increased to a high 166s, demonstrating like this diffusion of responsibility. It can be concluded then that when the group size has increased the helping has reduced. It also shows that the presence of others is a powerful factor influencing bystander behaviour.

The second laboratory experiment was conducted by participants being taken to a room to fill a questionnaire, either alone or with other people present. After a while, steam, which resembles smoke, began to pour out through a vent in the wall. Participants reacted most quickly to this when they were alone. With others present, participants often failed to react although the room was full of smoke, and they did not report the smoke.