Pilliavins key study

Question 1

Aim

Answer 1

Effect of appearance on bystander intervention

Question 2

Method

Answer 2

An actor pretended to collapse on a New York subway, there were researchers on the train how often and how long it took people to help

They did this 103 times. In 38 of the trials the actor smelt of alcohol. In 65 of the trials the actor had a cane.

Question 3

results

Answer 3

(percentage of people that helped within 70 seconds)

Disabled condition - 87% of the time
Drunk condition - 17% of the time

Question 4

Conclusion

Answer 4

The appearance of the victim affects how quickly people help. However, the number of people on the subway didn’t affect whether people helped or not.

Question 5

What comments did people make in the disabled condition?

Answer 5

“you feel so bad when you don’t know what to do”