Social - Piliavin Flashcards
What were the four aims/hypothesis
- participants are more likely to help someone who is I’ll than drunk
- participants are more likely to help someone if the same race as them
- participants are more likely to help when a model intervenes
- the larger the group, the longer it will take to receive help
What did Piliavin’s study focus on?
Good samaritanism
What is the research method of this study
Field experiment
What type of sample was used
A opportunity sample
Describe the sample
4,500 participants on the NYC subway, between 11am and 3pm. Over a 2 month period, with 6-8 trials each day. 43 participants in most carriages, with 8.5 on average in the critical zone. Various races and genders, as well as ages
Describe the IVs
- the race of the victim (black or white)
- the condition of the victim (I’ll or drunk)
- the time at which the model intervenes (70 seconds, 150 seconds, or not at all)
- the amount of people in the coach
What was the DV
The helping behaviour
How was the DV measured?
- frequency of help
- speed of help
- gender of helper
- race of helper
- verbal comments
- amount of people who moved from critical area
What were the controls in this study?
- the group used. There were 4 teams of 4 experimenters = 2 females who recorded the data, and 2 males who were the victim and model
- the position the model standed in, whether they fell at the decided time and what they were wearing in conjunction with other victims in other teams
Describe the procedure briefly
The four students board the train separately, the two observers sit outside the critical area and the two actors stand inside. Then at the associated time the victim will stagger into the floor and face upwards at the ceiling of the train. The journey lasted 7 and a half minutes and if no one helped the model would help him up and they’d get off the train
Describe the victims conditions and the amount of trials of each
On 65 of the trials the victim was ill, they had a black cane and appeared visually unwell. On the other 38 trials the victim was drunk, smelling of alcohol with a alcohol bottle in a brown paper bag
Describe the results for each hypothesis
- they found that on 95% of trials the ill victim was helped immediately, whereas the drunk victim was helped only 50% of the time.
- black victims were helped less, while white victims were helped more often
- only 17% of drunk victims were helped before the model, where’s 87% helped the I’ll victim before the model
- the more people in the critical area, the more help received
Give two explanations of the results found
- people are more likely to help ill victims as they could not help the incident, whereas the drunk victim is responsible for the incident due to their choice to drink
- women are less likely to help than men (men helped first 90% of the time) as it was more of a ‘mans job’ to help physically
Outline one conclusion of this study
The more people within the critical area, of which cannot escape, who witness the incident, the more likely the victim is to receive help
Describe one practical application of the study
Helps us understand helping behaviour during disasters, whether people help because of a cross benefit analysis, and think about their own safety, or if they consider the individual and help for some form of feel-good reward or rejection of guilt
