Piliavin et al. (1969): Good Samaritanism: an underground
phenomenon?
Aim
To investigate the effect of the following variables on helping behaviour:
Type of victim (drunk or cane)
Race of victim (black or white)
Whether people were more likely to help in an emergency situation if they have seen
someone else displaying helping behaviour (modelling)
The relationship of group size (diffusion of responsibility)
Participants
Around 4,450 (don’t know exactly how many) men and women who travelled on the
8th Avenue IND in New York City, between 59th and 125th street weekdays, between
the hours of 11:00am and 3:00pm during the period from April 15 to June 26, 1968,
which travelled from Harlem to the Bronx.
The racial makeup of the participants on the subway was 45% black, 55% white.
The mean number of people per car during these hours was 43. The mean number of
people in the ‘critical area’ in which the incident took place was 8.5.
Method
Field experiment – IV’s were manipulated, DV’s were measured but the study was
carried out in a natural experiment for the participants – New York Subway.
Independent Variables
The type of victim (drunk or ill)
The race of the victim (black or white)
Effect of the group size/numbers in group (varied naturally)
Model conditions – early or late, critical or adjacent
Dependent Variables
The time taken to help the drunk/ill victim
The total number of passengers that helped each victim
The gender, race and location (critical/adjacent) of every helper
Spontaneous comments made by the passengers
The gender, race and location of every passenger in the critical area
The movement of any passengers out of the critical area
Hypotheses
The ill/cane victim would receive significantly more help than the drunk victim
A bystander will be more likely to help a victim of their own race than a person of
another race
Seeing another person (model) help would lead to more helping behaviour from the
bystanders than when a model did not step in to help
Procedure
On each trial, a team of 4 Columbia General Studies students, 2 males, 2 females,
boarded the train using different doors (there were 4 teams in total – 16 students)
Female confederates observed and recorded data. They sat in the adjacent area.
Male confederates plated the roles of the model and the victim.
Throughout the journey, the model and the victim stood separate from each other –
the victim always stood next to a pole in the centre of the critical area.
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