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Helper‐Sufferer Similarity and a Specific Request for Help: Bystander Intervention During a Peace Demonstration
Author(s) -
Suedfeld Peter,
Bochner Stephen,
Wnek Deanna
Publication year - 1972
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.1972.tb01260.x
Subject(s) - psychology , feeling , social psychology , clothing , similarity (geometry) , sign (mathematics) , helping behavior , intervention (counseling) , morning , computer science , medicine , mathematics , law , mathematical analysis , artificial intelligence , psychiatry , political science , image (mathematics)
Eighty randomly selected male participants in the April 1971 pcace demonstration in Washington, D.C. were approached by a young women E v ho asked them to help her friend who was feeling ill. The “friend” was a young male E , in either conventional or “hip” clothing, who was displaying either a “Support Nixon” or a “Dump Nixon” sign. The dependent variable was a 5‐point ordinal scale of cooperation with a series of specific requests, which ranged from going over to the distressed E to providing bus fare and help for both Es to leave the area and go home. All 80 Ss went to the E and 79 helped to some extent. There was more helping behavior in the morning than in the afternoon, when the program of activities had intensified; with Ss who were tested in the afternoon, the E displaying a “Support Nixon” sign attracted less helping behavior than the “Dump Nixon” condition. The dress manipulation (implicit attitudinal similarity) had no effect.