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Meier BP, Kitchens MB, Kupersmith DE, Houck KE, Keyton NS, Petrasic SE, Schultz EH, Sheriff SS, Simmers MM, Underwood JO, Walker S, Zweizig DN. Be Responsible? Exp Psychol 2021; 68:107-112. [PMID: 34405691 DOI: 10.1027/1618-3169/a000513] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
The bystander effect reveals that people are less likely to help a person in need when others are present. We examined the impact of priming the concept of responsibility on the bystander effect in a field study. Lone pedestrians (N = 259) were randomly assigned to a two (Bystanders: none and three nonresponsive bystanders) by two (Shirt: blank shirt and shirt with "Be Responsible" written on the front) design. A researcher dropped eight pens approximately 15 ft from a lone pedestrian, while wearing one of the two shirts in the presence/absence of bystanders (confederates). The bystander effect was found: Pedestrians helped pick up pens more frequently in the no bystanders condition (59.05% helped) compared to the nonresponsive bystanders condition (41.67% helped). The responsibility prime tended to boost helping rates, but it did not significantly increase helping rates either as a main effect or as part of an interaction term. The bystander effect was replicated in a field setting, but priming the concept of responsibility did not appear to reduce it.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brian P Meier
- Department of Psychology, Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, PA, USA
| | | | | | | | - Nevada S Keyton
- Department of Psychology, Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, PA, USA
| | | | | | | | | | | | - Sara Walker
- Department of Psychology, Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, PA, USA
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