1.  You are driving along a deserted country road and you notice that a car has slid across the shoulder and into a ditch. An elderly man is standing next to the car, bewildered. You are in a hurry to meet someone in town, but it’s obvious that the man needs help. What woulld you do?  You are leaving an office building, and you notice two couples arguing, shouting back and forth. One of the women shoves the other and you wonder if they are really angry. You wonder if you should help or not. What would you do?  In a local grocery store you notice a small child in a shopping cart. A woman, likely the mother, slaps him in the face and yells for the child to shut up or get more. You fell bad for the child but you wonder if you’d make things worse if you say something. What would you do?  You a watching the TV news about a large-scale national disaster across the world. Men, women and children are shown blankly starring at the TV screen. Immediate financial support is requested to but food and medicine before the death toll rises. How would this make you feel? What would you do? Some Scenarios

2. Types of Helping 1)Long vs. short-term helping 2)Direct vs. indirect (costs) 3)Behavioral, emotional, or informational Examples: A)Short-term, direct, behavioral, danger present Prevent other’s drowning Stopping a shoplifter B)Short-term, indirect, behavioral Call 911 C)Direct response without danger Giving up seats on a bus Picking up dropped goods

3. Examples cont… D) Response to a direct request Give some spare change Let someone use your phone Give directions E) Returning lost articles Letters Wallet Money F) Long-term helping Listen to a friend in need Letting an elderly parent live with you Reading to a child Working on a help/hot line Care for someone with a terminal disease Donations (e.g., money, clothes, food, blood, organs, time)

4. Latane and Darley’s Model of Emergency Intervention (1970) What are the cognitive steps an individual must progress through before offering help in and emergency? 1. Notice the emergency 2. Define as emergency? HELP 3. Take responsibility? 4. Have the knowledge, ability to help? 5. Decide to help? Don’t Help Yes No Yes No

5. 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 Time from Start of Smoke Infusion (minutes) Cumulative Proportion Reporting Smoke (%) Alone Three Naïve Subjects Two Passive Subjects “Pluralistic Ignorance” – Social Comparison

6. Cumulative Percentages of Subjects Responding in Different Conditions to Smoke Pouring Into the Room What effect does the presence of other people have on our response to a possible emergency??? In this study by Latane and Darley (1970) subjects sat in a room either alone with two other subjects, or with two passive confederates. As they completed questionnaires, smoke began pouring into the room through an air vent. The researchers measured how quickly subjects sought help or reported the emergency. *** As the previous graph shows, single subjects were much more likely to seek help, and they responded to the possible emergency more quickly.

7. 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 60 120 180 240 Cumulative Proportion Helping (%) Time from Beginning of Fit (Seconds) Subject & Victim Subject, Victim & Stranger Subject, Victim & 4 Strangers “Diffusion of Responsibility” (Others Can Help)

8. Cumulative Percentages of Subjects Responding to an Epileptic Fit Under Different Conditions Does the bystander effect occur in an unambiguous emergency involving a suffering human victim? Latane and Daley (1970) had subjects communicate via a microphone with another student in a nearby room. Subjects believed there were no, one, or four other people listening in on the conversation. Partway through the experiment, the other student seemed to experience an epileptic seizure. The researchers observed how quickly subjects helped the victim ***As the previous graph shows, subjects were more likely to help the victim of the seizure when they were the only person participating in the conversation. All subjects who believed that they were alone when they heard the seizure aided the victim within three minutes; however, not all subjects in the other two situations aided the victims.