Core studies conclusions

• Milgram

  100% of participants administered a 300v shock to the learner- inhumane acts can be done by ordinary people
• Milgram

  65% of participants administered a 450v shock to the learner, despite showing visible signs of stress eg sweating- people will obey others whom they consider legitimate auth figures even if what they are asked goes against their moral beliefs
• Bocchairo

  76.5% if the research group obeyed by writing the positive statement about the unethical experiment- people tend to obey authority, even if the authority is unjust
• Bocchiaro

  In the comparison group, 64.5% believed they would blow the whistle, but only 9.3% actually did in research group- how people think/ what they say they and others will do in a given situation often differs from what actually happens. The desire to feel like a good person is overridden by the power of the situation.
• Piliavin

  the cane victim received spontaneous help 95% of the time, the drunk victim received spontaneous help 50% of the time- an individual who appears ill is more likely to receive help than one who appears drunk.
• Piliavin

  90% of the first helpers were male- with mixed groups of men and women, men are more likely than women to help a male victim.
• Levine

  simpatia cultures were significantly more helpful than non-simpatia cultures. the mean helping rate for simpatia cultures was 83% and the mean for non-simpatia was 66%. - countries with the cultural tradition of simpatia are, on average, more helpful than countries with no such tradition.
• Levine

  Rio had the highest helping score of 94% and Kuala Lumpur had the lowest of 40%- there are large cross-cultural variations in helping rates.