Levine

• background


  • previous research has found that people in urban areas tend to be less helpful than those in rural settings
  • most of these studies have focused on population size: suggesting that larger cities tend to be less helpful
• aims


  • to see if tendency to offer help is stable across different helping situations
  • to see if cultures vary in levels of help offered to people in need
  • to identify characteristics of cultures where strangers are more or less likely to be helped
• method

  • covert observation
• procedure


  • data was collected in 23 different cities around the world
  • in most cities, one local individual- most often a student home for summer vacation- collected all the data . all experimenters were male, college age, and dressed neatly and casually
  • the helping scenarios: drop a pen whilst walking along, drop a pile of magazines whilst walking with a heavy limp and wearing a large leg brace and act like a blind person needing help to cross the road
  • the confederates recorded the three scenarios in city centre areas on clear days during main business hours
• results


  • there was considerable variation was found between cultures in helping behaviour, the most helpful city was Rio de Janeiro in Brazil with 93% chance of help and the least helpful city was Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, with 40% chance of help
  • overall, a city's helping rate was relatively stable across the three measures of helping behaviour
• conclusions


  • level of help offered to someone in need does vary across different cultures
  • this is related to the wealth of the cultures (cities with lower economic wealth tend to be more helpful)
  • simpatia cultures (Latin American, Spain) are also more helpful
• links to the area

  • suggests that culture affects level of help given (countries with higher purchasing power parity were less helpful; simpatico cultures were more helpful)