Piliavin's Subway study

• Aim?


  To investigate how appearance of a victim affected helping behaviour in real life scenarios
• Method


  103 trials on a subway journey, one researcher played role of 'victim' who would collapse short ehil
• Prosocial behaviour 


  Acting in a way that promotes the welfare of others and may not benefit the helper.Bystander behaviour – the presence of others reduces prosocial behaviour
• Method


  A male confederate collapses on a New York City subway train, either appearing drunk or disabled (with a cane).103 trials.One confederate acted as a ‘model’ if no one else helped.Two observers recorded key information
• Results 


  ‘Disabled’ victim (with cane) was given help in 95% of the trials.‘Drunk’ victim was helped in 50% of the trials.Help was forthcoming as much in a crowded carriage as in a carriage with very few people.
• Conclusion 


  Characteristics of the victim affect whether they will receive help.In a natural setting the number of people who witness an emergency doesn’t affect their willingness to help.
• Strength 


  Participants did not know their behaviour was being studied.The subway train passengers did not know they were in a study and behaved naturally.This means that the results of this study are high in validity
• Weakness


  Participants came mostly from a city.They may have been more used to these types of emergencies.This means that their behaviour may not have been typical of all people.
• Strength


  Qualitative data was also collected.The two observers on each trial noted down remarks they heard from passengers.This offered a deeper insight into why people did or did not offer help.