Aim: To investigate the degree of help given to a victim who appeared to be either drunk or disabled
Participants: A field experiment which used an opportunity sample of 4,450 passengers (55% white; 45% black) using the New York subway between Harlem and The Bronx during the hours of 11am until 3pm over the course of several months. The journey lasted 7.5 minutes without any stops
Procedure:
- A staged (fake) procedure which was conducted inside one carriage of the aforementioned Harlem/Bronx subway route. 4 confederates were used: 2 females as observers, 1 white male aged 24 – 29 to model helping behaviour and 1 male victim aged 26 – 35 (either white or black, dressed identically; the ‘drunk’ victim smelled of alcohol and the ‘cane’ victim had a cane to indicate that he was disabled)
- 103 trials were conducted by alternating teams of researchers over the total course of the research’s duration
- The female confederates took seats and kept notes, while the male victim and male model stood near a pole in the centre of the train
- After passing the first station (approximately 70 seconds into the journey) the victim collapsed
- In the “no help” condition, the model did nothing until the train slowed to a stop, and then helped the victim to his feet
- In the “helping” condition, the model came to the victim’s assistance
- The collapse occurred in what the researchers referred to as the critical area which was in the immediate vicinity of the victim
There were four different helping conditions used in both “drunk” and “cane” situations:
- Critical area early: the model stood in the critical area and waited approximately 70 seconds after the collapse to help
- Critical area late: the model stood in the critical area and waited approximately 150 seconds after the collapse to help
- Adjacent area early: the model stood a little further way, adjacent to the critical area and waited approximately 70 seconds after the collapse then helped the victim
- Adjacent area late: the model stood a little further way, adjacent to the critical area and waited approximately 150 seconds after the collapse then helped the victim
Results: The victim in the ‘cane’ condition received spontaneous help on 95% of the trials (62 out of 65 times) - i.e. there was very little need for the model to help first; people helped the apparently disabled man immediately upon his collapse. The ‘drunk’ condition received help on 50% of the trials (19 out of 38 times)
Conclusion: The results support the Just-World Hypothesis as the victim in the ‘cane’ condition was helped 50% more than the victim who appeared to be drunk. It is possible that
people operate a system of judgement when deciding who to give help to - i.e. does the victim ‘deserve’ help or not?
Evaluation of Piliavin et al. (1969)
Strengths
- The study is high in ecological validity due to the use of the natural setting and unartificial behaviour of the naïve participants
- The use of two observers should ensure inter-rater reliability
Weaknesses
- The procedure is likely to have been affected by a range of extraneous variables that were impossible to control e.g. individual differences such as personality and mood; some of the participants experiencing the procedure more than once if they used that route regularly; participants in the carriage obscuring the view of the observers
- The ethics of the study are problematic: no informed consent; deception of participants; possible psychological harm; no right to withdraw or debriefing
Key terms:
- Just-World hypothesis
- Field experiment
- Confederates