Attitudes toward the willingness to help

Abstract

The social psychological issue of bystander intervention and helping behavior has been widely studied in a variety of situations ranging from direct observation of helping behavior to self-report indications of willingness or likelihood of helping. The understanding and insight into how and when people make decisions to help others can be an important one in areas of crime intervention, volunteerism, emergency situations and more. This study examined the effects of perceived responsibility of the person needing help and available time of the helper on willingness to help. The researcher hypothesized that the likelihood of helping would be higher when the helper had more time available and when the requester was perceived to be less responsible for his or her predicament. Results of the study did not support the hypothesis; however future studies could manipulate both the time and responsibility variables in a stronger way.