Helping Behavior, Bystanders and Emergency Situations

http://generosityresearch.nd.edu/other-resources/publications-2/literature-reviews/helping-behavior/

In the article above, helping behavior is discussed through excerpts from  “More about Generosity: An Addendum to the Generosity, Social Psychology and Philanthropy Literature Reviews,” (University of Notre Dame, July 7, 2009). In the article, they discuss how helping behavior relates to he role of prosocial bystanders in assisting crime victims and helping in emergency situations. The article discusses experiments that were done to study how bystanders react with a victim in need or in an emergency. The present work explored the influence of emergency severity on racial bias in helping behavior. The three different studies placed participants in staged emergencies and measured differences in the speed and amount of help offered to Black and White victims. Consistent with predictions, as the level of emergency increased, the speed and quality of help White participants offered to Black victims relative to White victims decreased. The bias was related to White individuals’ interpretation of the emergency as less severe and themselves as less responsible to help Black victims rather than White victims.