Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-8zxtt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-11T19:51:46.031Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

7 - Spontaneous (or Impulsive) Helping

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2010

Ervin Staub
Affiliation:
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Get access

Summary

The Piliavins and their associates have proposed that “there will be (a) special circumstances that give rise to and (b) specific personality types who engage in rapid, impulsive, noncalculative irrational helping or escape behavior following observation of an emergency.” (Piliavin et al., 1975, p. 430). Piliavin (1976) presented a variety of studies in which impulsive helping was supposed to take place, as defined by either average latencies of help in at least one condition of 15 seconds or less or 85% or greater frequency of help. What conditions lead to impulsive helping? Piliavin specifies four conditions that appear at least somewhat related to impulsive helping; in combination they are significantly associated with impulsive helping: (a) The victim must be visible, or there must be clear cries for help; (b) the victim must not be perceived as part of an experiment; (c) the subject must be moving or at least standing; and (d) there must have been a prior meeting between the bystander and the victim. Other conditions that lead to impulsive helping behavior are rapid onset of need and perceived time pressure for help.

Impulsive helping in Piliavin's view is high-probability and/or high-speed helping when rational calculation of costs does not take place. An example par excellence of impulsive helping is provided by Markowitz (1973, p. 75): A passerby sees a boy who is falling out of a sixth-story window, runs over, and catches him. The phenomenon of impulsive helping appears to exist.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Psychology of Good and Evil
Why Children, Adults, and Groups Help and Harm Others
, pp. 100 - 102
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2003

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Markowitz, J. A. Walk on the crust of hell. Brattleboro, VT: The Stephen Greene Press, 1973
Piliavin, I. M., Piliavin, J. A., & Rodin, J.Costs, diffusion and the stigmatized victim. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 1975, 3, 429–438CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piliavan, J. A. Impulsive helping, arousal and diffusion of responsibility. Paper presented at the XⅪ International Congress of Psychology, Paris, 1976
Staub, E. Helping a distressed person: Social, personality and stimulus determinants. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology, Vol. 7. New York: Academic Press, 1974

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×