Transcript Levine et al. (1990) A Study on Differences in Helping Behavior across Cultures.

Levine et al. (1990)
A Study on Differences in Helping
Behavior across Cultures
A study on Cultural Differences in Prosocial
Behavior – Levine 1990
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Aim: To investigate differences in helping behavior in
in 36 American cities and 23 large cities
Research method: Field experiments
Procedure: The researchers created non emergency
situations with confederates in public. For example,
dropping a pen, helping a blind person across a busy
intersection, providing someone with change, to
stamp an addressed letter that has been dropped.
The helping rate of bystanders was measured
LOCATIONS
Findings
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People tended to be friendlier in towns compared to
big cities
Cities with a high population density were less helpful
Cities with low purchasing power per citizen tended to
be more helpful than cities with high purchasing
power per citizen.
Helping rates were higher in cities with less stressed
people and in cultures that valued social
responsibility.
Overall helping rates, examples
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Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – 93.33
Calcutta, India – 82.67
Copenhagen, Denmark – 77.67
Shanghai, China – 76.67
Stockholm, Sweden – 72.00
Bangkok, Thailand – 61.00
Singapore, Singapore – 48.00
New York, USA – 44.67
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – 40.33
Evaluation
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Helping norms of a city may vary during different time
periods
There were many exceptions to the general rule
Helping strangers may be risky in many cities (e.g.
scams)
There are many possible confounding variables in the
field experiments (e.g. illiteracy level for the letter test
The experiment has high external validity
Findings similar to Pepitone (1999)
Conclusion
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Cities have different culture of helping behavior
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Helping behavior seems to be affected by a multitude
of variables
The individualism-collectivism dimension is not a good
predictor of helping behavior
Population density is the best predictor of helping
behavior
Can provide information about helping behavior
across the world
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