To Help or Not to Help: Capturing Individuals' Decision Policies

Abstract

The arousal:cost-reward model of bystander intervention developed by Piliavin, Dovidio, Gaertner, and Clark in 1981 was tested using a within-subjects "policy capturing" methodology. Four hundred and forty nine participants read 50 scenarios and reported the likelihood they would offer help. Seventy-six percent of the participants' helping judgments could be reliably described or "captured" with a linear combination of the various costs of helping and costs of not helping specified in the model. In addition, participants were relatively aware of how the costs affected their helping decisions; although female participants may have been more aware than males. These findings provide additional support for the arousal:cost-reward model and extend understanding of the cognitive algebra that occurs before individuals decide to intervene.

Bystander education: Bringing a broader community perspective to sexual violence prevention

“…Finally, some research suggests that skill level of bystanders is also important, with active bystanders more likely to have had previous training in emergency intervention or a strong sense of their own physical strength~e.g., Huston et al, 1981!. Bystander Education • Yet another group of studies focuses in more detail on the decision-making process for bystanders. This process includes consideration of the potential costs to bystanders of intervening or of not intervening, and the complex decision-making process that individuals may use when trying to decide what they will do~e.g., Dozier & Miceli, 1985;Fritzsche, Finkelstein, & Penner, 2000;Shaleff & Shichor, 1980!. This research suggests that bystander intervention and helping will be increased in situations where costs of intervening are reduced.…”

Drivers of interdependence and network convergence in social networks in virtual communities

“…Altruism is an individual's tendency to help others (Rushton et al, 1981) when they can choose to help or not (Fritzsche et al, 2000). Altruism is related to helping others via information systems (Lee and Lee, 2010), and community engagement behavior (Lee et al, 2011).…”

“…Altruistic individuals enjoy helping others (Rushton et al, 1981), even when they have freedom to help or not (Fritzsche et al, 2000). Helping others requires that an individual devote the time and energy that are the key to creating strong ties (Granovetter, 1973) or close relationships.…”

Children's Reasoning About the Refusal to Help: The Role of Need, Costs, and Social Perspective Taking

“…The arousal cost–reward model (Dovidio et al., ; Piliavin et al., ) postulates that people experience a state of arousal when confronted with another person's distress, which leads to the intention to help. Recent research demonstrates that arousal is not a necessary condition for this intention to emerge and that the model also predicts how people reason about helping situations (Fritzsche, Finkelstein, & Penner, ). Adults seem to follow a consistent pattern in weighing the costs and need aspects of helping situations.…”