Levine et al. (2001)

What was the aim?

To examine the likelihood of people to help a stranger in a non-emergency situation, depending on the city

What was the type of experiment?

Quasi experiment (IV is naturally occurring)

Could be considered a field experiment

What was the IV?

City the experiment was carried out in/ help condition

What was the DV?

Rate of helping for each country

What was the procedure?

There were three helping behaviors in a non-emergency situation:

• Dropped pen - appeared not to notice the dropped pen directly in front on the participants

• Hurt leg - walking with a heavy limp and wearing a leg brace then dropping a magazine

• Blind person - dressed in dark glasses and carrying white cane, step up just before the light turned green

What other variables were considered?

• Population size - measured using most recent UND year book

• Wealth - taken from the world bank

• Cultural values - cross cultural psychologists rated countries using a likert scale 1-10 (1= most collectivist, 10= most individualistic)

• Walking speed - “pace of life” 35 men and 35 women were timed walking alone in a relatively quiet street

What were the results?

• Highest: Rio de Janeiro (93%)

• 2nd Lowest: NYC (45%)

• Usually higher in Latin America

What conclusions can be made?

• There was a significant difference between helping in sympatia and non-sympatia cultures.

• Poorer cities tend to have higher rates of helping, but helping was not related to city size or pace