Abstract
Des études antérieures ont montré que la volonté d’aider une personne dans le besoin est plus faible en présence de « témoins » qui peuvent également offrir leur aide. Nous proposons un réexamen expérimental de cet « effet du témoin » à l’aide de jeux du dictateur modifiés. Les taux de transfert observés sont inférieurs en présence de témoins, ce qui confirme l’existence d’un effet du témoin. Cependant, les résultats montrent également que le bien-être du receveur est supérieur lorsque des témoins sont présents, ce qui remet en cause l’interprétation habituelle selon laquelle l’effet du témoin est dû à une érosion des valeurs prosociales et des normes sociales. JEL Codes: C92, D64.
Highlights
In many situations, the creation of beneficial outcomes for others and/or society depends on the actions of a single individual
The bystander effect occurs when an individual witnessing a person in need of help is less likely to offer help when other individuals, who can offer help, are present
At the heart of the bystander effects lies a strategic interdependence between the actions of the individuals who can potentially offer help, 25 These tests are based on 62 observations in Bystander and 60 observations in Control
Summary
The creation of beneficial outcomes for others and/or society depends on the actions of a single individual. There is a large experimental literature supporting the idea that, in such situations, the presence of multiple individuals who can potentially generate the beneficial outcome, is detrimental. This phenomenon, which has been labelled the “bystander effect”, was first documented in the seminal paper by Darley and Latané (1968). Participants in their experiment witnessed a confederate staging an epilepsy seizure. A large literature in economics and psychology has developed since this study confirming that the presence of multiple potential “helpers” lowers the rate at which each single individual is willing to help (e.g., Darley and Latané, 1968; Latané and Darley, 1970; Cryder and Loewenstein, 2012; see Fischer et al, 2011 for a review).
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