Effects of i-e of Donor and Race and Locus of Cause of Failure of Recipient on Helping Behavior.

Abstract

Internal and external control college students of advanced academic standing (56 males and 64 females) were presented with a description of a black or a white college freshman on academic probation whose failure was attributed to internal or external causes and were asked to donate time to tutor the student. An interaction between IE and race was obtained; the internal Ss offered more time to the white than the black recipient, and the external Ss offered more time to the black than the white recipient. All main effects, IE, race, and locus of cause of failure, and all other interactions were nonsignificant. The Ss' ratings of the success they projected with their recipient revealed that the internal Ss under internal cause of failure projected not only less success with the white than with the black recipient, but also the least success of any of the subgroups in the design, even though they had previously donated somewhat more time to the white recipient than to the black recipient.