The desire to help and behavior in social dilemmas: Exploring responses to catastrophes.

Abstract

The desire to help can exercise a powerful influence on behavior, leading to greater helping in a variety of settings. This research explored people's desire to help in 2 naturally occurring community traumas. Study 1 revealed that this desire led to greater contributions in settings in which people normally loaf. Specifically, participants making unidentifiable contributions exerted greater effort when they believed their contributions would benefit soldiers fighting in the Persian Gulf War. Study 2 revealed greater contributions to a public radio fund drive immediately following the Loma Linda earthquake in California. Ironically, contributions to the radio station increased, even though the station was in Boston and the earthquake victims in California would not benefit from the contributions to the station. A social dilemma consists of any situation in which the choice or behavior that is best for the individual results in undesirable consequences for the group or society should all members behave similarly (Dawes, 1980). The dependence of public radio on voluntary contributions from listeners makes it a classic example of a social dilemma. As with other social dilemmas, the typical listener to public radio faces a conflict between selfish interests and the interests of the collective. Although it is in the best interest of the individual listener to withhold personal contributions from the radio station, thereby listening to the radio programming at the expense of others, it would be disastrous for the radio station and for these individuals if all listeners behaved similarly. Public radio stations cannot survive without contributions from listeners. Moreover, social dilemmas are not just an issue for public radio or television stations but extend to community traumas such as war, famine, or disaster, in which victims re