Helping Behavior Research Articles

Stigma in the Area of Intellectual Disabilities: Examining a Conceptual Model of Public Stigma.

Studies in the area of intellectual disability (ID) stigma are few and atheoretical. This study examined the adequacy of the conceptual framework of stigma from the mental illness field regarding ID. Telephone interviews were conducted with a nationally representative sample of 304 adults in Israel. Participants were read a vignette describing a man with ID and answered items related to cognitive, emotional, and behavioral reactions. Behavioral dimensions included: Withdrawal, Social distance, and Helping behaviors. The stigma process leading to Withdrawal was drawn through Negative affect, whereas the process to Social distance was drawn through Calm affect. One unique aspect of the stigma process in ID is the importance of Calm affect, which helped reduce Social distance.

The Effects of Knowledge Sharing on Helping Behavior: Implications for Reward System Design

We examine how individuals’ willingness to help others depends on whether or not this help involves knowledge sharing. We do so across environments that vary whether or not those providing help can receive rewards from the recipients of this help. In our experiment, employee-participants learn how to perform a task and decide how much help to provide employer-participants, where joint payoffs but also employees’ personal costs increase in the help provided. We manipulate whether or not employees’ help involves the sharing of task-relevant knowledge, holding the economic cost and benefit of help constant. Results suggest that knowledge sharing’s effect on helping behavior hinges on whether or not employees can expect rewards from employers for their help. Knowledge sharing decreases help in an environment where employees cannot receive rewards from employers, but increases help motivated by anticipated rewards. Our results are consistent with theory suggesting that individuals perceive their knowledge as an important part of their identity, making it costly to freely share but facilitating greater trust that recipients of this knowledge will reciprocate with future rewards. Moreover, our findings challenge the practice in accounting and economics of generalizing results from research studying helping behavior without knowledge sharing to knowledge-sharing domains. In doing so, this paper contributes to a better understanding of reward systems designed to promote knowledge sharing in practice.

Helping behavior induced by empathic concern attenuates anterior cingulate activation in response to others’ distress

Helping behavior is motivated by empathic concern for others in distress. Although empathic concern is pervasive in daily life, its neural mechanisms remain unclear. Empathic concern involves the suppression of the emotional response to others’ distress, which occurs when individuals distance themselves emotionally from the distressed individual. We hypothesized that helping behavior induced by empathic concern, accompanied by perspective-taking, would attenuate the neural activation representing aversive feelings. We also predicted reward system activation due to the positive feeling resulting from helping behavior. Participant underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while playing a virtual ball-toss game. In some blocks (“concern condition”), one player (“isolated player”) did not receive ball-tosses from other players. In this condition, participants increased ball-tosses to the isolated player (helping behavior). Participants then evaluated the improved enjoyment of the isolated player resulting from their helping behavior. Anterior cingulate activation during the concern condition was attenuated by the evaluation of the effect of helping behavior. The right temporoparietal junction, which is involved in perspective-taking and the dorsal striatum, part of the reward system, were also activated during the concern condition. These results suggest that humans can attenuate affective arousal by anticipating the positive outcome of empathic concern through perspective-taking.

Religious Priming Increases Help if Requesters Dress Poorly: Effects of Dress, Priming, and Task Difficulty on Helping Behaviors

The present study investigated requester–helper interaction, helper personal disposition, and their interactions in effecting helping behavior. In a 2 × 2 × 2 experimental design, participants were asked to help with an effortful or effortless task by a well-dressed or poorly dressed help requester after being primed with religious or neutral words. Results showed that well-dressed requesters, religious primes, and effortless tasks independently increased helping behavior, and helping with effortful task requested by poorly dressed requesters particularly increased after religious primes. These findings provide an integrated understanding of the micro and meso causes of helping behavior.

Rats demonstrate helping behavior toward a soaked conspecific.

Helping behavior is a prosocial behavior whereby an individual helps another irrespective of disadvantages to him or herself. In the present study, we examined whether rats would help distressed, conspecific rats that had been soaked with water. In Experiment 1, rats quickly learned to liberate a soaked cagemate from the water area by opening the door to allow the trapped rat into a safe area. Additional tests showed that the presentation of a distressed cagemate was necessary to induce rapid door-opening behavior. In addition, it was shown that rats dislike soaking and that rats that had previously experienced a soaking were quicker to learn how to help a cagemate than those that had never been soaked. In Experiment 2, the results indicated that rats did not open the door to a cagemate that was not distressed. In Experiment 3, we tested behavior when rats were forced to choose between opening the door to help a distressed cagemate and opening a different door to obtain a food reward. Irrespective of how they learned to open the door, in most test trials, rats chose to help the cagemate before obtaining a food reward, suggesting that the relative value of helping others is greater than the value of a food reward. These results suggest that rats can behave prosocially and that helper rats may be motivated by empathy-like feelings toward their distressed cagemate.

Dimensions of video game behavior and their relationships with personality

As video games become increasingly popular pastimes, it becomes more important to understand how different individuals behave when they play these games. Previous research has focused mainly on behavior in massively multiplayer online role-playing games; therefore, in the current study we sought to extend on this research by examining the connections between personality traits and behaviors in video games more generally. Two hundred and nineteen university students completed measures of personality traits, psychopathic traits, and a questionnaire regarding frequency of different behaviors during video game play. A principal components analysis of the video game behavior questionnaire revealed four factors: Aggressing, Winning, Creating, and Helping. Each behavior subscale was significantly correlated with at least one personality trait. Men reported significantly more Aggressing, Winning, and Helping behavior than women. Controlling for participant sex, Aggressing was negatively correlated with Honesty–Humility, Helping was positively correlated with Agreeableness, and Creating was negatively correlated with Conscientiousness. Aggressing was also positively correlated with all psychopathic traits, while Winning and Creating were correlated with one psychopathic trait each. Frequency of playing video games online was positively correlated with the Aggressing, Winning, and Helping scales, but not with the Creating scale. The results of the current study provide support for previous research on personality and behavior in massively multiplayer online role-playing games.

Mindfulness Facets Predict Helping Behavior and Distinct Helping-Related Emotions

Contemplative practices have long emphasized the development of mindfulness: a skill that involves present-focused attention and nonjudgmental acceptance of experiences. In the current study, we examine the relationship between these two facets of mindfulness—which are independent in novices—and helping behavior and its emotional correlates. Attention and acceptance each predicted self-reported engagement in real-world helping behavior. Additionally, present-focused attention predicted increased positive emotions during helping—such as love/closeness, moral elevation, and joy—but did not predict negative emotions. By contrast, nonjudgmental acceptance predicted decreased negative emotions during helping—such as stress, disgust, and guilt—but did not predict positive emotions. When helping others, it appears to take two processes—attention and acceptance—to support our intention and reap the richest emotional consequences.

The Effects of Self-other Overlap on Helping Behavior: Moderating of Perspective Taking

自我–他人重叠（self-other overlap）是指交往关系中的个体不同程度地接受和理解他人的观念、资源,从而出现自我和他人信息表征的重叠现象。本研究通过两个实验考察自我–他人重叠对助人行为的影响以及观点采择的作用。实验1采用情境启动法,探讨高、低自我–他人重叠对助人行为的影响,结果发现重叠程度差异显著,重叠程度越高,助人行为越明显。实验2采用语义启动和情境启动法,考察观点采择在自我–他人重叠影响助人行为中的调节作用,结果发现观点采择和重叠程度的主效应显著,观点采择与重叠程度的交互效应显著,与控制组相比,观点采择条件下,助人行为显著增加。这些结果表明自我–他人重叠程度越高,助人行为越明显,而且观点采择起到了重要的调节作用。

The Impact of Transformational Leadership on the Helping Behavior of Hotel Employee

The Impact of Transformational Leadership on the Helping Behavior of Hotel Employee

Prosocial Propensity Bias in Experimental Research on Helping Behavior: The Proposition of a Discomforting Hypothesis

When researchers fail to control for confounding factors, the causes of behavior can be more apparent than real, even in experimental research. The current study replicates an experiment by Weinstein, Przybylski, and Ryan (2009) with the goal of demonstrating that their main finding could have resulted from differences in people's prosocial propensity. In their research, they found their hypothesized interaction effect: depending on the extent of immersion, participants presented with images of nature were found to be more prosocial in both their actions and in their declarations. Our sample of 175 adults ( M age=29.7 yr., SD=11.7; 97 men, 78 women) was approached personally, randomly assigned to viewing either urban or nature images, and instructed to immerse themselves in the respective images. Using two formally distinct measures of participants' prosocial propensity (i.e., before and after the intervention), the hypothesis that individual differences in people's prosocial propensity can bias conclusions about the origins of prosocial behavior in experimental research was supported. To avoid invalid conclusions, the prosocial propensity levels of research participants should be controlled for.

The Effects of Boredom on Helping and Help-Seeking Behaviors among Team Members

Individuals experience task-focused boredom in the case of understimulation where they perceive their ability to exceed task demands and find the task meaningless, and self-focused boredom in the case of overstimulation where they perceive task demands to exceed their ability and feel fatigued. As social beings, individuals seek stimulation from their immediate social environment when they are bored because social interactions are engaging, and facilitate the instantaneous relief of boredom. To shed light on how employees deal with workplace boredom, I use the social support resource theory to develop a theoretical model explaining how task-focused boredom and self-focused boredom drive helping and help-seeking behaviors respectively in a team context. Specifically, task-focused boredom predicts the availability of cognitive resources positively and results in offering help to teammates, while self-focused boredom predicts the availability of cognitive resources negatively and leads to help-seeking from teammates, among individuals with high team identification but not among individuals with low team identification. My model provides a novel perspective for thinking about how task-focused boredom and self-focused boredom function as antecedents to impact interpersonal dynamics in the team context. This clarifies and paints a more complete picture of the role of boredom in the organizational context. I also discuss the theoretical and practical implications of my model.

Supporting Student Veterans: Utilizing Game-Based Role-Plays with Virtual Humans to Build Military Cultural Competency and Helping Behaviors in Faculty and Staff

Veterans and military service members enter the classroom with valuable life and leadership experience; however, transitioning to student life represents unique challenges. Like the larger veteran population, student veterans may bring to campus the negative aftereffects of their combat experiences in the form of Post-Traumatic Stress, substance abuse, depression, and thoughts of suicide. To better support and retain the nation’s growing number of student veterans, higher-education institutions are beginning to train faculty and staff to more effectively understand and meet the needs of student veteran populations. This study examines the impact of a new and innovative game-based virtual training simulation where users role-play with emotionally responsive virtual student veterans to understand the unique value veterans bring to campus, the obstacles they face in their pursuit of a college degree, effective tactics for managing challenging conversations and the best practices for connecting student veterans exhibiting signs of psychological distress with appropriate support services. Longitudinal data showed significant (p

The Importance of Error Management Culture in Organizations: The Impact on Employee Helping Behaviors During Service Failures and Recoveries in Restaurants

This study examined the influence of error management culture on employee helping behaviors during service failure and recovery situations in restaurants. Data was collected from 236 employees working in 22 restaurants in Turkey. Additionally, supervisors were asked to evaluate the employees’ helping behaviors. Hierarchical linear regression analysis indicated that error management culture had a significant positive influence on employee helping behaviors (self-rated), employee helping behaviors (manager-rated), and coworker helping behaviors. Furthermore, the study includes important theoretical and practical implications for researchers and industry practitioners.

Descriptions of Difficult Conversations between Native and Non-Native English Speakers: In-group Membership and Helping Behaviors

This study illustrated the perceptions of native English speakers about difficult conversations with non-native English speakers. A total of 114 native English speakers enrolled in undergraduate communication courses at a regional state university answered a questionnaire about a recent difficult conversation the respondent had with a non-native English speaker. A thematic analysis of their responses revealed that helping occurred when the non-native speaker was considered to be a customer, in-group member, or "fellow human being." Helping behavior was characterized by actions that fostered understanding between the interactants and aided the non-native speaker in completion of a task or goal. Non-helping occurred when the non-native speaker was considered to be an out-group member violating role expectations or cultural norms.

Group-size-dependent punishment of idle subordinates in a cooperative breeder where helpers pay to stay.

In cooperative breeding systems, dominant breeders sometimes tolerate unrelated individuals even if they inflict costs on the dominants. According to the 'pay-to-stay' hypothesis, (i) subordinates can outweigh these costs by providing help and (ii) dominants should be able to enforce help by punishing subordinates that provide insufficient help. This requires that dominants can monitor helping and can recognize group members individually. In a field experiment, we tested whether cooperatively breeding cichlid Neolamprologus pulcher subordinates increase their help after a forced 'idle' period, how other group members respond to a previously idle helper, and how helper behaviour and group responses depend on group size. Previously, idle helpers increased their submissiveness and received more aggression than control helpers, suggesting that punishment occurred to enforce help. Subordinates in small groups increased their help more than those in large groups, despite receiving less aggression. When subordinates were temporarily removed, dominants in small groups were more likely to evict returning subordinates. Our results suggest that only in small groups do helpers face a latent threat of punishment by breeders as predicted by the pay-to-stay hypothesis. In large groups, cognitive constraints may prevent breeders from tracking the behaviour of a large number of helpers.

Valores, Altruísmo e Comportamentos de Ajuda: Comparando Doadores e Não Doadores de Sangue

Helping behavior and altruism are actions for the wellbeing of others, which vary in degree of delivery and are fundamental to interpersonal relationships. Therefore, knowing what motivates such behaviors might contribute to the understanding of human nature and to develop interventions that promote pro-social behaviors. This study aimed to know to which extent human values correlate with these constructs in groups of donors and non-donors of blood. Participants were 142 people from the general population (age: M=27, SD=19.93; 60.6% female), equally composing both groups (donors and non-donors). Through an ANOVA, the extent to which the scores of these groups differ from each other was evaluated. It was observed that donors are more altruistic and present a greater amount of helping behavior, besides presenting significant correlations to values that characterize a universal orientation. These findings are discussed based on the functional theory of human values.

Priming Effects on Commitment to Help and on Real Helping Behavior

Years of research on bystander apathy have demonstrated that the physical presence of others can reduce the tendency to help individuals needing assistance. Recent research on the implicit bystander effect has suggested that simply imagining the presence of others can lead to less helping behavior on a subsequent unrelated task. The present study was designed to contribute to previous findings on the implicit bystander effect by demonstrating these effects on commitment to help and on real helping behavior, rather than simply on intentions to help. Studies 1a and 1b demonstrate that merely priming participants with the construct of being in a group at Time 1 created significantly less commitment to future helping on a subsequent task at Time 2. Study 2 aimed to extend this effect to behavioral measures and verified that participants exposed to a group prime helped less than those who were exposed to a single-person prime. The implications of these findings for the literature on the bystander effect are discussed.

Facial Attractiveness and Helping Behavior Beliefs

On a between-subjects (Experiment 1A) and within-subjects (Experiment 1B) basis, participants indicated a belief that attractive and unattractive targets engage in less actual helping behavior than moderately attractive targets. In Experiment 2, attractive and moderately attractive targets were seen as more capable of helping than unattractive targets; attractive and unattractive targets were seen as less willing to help than moderately attractive targets. Multilevel modeling indicated that perceptions of helping capability and willingness mediated perceptions of how much targets actually help and should help. Whereas unattractive targets are seen as unhelpful due to both a lack of ability and motivation to help (negativity halo), attractive targets are also seen as unhelpful, but due uniquely to a perceived unwillingness to help.

The Impact of Receiver's Perception: Interpersonal Helping and Commitment to Coworker

Helping behavior has been popularly investigated in the organizational behavior literature. In particular, due to the change of organizational structure to less hierarchical and team-based work sys...

Newcomers' Helping and Voice Behaviors: A Social Cognitive Perspective

Although much research has been done on employees' extra-role behaviors (ERBs), the topic of how newcomers to the organization come to engage in ERBs remains relatively underexplored. Based on social cognitive theory, we develop an integrative model of newcomers' helping and voice as two different types of ERBs. The core idea of our model is that although newcomers may eventually come to engage in both types of ERBs, there will be a time lag between the emergence and increase of helping and those of voice. Our model shows that a social cognitive mechanism, including cyclical positive feedback loops and transfer of domain-specific self-efficacy, mediates the behavioral-level spillover from helping to voice. Our model also identifies several moderating factors that influence the process in which newcomers' helping and voice behaviors develop over time.