SilasBarta comments on Why Don't People Help Others More? - Less Wrong

36 Post author: peter_hurford 13 August 2012 11:34PM

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Comment author: Wei_Dai 14 August 2012 10:37:49AM 10 points [-]

With only one student taking the survey, 70% of them stopped what they were doing and offered assistance. However, when there were two students taking the survey, this number dropped down dramatically. Most noticeably, when the group was two students -- but one of the students was a stooge who was in on it and would always not respond, the response rate of the non-stooge participant was only 7%.

Somebody probably broke their leg next door behind just a curtain, and only 70% of the study subjects would go help? And only 7% would help if another person is in the room and the other person doesn't go? Is anyone else very surprised by how low these numbers are? I would have expected something like 95% and 50%.

Comment author: SilasBarta 15 August 2012 12:08:04AM 1 point [-]

I'm surprised too, and I'd like to think I'd check on her in that situation; I've checked up on people with significantly less provocation.

OTOH, how good was the setup? Could the subjects have had a clear view of the actor the whole time, and actually been thinking, "Why is she pretending to be injured? ... weirdo"

Comment author: peter_hurford 15 August 2012 12:40:49AM 2 points [-]

Peter Singer's account of the experiment made it clear that all of the action occurred behind a curtain which made it so the subject could not be viewed. Unfortunately since the source is cited to be a book, I can't follow up on this easily.