1. Imagine you are alone in a city
Imagine you are alone in a city. You need help (you could be lost or need money etc).
Which city would you most like to be in?
Which city will you most likely get help?
Where would you least like to be?
Where do you think you would get the least help?

2. Are there any links between the cities that were chosen?
Are the cities all in similar countries?
Are they culturally similar?

3. Why are we doing this? Previous research!
Differences in helping behaviour have been noted around the world – although there is very little scientific evidence.
Previous research often tests the popular hypothesis that the tendency to help strangers declines as the size of a city increases.
If this was a correlation, what would it look like?
Look at what cities you have said – is there a link?

4. Levine’s idea…
Levine wanted to conduct a cross-cultural study (a study that is done in multiple cultures) to look at levels of spontaneous help.
Levine wanted to scientifically test cross-cultural differences (differences across cultures).

5. Levine’s aims:
To see if the tendency of people within a city to offer non-emergency help to strangers was stable across different situations in which people needed help.
2. To see if helping of strangers varies across cultures.
3. To identify the characteristics of those communities in which strangers are more (or less) likely to be helped.

6. Method
In each country, data was collected in either the largest city or another major city (23 in total, all had populations of 230,000 or more):
Austria (Vienna) San Salvador (El Salvador) Romania (Bucharest)
Brazil (Rio de Janeiro) India (Kolkata (Calcutta)) Singapore (Singapore)
Bulgaria (Sofia) Israel (Tel Aviv) Spain (Madrid)
China (Shanghai) Italy (Rome) Sweden (Stockholm)
Costa Rica (San Jose) Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur) Thailand (Bangkok)
Czech Republic (Prague) Mexico (Mexico City) Taiwan (Taipei)
Denmark (Copenhagen) The Netherlands (Amsterdam) United States of America Hungary (Budapest) Malawi (Lilongwe) (New York City)

7. Activity 1: Using the 23 cities outlined on your handout
Plot these on the map
Rate these in terms of most likely to be helped – least likely to be helped

8. Copenhagen
Stockholm
Bucharest
Calcutta
Budapest
Amsterdam
Prague
Madrid
Vienna
New York City
Rome
Sofia
Shanghai
Tel Aviv
San Jose
Taipei
Mexico City
Bangkok
Singapore
San Salvador
Kuala Lumpur
Lilongwe
Rio de Janeiro

9. How did Levine collect data?
Data was collected by students who were
Travelling to foreign countries
Returning home for the summer
By cross cultural psychologists and their students in other countries who volunteered to assist the researchers
Are there any issues with this method?
Researcher bias? Issue with the researchers being students?

10. What type of study was this?

11. What ‘helpful’ behaviours did they look for?
Originally there were five separate helping behaviours:
Dropped pen;
Hurt leg;
Helping blind person across the street;
Asking for change;
Mislaid letters.
Are there any issues with these?

12. Asking for change and Mislaid letters were removed due to issues
Asking for change and Mislaid letters were removed due to issues. Why do you think this was?
Asking for change – The concept of money was too different across cultures, with some countries lacking small change.
Mislaid letters – In some places people didn’t want to touch envelopes in case they contained explosive, and some areas didn’t have postboxes so it required a lot of effort. Also, in some countries letters are not very common due to illiteracy.
This leaves three different non-emergency helping behaviours.

13. 1/3 Dropped pen
Walking at a carefully practised, moderate pace (15 paces/10 seconds), experimenters walked towards a lone pedestrian passing in the opposite direction. When 10 to 15 feet from the subject, the experimenter reached into his pocket and accidentally, without appearing to notice, dropped his pen behind him, in full view of the subject, and continued walking past the subject.
A total of 214 men and 210 women were approached.
Participants were scored as having helped if they called back to the experimenter that he had dropped the pen and/or picked up the pen and brought it to the experimenter.

14. 2/3 Hurt leg
Walking with a heavy limp and wearing a large and clearly visible leg brace, experimenters ‘accidentally’ dropped and unsuccessfully struggled to reach down for a pile of magazines as they came within 20 feet of a passing pedestrian.
A total of 253 men and 240 women were approached.
Helping was defined as offering to help and/or beginning to help without offering.

15. 3/3 Helping a blind person cross the street
Experimenters, dressed in dark glasses and carrying white canes, acted the role of a blind person needing help getting across the street. The confederates were trained for the role.
Experimenters attempted to locate downtown corners with pedestrian crossings, traffic signals, and moderate, steady pedestrian flow. They stepped up to the corner just before the change to the green man, held out their cane, and waited until someone offered help. A trial was terminated (and recorded as no help) after 60 seconds or when the light turned red, whichever occurred first, after which the experimenter walked away from the corner.
A total of 281 trials were conducted.
Helping was scored if participants, at a minimum, informed the experimenter that the light was green.

16. Methods These ‘helping’ behaviours were measured…
In two or more locations
In main city centre districts
During main business hours
On clear days
During summer months
Between 1992 and 1997
Any issues here?