Helping Behavior: Effects of Stress and Commonality of Fate on Females.

Research has suggested that people not sharing a common fate lack a sense of group identity, thus decreasing the tendency for helping behavior. To study the effects of stress and commonality of fate on helping behavior, 60 female college students participated in a replication of an earlier study which used male subjects. Participants were assigned to one of four conditions: (1) high stress/common fate (both subject and confederate were told they would be participating in a shock experiment); (2) high stress/dissimilar fate (subject and confederate were told they would be participating in a shock experiment or a word association experiment, respectively); (3) low stress/common fate (both subject and confederate were told they would be participating in a word association experiment); and (4) low stress/dissimilar fate (subject and confederate were told they would be participating in a word association experiment or a shock experiment, respectively). While filling out a participation receipt form, the confederate "accidently" knocked over a container of 100 pencils. The amount of helping behavior by subjects in each condition was measured by the number of pencils each subject picked up and the total number of subjects helping in each condition. Consistent with the original study a significant interaction was found, indicating that subjects were more helpful under conditions of high stress and common fate. Results also revealed a greater overall amount of helping behavior than that found by Dovidio and Morris (1975), which may have been influenced by situation variables or the subjects' backgrounds. (Author/JAC)