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Attractive People Inspire Altruistic BehaviorMy experiment will test how people's altruism is affected by their perception of the victim. My hypothesis is that humans tend to be more helpful when they perceive the victim to be more attractive. Research has shown that people are more likely to help those that they feel more empathy towards. C. D. Batson's Empathy-Altruism Theory states that when we feel empathy for another person, we will attempt to help purely for altruistic reasons. More attractive people inspire more empathy; they receive more social encouragement, in schools, politics, and even in employment. Psychologist Nancy Eteoff argues that attractiveness has survival value, with sensitivity to beauty being a biological adaption. She states that beauty is a universal part of human experience, and that people who are attractive get more positive attention. She further states that people will act to ensure the well-being of attractive humans. In fact, in a recent survey on BBC News of over 2000 respondents, over 70% believed that beautiful people have better lives. Therefore, I believe that people will naturally feel more helpful towards a more attractive person. Altruism is also affected by other factors. Most importantly, by the division of responsibility first theorized by Bibb Latane and John Darley. Simply put, it states that the presence of other bystanders inhibits observers from helping. Therefore, the larger the group, the less people will help a victim. This explains the failure of bystanders to react when women are victimized during a large event, such as the physical assaults that took place during the Mardi Gras celebration. Jane and Irving Piliavin further speculated that whether a bystander will offer help is determined by how dangerous the bystander believes the situation is. This might also explain the lack of response to the victims of Seattle's Mardi Gras riot. My hypothesis was that more people will help an attractive person. I further believed that the difference will be greater for males than females, and that group dynamics would play a part in the results. I tested this hypothesis by having a female friend deliberately drop her books in front of groups of people and then pause, looking helpless. She carried a stack of six books and 12 articles (selected at random from the Internet), each article consisting of 5-8 pages stapled together (see Appendix A). I watched and recorded each group's reactions, noting the number of people, sex, the number who helped (if any), number of words spoken to the confederate and general reaction to the confederate. We did this over a period of a month at both Pierce College and the University of Washington, Tacoma. At Pierce College, we conducted our experiment in between classes during the hours of 9:00 am through 1:00 PM in the crowded main hallway. At the University of Washington, Tacoma, we conducted our experiment between classes in the Student building from 11:00 am - 2:00 PM. We visited each location twice, with the same testing spot and same time frame. The variable we tested was the student's reactions and helping behavior. The controlled variable was our victim's appearance. She dressed in traditional attractive feminine attire on one occasion, wearing a sweater, skirt and elegant leather jacket. Her hair was styled and she wore make-up. On the other occasion, she wore a torn, paint-splattered flannel shirt over an old T-shirt with worn khakis. Her hair was messy and she wore glasses and no make-up. The confederate was trained on how to drop the books in the most believable, yet effective way. It was decided that she would "trip", throwing her arms in the air and launching the books in a splatter pattern about a foot from where she would stand. The books themselves would fill about a 3 foot area. She would do this when a group approached at approx. 5 feet ahead of her. She was further instructed with a script. Alter "dropping" the books, she would stare blankly at the books for about 20 seconds, then offer a low, dejected "Oh no!" She would lean down towards the books, but only pick up one book until the group passed her. If anyone from the group stopped to help her, she was instructed to smile. If they spoke first, she was to reply with a smile and a monosyllabic response. If they asked if she needed help, she was to reply "Please." If they handed her a book, she was to smile and say "Thanks." If they further spoke to her, she was to keep her responses as small as possible. Above all, she was to remain in character, a student hurrying to class who dropped all her books ( Appendix B). In order to try to limit the effect of Pilavin and Pilavin theory of bystander intervention, the confederate was instructed to look as harmless as possible. She smiled and didn't raise her voice; even when the group going by ridiculed her. She was instructed to smile at everything, no matter how difficult it became. I was trying to measure the importance of attractiveness on altruism, not to see how many people would avoid the loud, aggressive street person in the lobby. Therefore, while her clothes were certainly not attractive, they were not out the realm of possibility. In fact, many of them were her husband's painting clothes. I maintained my role as an observer. I tried to position myself at a nearby table or chair. If that wasn't possible, as it was not at the University of Washington, then I positioned myself at a wall, feigning interest in a display. They had a large bulletin board with posted notices on it. I carried a small notebook to take notes on. If I couldn't hear what was being said, I would stroll by the confederate after the group had left and asked her to relay what was said, if anything. She and I grew accustomed to striking up a fake conversation and relaying information (Me: "Excuse me, do you have the time?" Her (loudly): "Of course." Pulling up her arm, she begins whispering, "Can I help you... thanks... you're welcome.. Have a nice day"). I nearly filled my small notebook with notes. These notes have been reproduced as Appendix C. Alter compiling the data, I was amazed at the gap of the results between attractive and unattractive. At both locations, the students reacted favorably to the confederate when dressed a attractively. She had at least one person from every group help her. Nearly everyone smiled at her, and they spoke an average of 17 words to her. Over 76% of University of Washington students tested and nearly 65% of Pierce College students reacted altruistically and helped her pick up her books (see Figure 1). Overall, only 30% of the students didn't react altruistically to the attractive confederate (see Figure 2). This was not the case when she dressed unattractively. Suddenly, she was ignored, snubbed and ridiculed. Only 13% of Pierce students helped the confederate, and only 11% of the University of Washington students helped (see Figure 1). Very few students smiled at her, and they spoke an average of less than one word when helping. Overall, only 12% of the students helped, leaving a whopping 88% of students who refused (see Figure 3). Remarkably, the sexes were very balanced in their response to the confederate, regardless of dress. Both were far more likely to help her in the attractive state; 70% of the males and 69% of the females reacted altruistically. Both agreed that she was unworthy of that help when she dressed unattractively; only 12% of the males and 15% of the females would help an unattractive victim (see Figure 4). This destroyed my theory that males are more likely to react to the stimuli. However, the data on group size definitely confirmed Latane and Darley's Theory of Social Impact. The diffusion of responsibility is evident in both Figure 5 and Figure 6. In one person groups, the attractive scenario results in an astounding 100% altruism. Every person who came upon the confederate helped her. While a much smaller number, the one person group in the unattractive scenario also yields the highest results, that of 50%. As the group gets larger, the results drop further. In the groups of 5 or more people, the total drops to 50% in the attractive scenario, and less than 5% in the unattractive. The reaction was not just limited to students. The confederate was profoundly affected by the results. We did the attractive study first. She was laughing and buoyant on the conclusion, boasting happily to all who would listen that "everyone helped me!" She has a business degree, is a store manager of a major department store, makes a very large salary, and has been in retail sales for over a decade. Therefore, even getting her to go outside in her unattractive apparel was a stretch. As a former model, she had to spend days in the gear, getting used to the idea. Finally, she felt ready. She conducted herself just as she had before, with smiles and humility. However, the students reacted unfavorably. She found herself ridiculed, sneered at, and ignored. To her credit, she didn't show how unhappy this made her. However, upon the conclusion, she angrily proclaimed to all who would listen, "People are mean!" It took a great deal of pleading on my part to get her to conduct the final day of the study. She honestly would have preferred not to, but agreed to finish it (after a promise of free babysitting). She is practiced at not allowing thoughts to show on her face or body language because of her job, but after the study she loudly proclaimed her distaste. The training of the confederate was vital. Without training her on "drop techniques" and giving her a script, the experiment would have been a failure. When she was so dejected by the responses of the students, she had her script and her ever-ready smile on. It helped that she has had experience in modeling; she said she felt as if she was on the runway again. This makes me wonder how much she hated modeling! I believe my results show both how altruism is affected by empathy, and how group size affects altruism. However, my results also proved that appearance affects altruism in both sexes equally. We tested 127 students in 50 naturally occurring groups. As such, people were likely to react normally; each person was unaware of being studied. As far as I can tell, I was not "spotted" by anyone. If I could do this study under ideal conditions, I would have a one-way mirror and hidden video cameras installed to record every word spoken and every nuance of the reaction. However, given the realistic financial constraints, I felt the experiment was a success. If I could expand the experiment, I would have liked to take it outside the campus to a more inclusive environment. However, an attempt to replace the books with retail bags at the Tacoma Mall was a dismal failure. Retail bags inspire a reaction college books do not; we discovered passers by were prone to pick them up and attempt to leave with them. This resulted in the observer stepping out of that role and attempting the role of policing the event; "Hey, give her back that bag!" Alter two attempts, we decided to drop the Mall experiment. I believe the experiment worked on all levels. We tested the reaction of students in two campus settings to appearance. It proved attractive people are more likely to receive altruistic behavior. It also proved that altruism is very much affected by group size; the larger the group, the more diffuse the responsibility. People are therefore less likely to help someone who falls in a football stadium than they are to help someone who fell in a classroom. The saddest thing about proving these results is that quite often the people who most need help are dressed unattractively. This seems to prove that people would treat the starving homeless with less concern than they would a supermodel who has turned an ankle. No matter how true it is to human behavior, that is a frightening and disheartening conclusion.
Appendix AIn order to have the confederate accepted as a student, I chose college books and articles as the articles dropped. However, I wanted to avoid the casual conversations that using current subject's books might inspire (IE. "Hey, I have that math book. Are you in Mr. Schneider's class?") I also wanted to avoid Toi and Batson's Theory of Social Exchange Concern, where someone is more willing to help if they either know the person, or know they will run into that person again. So, I used my roommate's college books from her studies in the late 1980's at the University of Washington. The six books are:
Appendix B
This is a copy of the script I gave to the confederate. Script for Denise: Upon dropping your books, stay completely rigid, staring at the books for 20 seconds. Try to look both sad and stunned. Then say in your saddest voice, "Oh no." Think about when your childhood pet died. This is the magnitude of despair. Stoop slowly over the books and start picking them up. Try to take so much time picking up the first book that the group reaches you before you are done. Keep in character; you are very sad about spilling your books!
If you think you are seeing a trend, you are! Keep your responses to monosyllabic words, do not engage conversation! We are seeing how they engage you, not vice-versa. Be sure to smile often; studies have shown people are more likely to smile back. Above all, do not look at, talk to, smile at, or even notice me! I will either be sitting at a table nearby (near enough to record the conversation) or pretending to be examining the displays nearby. If you look at me, they will notice me, and the experiment is shot! Remember your character. You are a student hurrying to class who trips and loses her books.
Appendix C |