Helping Following Natural Disasters: A Social‐Motivational Analysis1

The present investigation explores how judgments of responsibility influence affective and helping reactions toward natural‐disaster victims. Guided by Weiner's (1995, 2006 ) theory of social motivation, we hypothesized that judging victims responsible for a disaster would indirectly lead to low rates of helping. Two studies tested this hypothesis. In Study 1, a bogus earthquake was used to test experimentally the effects of responsibility judgments (low, high). In Study 2, we surveyed attitudes about the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Our results showed that Weiner's model was supported across studies. Responsibility judgments led to anger and sympathy, and sympathy led to helping intentions, which in turn led to helping behavior. Comparisons across studies and the relationship between helping intentions and behavior are discussed.     

The effects of group memberships of victims and perpetrators in humanly caused disasters on charitable donations to victims

The effects of group memberships of disaster victims and perpetrators on charitable donations were measured. In Study 1 (N = 92), victim group membership was experimentally varied to demonstrate an ingroup bias. In Study 2 (N = 84), a similar bias was demonstrated by varying perpetrator group membership. In Study 3 (N = 182), both victim and perpetrator group memberships were assessed. Perpetrator group membership interacted with victim group membership. Moreover, donations were highest when both victims and perpetrators shared a group membership. These effects were mediated by empathy with the victims, and perceived responsibility of the donor to intervene and aid the victim. Findings show that a salient perpetrator group can be harnessed to encourage helping of disaster victims.     

Responsibility Attribution And Helping Behaviour In The Ash Wednesday Bushfires

The theoretical and empirical literature on the attribution of responsibility and helping behaviour suggests that a causal relationship exists between the perception of a victim's responsibility for his or her distress and the observer's willingness to help. This relationship was examined in a study of the attributions Victorians made and the amount of help (donations) given to the victims of the Ash Wednesday bushfires. The survey responses of 372 subjects indicated that although many people attributed a considerable degree of responsibility to the victims, attributions were unrelated to subsequent helping behaviour. Instead, helping was mediated by feelings of personal obligation to lend assistance and feelings of sympathy for the victims. It is argued that attribution theory may not be relevant to serious situations where norms for helping are highly salient.     

When is your partner willing to help you? The role of daily goal conflict and perceived gratitude

Motivation to provide help might vary from day-to-day. Previous research showed that autonomously motivated help (i.e., helping because you enjoy/value this behavior), compared with controlled motivated help (i.e., helping because you feel you should do so), has beneficial effects for both the help provider and recipient. In a sample of chronic pain patients and partners (N?=?64 dyads), this diary study examined whether (1) same- and prior day perceived gratitude (i.e., received appreciation for providing support) in partners and (2) same- and prior day goal conflicts in partners (i.e., amount of interference between helping one’s partner in pain and other goals) predicted partners’ helping motivation. Partners provided more autonomously motivated help on days that they perceived more gratitude from their partner and when they experienced less goal conflicts. Lagged analyses indicated that perceived gratitude (but not goal conflict) even predicted an increase in autonomous helping motivation the next day. Implications are discussed in the context of Self-Determination Theory.     

"I help because I want to, not because you tell me to": empathy increases autonomously motivated helping

Empathetic arousal has been found to be a strong predictor of helping behavior. However, research has neglected the motivational mechanisms whereby empathetic concern elicits help giving. Three studies examined the extent to which autonomous and controlled motives for helping mediated the relationship between empathy and helping. Study 1 found that state empathy predicted willingness to offer time and money to help a person in need, with this relationship mediated by autonomous motivation for helping. Study 2 demonstrated that dispositional, empathetic concern predicted prosocial intentions and behavior via the mediation of autonomous motivation. Study 3 revealed that participants who focused on the emotions of another person in distress reported greater willingness to help than did participants who remained emotionally detached, with this effect mediated by autonomous motivation to help. Controlled motivation had no positive effects on helping in any of the studies. The results suggest that empathy encourages prosocial behavior by increasing autonomous motivation to help.     

A tarnished silver lining: victim suffering and support for reparations

Groups around the world are seeking reparations for historical harms. In three studies, the authors examined if people are more inclined to support a historical victim group if the group continues to suffer today because of an earlier harm. In Study 1, participants perceived greater victim suffering when the harm was recent and the degree of perceived suffering positively related to victim group support. In Studies 2 and 3, the authors manipulated continued victim suffering and the feasibility of material reparations. Both variables affected victim group support, but experienced sympathy and injustice judgments mediated their effects. Suffering victims elicited more compassion when reparations seemed feasible but were treated the same as nonsuffering victims when reparations seemed unfeasible. Suffering victims were also treated equally irrespective of feasibility of reparations, whereas nonsuffering victims were treated significantly less favorably when reparations seemed feasible, versus unfeasible.     

Attributing autonomous versus introjected motivation to helpers and the recipient experience: Effects on gratitude,attitudes, and well-being

Three studies examined the effects of motivation attributed to helpers on recipient reactions. Participants read and responded to scenarios depicting various helping events, in which indicators of helpers having autonomous or controlled (introjected) motivations were embedded. Results showed that recipients experienced more gratitude toward autonomous helpers than those helping for controlled motivations. Helping interactions involving more autonomous attributions were also predictive of positive attitudes toward helpers, positive affect, and felt closeness. Gratitude mediated the effects of autonomous versus controlled helping on recipient positive attitude, well-being, and closeness to helpers. Study 3 confirmed that helper autonomous motivation independently predicted gratitude and other positive reactions to receiving help even when controlling for other important attributions, namely, perceived helper empathy, cost to helper, valuing of help, and perceived similarity.     

(Not) Thinking about you: Differences in victims’ and perpetrators’ self-focus after interpersonal and intergroup transgressions

We tested the hypothesis that, following a transgression, victims and perpetrators differ in their focus of attention. In three studies (total N = 740), we manipulated participants’ social role (victim vs. perpetrator) in a hypothetical scenario (Studies 1 and 2) and in a perceived real conflict (Study 3) in an interpersonal (Studies 1 and 2) and an intergroup (Study 3) context. Results from all studies confirmed that victims show a stronger self-focus than perpetrators. Moreover, results suggest victims’ higher self-focus as a predictor of willingness to reconcile. Participants’ self-focus mediated the effect of social role on reconciliation intentions as a single mediator (Study 2), or in sequence with their motivation to consider the other party's needs (Study 3). Overall, the present research suggests that victims and perpetrators differ in their focus of attention, and that this difference has important theoretical and practical implications for reconciliation between individuals and between groups.     

Agreeableness, empathy, and helping: a person x situation perspective

This research program explored links among prosocial motives, empathy, and helping behavior. Preliminary work found significant relations among components of self-reported empathy and personality (N = 223). In Study 1, the authors examined the generality of prosocial behavior across situations and group memberships of victims (N = 622). In Study 2, empathic focus and the victim's outgroup status were experimentally manipulated (N = 87). Study 3 (N = 245) replicated and extended Study 2 by collecting measures of prosocial emotions before helping. In Study 4 (N = 244), empathic focus and cost of helping as predictors of helping behavior were experimentally manipulated. Overall, prosocial motivation is linked to (a) Agreeableness as a dimension of personality, (b) proximal prosocial cognition and motives, and (c) helping behavior across a range of situations and victims. In persons low in prosocial motivation, when costs of helping are high, efforts to induce empathy situationally can undermine prosocial behavior.     

Evidence for a developmental shift in the motivation underlying helping in early childhood

We investigated children's positive emotions as an indicator of their underlying prosocial motivation. In Study 1, 2-, and 5-year-old children (N = 64) could either help an individual or watch as another person provided help. Following the helping event and using depth sensor imaging, we measured children's positive emotions through changes in postural elevation. For 2-year-olds, helping the individual and watching another person help was equally rewarding; 5-year-olds showed greater postural elevation after actively helping. In Study 2, 5-year-olds’ (N = 59) positive emotions following helping were greater when an audience was watching. Together, these results suggest that 2-year-old children have an intrinsic concern that individuals be helped whereas 5-year-old children have an additional, strategic motivation to improve their reputation by helping.     

News Coverage of Intimate Partner Violence: Impact on Prosocial Responses

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a pervasive and widespread problem in the United States, yet the issue is not well understood among the general public. Media portrayals of IPV have a significant influence on public perceptions, including public support for IPV victims and willingness to engage in helping behaviors. In the current study, we tested a path model examining the influence of contextual information about the victim and perpetrator described in a news article on feelings of sympathy for the victim of the described IPV incident, affective perspective taking, and prosocial responses that include: (a) support for public health initiatives to help victims of IPV, (b) preferences for prosocial information seeking, and (c) behavioral intentions toward engaging in protective actions to help victims of IPV. The model demonstrated acceptable fit and provided support for all 6 hypotheses. Results showed that sympathy does not have a direct impact on individuals' prosocial responses to help victims of IPV, but instead has an indirect effect through affective perspective taking. Implications for framing IPV in ways that promote a prosocial, public health–oriented response are discussed.     

“One of us”: Outstanding willingness to help save a single identified compatriot

Willingness to help victims unrelated to oneself, in situations where reciprocity is irrelevant, is a common form of altruism. Prior research showed that people are more willing to extend such help when the victims are identified, particularly when the target of help is a single individual. However, in the present research we found that only when the perceivers regard the victims as belonging to their own in-group, willingness to help a single identified individual is greater than willingness to help a group of individuals: identifying tsunami victims by name increased actual contributions only when the specified target was a single compatriot. The role of perceived shared social group in promoting the victim singularity advantage in contributions was mirrored in ratings of emotions, thus supporting an affective account of helping behavior.     

Restoring identity through outgroup helping: beliefs about international aid in response to the December 2004 tsunami

In this paper, the December 2004 tsunami tragedy was used as a background to investigate beliefs about intergroup helping. The general aim of the research was to test the proposal that helping can be used to reaffirm a threatened social identity. Two experiments conducted with Dutch participants (N = 78 and N = 73) tested the hypothesis that a threatened Dutch national identity would result in stronger preferences for help to the victims of the tsunami, but only in a domain that is positively and distinctly related to that national identity (i.e. water management). Results from both studies confirmed this hypothesis. Study 2 also showed a reversal of this effect in a domain negatively related to that identity. Moreover, perceived identity threat in Study 2 reduced over time in the high threat condition but not in the low threat condition, and this reduction was positively associated with the endorsement of water management help. Also, as predicted, in both studies a threatened national identity resulted in stronger beliefs that Dutch relief organisations should stay in control over their aid. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Workplace mobbing: How the victim’s coping behavior influences bystander responses

Victims of workplace mobbing show diverse coping behavior. We investigated the impact of this behavior on bystander cognitions, emotions, and helping toward the victim, integrating coping literature with attribution theory. Adult part-time university students (N = 161) working at various organizations participated in a study with a 3(Coping: approach/avoidance/neutral) × 2(Gender Victim: male/female) × 2(Gender Bystander: male/female) design. Victims showing approach (vs. avoidance) coping were considered to be more self-reliant and less responsible for the continuation of the mobbing, and they elicited less anger. Continuation responsibility and self-reliance mediated the relationship between the victim’s coping behavior and bystanders’ helping intentions. Female (vs. male) participants reported more sympathy for the victim and greater willingness to help, and female (vs. male) victims elicited less anger. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.     

Donating to disaster victims: Responses to natural and humanly caused events

The effect of the cause of a disaster, i.e. whether it was perceived to be caused by human or natural factors, on willingness to donate money to disaster victims was examined. In Study 1 (N = 76), the cause of a fictitious disaster was experimentally varied. In Study 2 (N = 219), participants were asked about their views regarding donations to two real‐life disasters, one of which was perceived to be naturally caused while the other one was perceived to be caused by humans. In Study 3 (N = 115), the cause of a fictitious disaster was experimentally varied, but this time measures of the proposed psychological mediators of the effect on donations were included, namely perceived victim blame and the extent to which victims were thought to make an effort to help themselves. A measure of real donation behaviour was also added. In Study 4 (N = 196), the proposed psychological mediators were manipulated directly, and the effect of this on donations was monitored. Across all studies, more donations were elicited by naturally caused rather than humanly caused disasters. This difference was driven by a perception that the victims of natural disasters are to be blamed less for their plight, and that they make more of an effort to help themselves. Implications for theory and practice are discussed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Emotional Arousal and Helping Behavior in a Real-Life Emergency1

This study examined a hypothesized relationship between the level of emotional arousal and subsequent helping behavior in a real-life bushfire emergency. Respondents were contacted after a major bushfire occurred near the city of Melbourne. They were asked about their emotional reactions on first hearing of the bushfire destruction and about their subsequent helping behavior. Respondents who reported feelings of shock, terror, horror, or sickness donated significantly more to bushfire appeals than did respondents not reporting these emotions. Helping was also related to initial feelings of sympathy for the victims and initial feelings of wanting to help the victims. The results support a general model of emergency intervention linking emotional arousal to helping behavior.     

When does self-reported prosocial motivation predict helping? The moderating role of implicit prosocial motivation

In three studies, we tested a motivational model to predict different types of helping from an interactionist, dual-system perspective. We argued that helping behavior is determined by the interplay of two distinct motivational systems: the explicit (i.e., conscious) and the implicit (i.e., unconscious). In line with previous research we expected that explicit prosocial motivation relates to helping, and additionally proposed that depending on the type of helping this relationship is moderated by implicit prosocial motivation: For planned helping, explicit prosocial motivation is a sufficient predictor, regardless of implicit prosocial motivation. For spontaneous helping, on the other hand, the effect of explicit prosocial motivation is moderated by implicit prosocial motivation, and only predictive when also implicit prosocial motivation is high. Study 1 (207 Dutch participants, M _age  = 51.7 years; 51.7 % female) with self-reported willingness to help as dependent variable confirmed that planned helping was determined by explicit prosocial motivation, whereas its effect on spontaneous helping was moderated by implicit prosocial motivation. Study 2 (193 U.S. participants, M _age  = 35.2 years; 64.2 % female) with real-life measures of planned help confirmed the hypothesized main effect of explicit prosocial motivation. Study 3 (73 Dutch participants, M _age  = 20.8 years; 68.5 % female) with a real-life measure of spontaneous helping confirmed the moderating role of implicit prosocial motivation, as the effect of explicit prosocial motivation on helping was only significant for individuals with high implicit prosocial motivation. We argue that considering implicit prosocial motivation provides an overlooked avenue for a more systematic investigation of helping.     

Incremental effects of reward on creativity

The authors examined 2 ways reward might increase creativity. First, reward contingent on creativity might increase extrinsic motivation. Studies 1 and 2 found that repeatedly giving preadolescent students reward for creative performance in 1 task increased their creativity in subsequent tasks. Study 3 reported that reward promised for creativity increased college students' creative task performance. Second, expected reward for high performance might increase creativity by enhancing perceived self-determination and, therefore, intrinsic task interest. Study 4 found that employees' intrinsic job interest mediated a positive relationship between expected reward for high performance and creative suggestions offered at work. Study 5 found that employees' perceived self-determination mediated a positive relationship between expected reward for high performance and the creativity of anonymous suggestions for helping the organization.     

Daniel has fallen into a muddy puddle – Schadenfreude or sympathy?

The present study investigated the experience of schadenfreude among children. Participants were 4‐ to 8‐year‐old children (n = 100) who were told stories of another child experiencing a misfortune while pursuing a morally positive versus morally negative goal. Schadenfreude, sympathy, and helping behaviour towards the suffering child were assessed. Results showed that beginning at the age of 4, emotional and behavioural reactions towards a misfortune of another child were predicted by the moral valence of the other child's goal. Furthermore, morally negative goals decreased helping behaviour and morally positive goals increased helping behaviour. Multilevel mediation analysis revealed that the relation between goal valence and helping behaviour was mediated by both schadenfreude and sympathy. However, those effects were especially pronounced in older children.     

The impact of motivation on temporal comparisons: coping with traumatic events by perceiving personal growth

Four studies were conducted to investigate the impact of self-enhancement motivation on the temporal comparisons of victims of stressful life events. Study 1 revealed that (a) victims were more likely than acquaintances of victims to report greater improvement in their personal attributes after traumatic life events than after mild negative life events and (b) victims perceived improvement by derogating their pre-event attributes. In Studies 2 and 3, an experimental approach was used to study the impact of threatening experiences on perceptions of personal growth, and similar findings were obtained. Study 4 confirmed that threatening self-relevant feelings play a causal role in prompting self-enhancing temporal comparisons. Taken together, the findings of these studies support the view that perceptions of personal improvement reflect, at least in part, motivated illusions that are designed to help people cope with threatening life experiences.