The Reciprocity-Arousing Potential of the Requester's Occupation, its Status and the Cost and Urgency of the Request as Determinants of Helping Behavior

In a 2×2×2×2 field experiment, 240 subjects were contacted by phone and asked by an experimenter to make a phone call for him notifying his wife that he would be late. The experimenter presented himself as a (1) physician vs. accountant (high social status occupations) or (2) fireman vs. gas-station attendant (low social status occupations), and made it clear that the request was urgent vs. non-urgent. The cost of helping was also manipulated (low vs. high). It was found that subjects more frequently helped requesters in occupations of high potential for reciprocity-arousing behavior (e.g., a physician) than in occupations of low potential for reciprocity-arousing behavior (e.g., an accountant), regardless of the social status of the occupations. Urgent and/or low-cost requests were met more frequently than non-urgent and/or high-cost requests. No interactions between or among any combination of the independent variables were obtained.     

The Reciprocity-Arousing Potential of the Requester's Occupation and Helping Behavior

In a field experiment, 90 subjects were contacted by phone and asked by an experimenter to make a phone call for him notifying his employer that he would be late for work. The experimenter presented himself as a (1) physician vs. accountant (high social status occupations), (2) youthcounsellor vs. insurance salesman (medium social status occupations), or (3) fireman vs. gas-stationattendant (low social status occupations). It was found that subjects helped more frequently requesters in occupations of high potential for reciprocityarousing behavior (e.g., a physician) than of low potential (for reciprocityarousing behavior) (e.g., an accountant), regardless of the social status of the occupations.