Intrapersonal Correlates of Nonspontaneous Helping Behavior

Summary It is argued that helping behavior ought to be taxonomized into categories called spontaneous and nonspontaneous. Studies which operationalize helping as a spontaneous reaction to a surprise event (as done in the vast majority of helping studies) create a biased picture of prosocial behavior in which the role of intrapersonal factors (demographics, personality, values, religion) is underemphasized. The present study explored the relationship of nonspontaneous helping to 21 intrapersonal factors (seven variables in each of these three areas: demographics, personality-value, religion) in a sample of 113 male and female college undergraduates. Ten of these variables correlated significantly with the major dependent variable. Stepwise multiple regression procedures indicated that the combination of social responsibility norms, intrinsic religion, and internal-external control was a powerful predictor of nonspontaneous helping. Overall, findings suggest that intrapersonal factors emerge as major correlates of helping when it is defined as nonspontaneous.