Social Support Providers: Why Do They Help?

Two studies examined several factors affecting whether providers would offer social support. Study 1 used brief vignettes involving a variety of common problems with variations in the locus of responsibility for the problem (internal or external) and level of effort (high or low) toward resolving it. For each vignette, subjects rated the potential recipient's deservedness of fate, perception of how helpful social support would be for the problem, and their likelihood of providing social support. Perceived deservedness of fate was greater for high locus of responsibility. Effort level was inversely related to perceived deservedness of fate. Perceived benefits of social support were greater for high locus of responsibility but were not affected by level of effort. However, neither factor affected the likelihood of social support provision. Study 2 examined recall of actual incidents involving either eager or reluctant provision of social support to see if they differed in the perceptions of effort of the recipient, locus of responsibility, cost of support, and degree of reciprocity of support. As in Study 1, incidents involving reluctant, as opposed to eager, provision of social support had higher ratings of responsibility but lower ratings of effort. Also, reluctant support was associated with higher cost for providers and lower past reciprocal helping.