Some Factors Influencing Helping: The Effects of a Handicap, Responsibility, and Requesting Help

Summary The effects of the severity of a handicap, S's responsibility for the confederate's (C) condition, a request for help, and sex of S were tested with 120 adult Anglo-American males and females in a shopping center. As predicted, Ss who saw the C with a bandage around his forearm helped him pick up more envelopes than those who saw him with an eyepatch and facial scar (p < .05), and more people helped the C pick up envelopes in the bandage condition than in either the scar or a no handicap control condition (p < .01). Ss who were led to feel responsible for the C's dropping the envelopes gave more help, as predicted (p < .05), as did male Ss (p < .05), but a request for help had no apparent effect. The results were consistent with a theory that any handicap increases sympathy for a person but that a disfiguring one also reduces his attractiveness, with helping decreasing as the severity of the handicap increases.