Regaining Self-Esteem through Helping Behavior

Summary It was hypothesized that a person who fails in a task which affects his self-esteem will be less helpful than a person who succeeds in such a task. However, when the helping involves a task which is different from the original one but taps the same ability, failing persons will help more than their successful counterparts. Thirty-seven female undergraduates failed or succeeded in a task requiring intellectual ability (Raven's matrices), and were then asked to help by either reperformance of an identical task or by manifesting their intellectual ability in a completely different way (explaining an article in psychology). It was found that more time was devoted to help under the different task condition by Ss who failed than by Ss who succeeded. There was no significant difference between Ss who failed or succeeded in the amount of time devoted to help under the similar task condition, although the results were in the predicted direction.