Altruism toward the Blind: Effects of Sex of Helper and Dependency of Victim

Summary The blind are generally perceived as helpless and dependent. The lack of behavioral research in the psychology of the blind results in great uncertainty as to how these attitudes may be manifested in the behavior toward the blind and how these attitudes affect the personality and self-image of the blind. Field research investigated whether blind persons would be helped more than sighted persons in situations in which sight was not essential to the person's plight. Help was sought from 428 adults randomly selected from a phone book by a caller who identified himself as either blind or sighted, in a situation involving either high or low dependency. Help was given more frequently to the blind than to the sighted caller across situations, and more frequently to the caller in the high dependency situation. Additionally, female Ss were much more sensitive than males to the vision and situational dependency of the caller.