Post 1This post is interesting as it discusses Paciella et al. (2012) and the basis of helping behavior in terms of empathy, personal distress, prosocial moral reasoning, and moral disengagement. These factors are noted to play a role in predicting how likely it is that an individual will engage in a helping behavior.
What is most interesting to me personally is the mention of the Singh & Winkel (2012) study that found that race moderates the relationship between respect and organizational identification, as well as interpersonal helping behaviors. This mirrors some of the information given in the initial post, which again stresses that there are differences between racial groups and the likelihood that they will engage in helping behaviors. It would be interesting to see whether there is a relationship between race and the likelihood that an individual will benefit from a helping behavior.
Post 2
This post raises some interesting questions about how much each of the variables that have been identified as having an effect on helping behavior have on the chance that an individual will be helped. It is noted that Darley & Batson (1973) found that feeling empathy is a good predictor of how helpful someone is likely to be, up until the point that they are in too much of a rush to be able to engage in helping behaviors.
It would be interesting to see more research on the other potential moderating factors and how these interplay with features of race, or the severity of the situation as noted in this response post. This post does not discuss some of the ethical issues that arise when examining helping behaviors and the challenges that this poses when trying to understanding the evolution and existence of helping behaviors, but gives a good insight into some of the potential sources of helping behaviors and their modifiers.
- Darley, J. M., & Batson, C. D. (1973). ‘From Jerusalem to Jericho’: A study of situational and dispositional variables in helping behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 27(1), 100-108. doi:10.1037/h0034449
- Paciella, M., Fida, R., Cerniglia, L., Tramontano, C., & Cole, E. (2012). High cost helping scenario: The role of empathy, prosocial reasoning and moral disengagement on helping behavior. Personality and Individual Differences, 55, 3-7.
- Singh, B. & Winkel, D.E. (2012). Racial differences in helping behaviors: The role of respect, safety, and identification. Journal of Business Ethics, 106, 467-477. doi: 10.1007/s10551-011-1011-x
