Crowded minds: the implicit bystander effect.
Five studies merged the priming methodology with the bystander apathy literature and demonstrate how merely priming a social context at Time 1 leads to less helping behavior on a subsequent, completely unrelated task at Time 2. In Study 1, participants who imagined being with a group at Time 1 pledged significantly fewer dollars on a charity-giving measure at Time 2 than did those who imagined being alone with one other person. Studies 2-5 build converging evidence with hypothetical and real helping behavior measures and demonstrate that participants who imagine the presence of others show facilitation to words associated with unaccountable on a lexical decision task. Implications for social group research and the priming methodology are discussed.
Garcia
Stephen M
SM
Department of Psychology, Princeton University, New Jersey 08544-1010, USA. smgarcia@princeton.edu
Weaver
Kim
K
Moskowitz
Gordon B
GB
Darley
John M
JM
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D006379:Helping Behavior; D006801:Humans; D011582:Psychological Theory; D012931:Social Environment; D012938:Social Perception; D012941:Social Responsibility; D013240:Stereotyping; D014481:United States