title: Ask a Busy Person: Attentional Myopia and Helping.
abstract: According to an oft-quoted piece of folk wisdom, if one wants something accomplished, the best person to ask is a busy person. We tested a version of this proposition in two studies. Study 1 exposed participants to a helping request in which cues promoting the relevant behavior were made more salient than those inhibiting it. Study 2 featured a request in which inhibiting cues were made more salient than cues promoting the behavior. In both studies, participants who were "busied" by high cognitive load showed more influence of the dominant behavioral pressure than did participants under minimal load. The results suggest that busy people can respond more to a helping appeal, but only when cues facilitating helping are more salient than those discouraging it.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Swarthmore College.
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wallaert
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Swarthmore College.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ward
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota.
authors.forename: Traci
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mann
keywords: attention; helping; prosocial behavior; self-control; self-regulation