title: Booze, Bars, and Bystander Behavior: People Who Consumed Alcohol Help Faster in the Presence of Others.
abstract: People help each other less often and less quickly when bystanders are present. In this paper, we propose that alcohol consumption could attenuate or reverse this so-called bystander effect. Alcohol impairs people cognitively and perceptually, leading them to think less about the presence of others and behave less inhibited. Moreover, alcohol makes people more prone to see the benefits of helping and not the costs. To provide an initial test of these lines of reasoning, we invited visitors of bars in Amsterdam to join our study at a secluded spot at the bar. We manipulated bystander presence, and at the end of the study, we measured alcohol consumption. When participants took their seats, the experimenter dropped some items. We measured how many items were picked up and how quickly participants engaged in helping. Results revealed that alcohol did not influence the bystander effect in terms of the amount of help given. But importantly, it did influence the bystander effect in terms of response times: people who consumed alcohol actually came to aid faster in the presence of others.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, VU University AmsterdamAmsterdam, Netherlands; Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law EnforcementAmsterdam, Netherlands; Department Psychology of Conflict, Risk, and Safety, University of TwenteEnschede, Netherlands.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: van Bommel
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, VU University AmsterdamAmsterdam, Netherlands; Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law EnforcementAmsterdam, Netherlands.
authors.forename: Jan-Willem
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: van Prooijen
authors.affiliation: Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement Amsterdam, Netherlands.
authors.forename: Henk
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Elffers
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, VU University Amsterdam Amsterdam, Netherlands.
authors.forename: Paul A M
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Van Lange
keywords: alcohol; bystander effect; bystander intervention; disinhibition; helping