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Summary Levine et al. (2001) - cross-cultural altruism
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A summary of contemporary key study - Levine et al. (2001)
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Levine et al. (2001): Cross-Cultural AltruismExplanations for helping behaviour
Economic Explanations – stressful conditions are associated with maladaptive
individual behaviours that are detrimental to the social functioning of the
community.
Cultural Explanations – simpatia describes a culture where there is proactive
socioemotional orientation and concern with the well-being of others.
Cognitive Explanations – a more rapid pace of life decreases the likelihood of people
finding time for social responsibilities, such as helping, particularly when a stranger is
involved.
Aim
To examine the tendency of people in the largest city of 23 different countries to
help a stranger in a non-emergency situation.
To investigate if the tendency of people to help strangers is universal or dependent
on the characteristics of the city.
To investigate whether the helping of strangers varies between cultures.
To investigate whether particular characteristics of a community (e.g. city size) are
associated with the tendency to help strangers.
Participants
The participants were people in large cities of 23 countries. The choice of countries
aimed to be as wide-ranging as possible but were limited by convenience and
opportunity.
Data was collected by students travelling to the countries during the summer, and by
cross-cultural psychologists and their students who volunteered in other countries.
The cities used were: Vienna, Rio de Janeiro, Sofia, Shanghai, San Jose, Prague,
Copenhagen, San Salvador, Budapest, Calcutta, Tel Aviv, Rome, Lilongwe, Kuala
Lumpur, Mexico City, Amsterdam, Bucharest, Singapore, Madrid, Stockholm, Taipei,
Bangkok, New York City.
In total, 1,198 participants were used, selected because they were the second
person to pass a certain line on a pavement (systematic random sampling). Children
and, older people and those with visible physical disabilities were not picked to take
part.
Method
This study was a quasi experiment – carried out in the participant’s natural
environment on the street of the city they were in, and it included naturally
occurring variables (culture).
This study is also partly a field experiment as the helping measures were
manipulated/staged.
Variables
Independent Variables
The city that the study was carried out in
The helping measure – dropped pen, hurt leg, blind person scenarios
Dependent Variables
The rate of helping for each country – established by averaging the rate of helping on
all three scenarios.
Community Variables
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