PENALTY AND INTERPERSONAL ATTRACTION AS FACTORS INFLUENCING DECISION TO HELP ANOTHER PERSON

Subjects in this experiment, who believed that they were involved in an impression-formation and decision-making task, were each confronted with a dilemma: they had to choose between (a) earning money for themselves while allowing another to be shocked, and (b) foregoing the profit in order to prevent the other from being shocked. One-half the subjects anticipated a penalty if they chose to allow the other to be shocked; the rest held no such anticipation. In addition there were three conditions of interpersonal attraction: Like, Dislike, and (a control) No manipulation. The data indicate that subjects who liked the other chose to help more often when they anticipated punishment, but less often when no punishment was anticipated. The reverse was true for subjects who disliked the other. Three interpretations of these findings are discussed. © 1969.