Altruism toward deviant persons in cities, suburbs, and small towns

Of 405 letters ''lost'' in Florida, 167 were returned in the mail (the altruistic response). Addressees' affiliations were significantly associated with return rates; fewer highly deviant ''Communist'' and ''FLAB'' addressees were returned. The associations of urban size and addressees' affiliations with altruistic responses in 31 cities and 10 suburbs were substantially greater than in 5 small towns but only moderately so if the addressee was highly deviant. Small town residents returned only 7 letters to highly deviant addressees compared to 31 for nonrural residents.