St Andrews Research Repository

St Andrews University Home
View Item 
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  • Login
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

Young children show the bystander effect in helping situations

Thumbnail
View/Open
Ploetner_et_al_Young_children_show_the_bystander_effect_accepted.pdf (490.7Kb)
Date
01/04/2015
Author
Plötner, Maria
Over, Harriet
Carpenter, Malinda
Tomasello, Michael
Keywords
Bystander effect
Helping
Children
Diffusion of responsibility
Prosociality
Developmental psychology
BF Psychology
NDAS
BDC
R2C
Metadata
Show full item record
Altmetrics Handle Statistics
Altmetrics DOI Statistics
Abstract
Much research in social psychology has shown that otherwise helpful people often fail to help when bystanders are present. Research in developmental psychology has shown that even very young children help, and that others’ presence can actually increase helping in some cases. In the current study, in contrast, 5-year-old children helped an experimenter at very high levels when they were alone, but significantly less in the presence of bystanders who were potentially available to help. In another condition designed to elucidate the mechanism underlying the effect, children’s helping was not reduced when bystanders were present but confined behind a barrier and thus unable to help (a condition that has not been run in previous studies with adults). Young children thus show the bystander effect, and it is not due to social referencing or shyness to act in front of others, but rather to a sense of a diffusion of responsibility.
Citation
Plötner , M , Over , H , Carpenter , M & Tomasello , M 2015 , ' Young children show the bystander effect in helping situations ' , Psychological Science , vol. 26 , no. 4 , pp. 499-506 . https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797615569579
Publication
Psychological Science
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797615569579
ISSN
0956-7976
Type
Journal article
Rights
© The Author(s) 2015. This work is made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created, accepted version manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/publications/journals/psychological_science
Description
The authors thank the ESRC for supporting Harriet Over (grant number ES/K006702/1).
Collections
  • University of St Andrews Research
URL
http://pss.sagepub.com/content/26/4/499/suppl/DC1
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/6002

Items in the St Andrews Research Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

Advanced Search

Browse

All of RepositoryCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateNamesTitlesSubjectsClassificationTypeFunderThis CollectionBy Issue DateNamesTitlesSubjectsClassificationTypeFunder

My Account

Login

Open Access

To find out how you can benefit from open access to research, see our library web pages and Open Access blog. For open access help contact: openaccess@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Accessibility

Read our Accessibility statement.

How to submit research papers

The full text of research papers can be submitted to the repository via Pure, the University's research information system. For help see our guide: How to deposit in Pure.

Electronic thesis deposit

Help with deposit.

Repository help

For repository help contact: Digital-Repository@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Give Feedback

Cookie policy

This site may use cookies. Please see Terms and Conditions.

Usage statistics

COUNTER-compliant statistics on downloads from the repository are available from the IRUS-UK Service. Contact us for information.

© University of St Andrews Library

University of St Andrews is a charity registered in Scotland, No SC013532.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter