A social psychologist employs a confederate to pretend to have a heart attack in a crowded train station, then measures how long it takes for the confederate to receive help. The study procedure is repeated over multiple trials throughout the day. This experiment is most likely evaluating which phenomenon and with what independent variable, respectively?

Question

A social psychologist employs a confederate to pretend to have a heart attack in a crowded train station, then measures how long it takes for the confederate to receive help.  The study procedure is repeated over multiple trials throughout the day.  This experiment is most likely evaluating which phenomenon and with what independent variable, respectively?

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

11ecba2d_0d6e_4d7f_a3bf_cb4e9f563740_MD0008_00 The bystander effect occurs when an individual in need is less likely to receive help when more people are present. This is partly explained by diffusion of responsibility, the tendency for people in groups to assume that action will be taken by someone else. In other words, everyone assumes someone else will step in (diffusion of responsibility), so no one ends up taking any action (bystander effect). This study was designed to evaluate the bystander effect. The researcher likely hypothesized that a greater number of onlookers present (independent variable) in the train station would result in a longer amount of time until someone attempts to help the confederate (dependent variable). (Choice A) The amount of time it takes for someone to help the confederate is the dependent (not independent) variable because it is the outcome (effect) that the researcher is measuring. (Choices C and D) The Hawthorne effect describes research subjects acting different from how they would normally behave as a result of knowing that they are being observed. In order for the Hawthorne effect to occur in this scenario, the onlookers in the subway station would need to know they were being observed, which is not indicated here. Educational objective: The bystander effect predicts that as the number of onlookers increases, the probability of an onlooker helping someone in need decreases. This can be partly explained by the diffusion of responsibility, whereby onlookers assume action will be taken by someone else.

A Social Psychologist Employs a Confederate to Pretend to Have