Helping as a Means to Empower or Create Reliance: Hierarchical Motivations Predict Helping Behaviors

Drawing on construal-level theory, this study explored how a sense of psychological distance from an accident influences people’s willingness to help victims. We conducted a scenario experiment with a sample of 81 Japanese undergraduates. Participants were presented with a short scenario describing an accident that happened on either a distant or a nearby mountain. The results show that the greater the distance perceived by participants from the accident, the more likely they were to infer negative traits about the victim at an implicit level. However, the more they inferred negative traits at an implicit level, the more likely they were to attribute the cause of the accident to external situational factors, at an explicit level. Finally, explicit external causal attribution aroused greater sympathy for the victim, resulting in an increased willingness to help. This discrepancy between implicit and explicit inferences was discussed in terms of cognitive elaboration, in which people engage in helping behaviors when they feel responsible for the fate of the victim.

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Helping Behaviors in the Natural Environment: Dimensions and Correlates of Helping

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin ◽

10.1177/0146167294201004 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 20 (1) ◽

pp. 45-56 ◽

Cited By ~ 25

Author(s):

Anne M. McGuire

Keyword(s):

Natural Environment ◽

Helping Behaviors

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Impact of error management practices on service recovery performance and helping behaviors in the hospitality industry: The mediating effects of psychological safety and learning behaviors

Journal of Human Resources in Hospitality & Tourism ◽

10.1080/15332845.2015.1008395 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 15 (1) ◽

pp. 1-28 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Priyanko Guchait ◽

Chunghun Lee ◽

Chen-Ya Wang ◽

Jeanna L. Abbott

Keyword(s):

Hospitality Industry ◽

Management Practices ◽

Service Recovery ◽

Psychological Safety ◽

Error Management ◽

Mediating Effects ◽

Learning Behaviors ◽

Service Recovery Performance ◽

Recovery Performance ◽

Helping Behaviors

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A dynamic process of different helping behavior: from the extended self-theory perspective

Journal of Managerial Psychology ◽

10.1108/jmp-10-2020-0573 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

Xi Ouyang ◽

Kong Zhou ◽

Yuan-Fang Zhan ◽

Wen-Jun Yin

Keyword(s):

Dynamic Process ◽

Help Seeking ◽

Task Difficulty ◽

Helping Behavior ◽

Mediation Effect ◽

Extended Self ◽

Content Type ◽

Helping Behaviors ◽

Moderating Role

PurposeDrawing on the extended self-theory, this study explores the dynamic process through which reactive helping could influence proactive helping through self-investment and investigate the moderating role of task difficulty in affecting this process.Design/methodology/approachThis study, with a sample of 582 diary surveys from 66 employees, used experience sampling techniques to analyze the proposed hypotheses.FindingsThe results revealed that self-investment could mediate the positive relationship between reactive helping and proactive helping. Additionally, task difficulty acts as an essential role in facilitating the process raised by reactive helping. Further examination revealed that the moderated mediation effect in this model was also significant.Practical implicationsManagers should encourage help-seeking and positive responses to requests, especially in groups with difficult tasks, which could build helpers’ extended self at work and increase their proactive helping behaviors at the following episode.Originality/valueAs verifying the dynamic trajectory of reactive helping, this study enriches our understanding of whether and how helping behaviors are likely to grow over time. Besides, it complements current pieces of literature by exploring the potential positive implication of reactive helping with a helper-centric perspective.

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Trained Helping Behaviors and Group Performance

Psychological Reports ◽

10.2466/pr0.1991.68.3c.1291 ◽

1991 ◽

Vol 68 (3_suppl) ◽

pp. 1291-1298

Author(s):

Nancy J. Stone ◽

Molly E. O'Gorman

Keyword(s):

Group Performance ◽

Group Members ◽

Helping Behaviors ◽

And Performance ◽

Definition Of ◽

Crossword Puzzles

96 students assigned to 32 groups were trained in seeking information to judge whether particular helping behaviors would increase application of the behavior found positively correlated with performance. Three-person groups worked crossword puzzles which decreased in difficulty over two trials. Training significantly increased seeking behaviors and performance (reduced errors). Helping behaviors were also more useful when the task was difficult and not helpful when the task was easy, which supports the notion that helping behaviors may even be debilitating under certain circumstances. More research is needed to establish a functional definition of helping behaviors and to investigate the use of helping behaviors on tasks requiring interdependence among group members.

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Organizational helping behavior and its relationship with employee workplace well-being

Career Development International ◽

10.1108/cdi-01-2018-0014 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 24 (1) ◽

pp. 18-36 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jinyun Duan ◽

Macy Wong ◽

Yumeng Yue

Keyword(s):

Management Practice ◽

Well Being ◽

Helping Behavior ◽

Two Dimensions ◽

Mediating Effect ◽

Content Type ◽

Behavior Scale ◽

Helping Behaviors ◽

Practical Implications ◽

Main Relationship

PurposeResearch examining the effect of helping on outcomes related to helpers has gained some mixed results. The purpose of this paper is to reconcile such inconsistency by understanding the multi-dimensional nature of helping behavior.Design/methodology/approachThe authors first develop a helping behavior scale that differentiates between the proactive and reactive form of helping. Furthermore, the authors also examined whether these two forms of helping are differently related to employees’ well-being. Data were collected from 448 employees and their immediate supervisors working in different organizations in the South Jiangsu province, in which the authors examined the main relationship and also explored the mediating effect of meaningfulness.FindingsResults provided corroborating evidence that helping behavior was a multi-dimensional construct, consisting of proactive and reactive dimensions. Furthermore, the authors are also able to support discriminatory validity between these two dimensions by showing that they are differently related to employees’ well-being.Practical implicationsThis paper contributes to management practice by specifying the benefits and detriments of different kinds of helping behaviors.Originality/valueThe findings of this study do not only provide ideas to explain contradictions in the effect of helping behaviors on helpers themselves, but also deepens scholars’ knowledge and understanding toward helping behavior.

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