Are Nonparticipants in Prosocial Behavior Merely Innocent Bystanders?

Abstract

Latané and Darley's (1970) bystander intervention theory was used to model individuals' participation in two prosocial behaviors (organ donation, green living). It is argued that nonparticipants in prosocial helping are innocent bystanders who likely fail to notice the need, do not interpret the cause as an emergency, do not accept responsibility for the need to help, and have little knowledge on how to help. Data in study 1 (n = 494) indicate support for the proposed innocent bystander path model (notice event → interpret event as emergency → accept responsibility → knowledge of how to help) in organ donation. Study 2 (n = 519) replicated the model in the context of green living and additionally found a direct path from noticing the event to knowledge of how to help. Implications of framing nonparticipation in prosocial behaviors as innocent bystander effects are discussed in context of campaign communication.

Notes

¹Note that living donation is also an option; the present study focuses only on post-mortem donation.

²Two items removed from the scales each utilized bidirectional item stems (i.e., reverse-coded items), a process that has recently been noted as reducing reliability estimates (see Barnette, 2000). To rectify this problem, only unidirectional item stems were utilized in study 2.

³Alternate models examining direct effects of noticing the event and interpreting the event on knowledge of how to help were also tested. Results indicated that neither model offered an improved fit over the sequential four-step model proposed by Latané and Darley (1970); thus, the four-step model was maintained.

⁴Items intended to measure the “interpret the situation as requiring help” and the “accept personal responsibility” factors were correlated with one another at r = .85. As a result items were combined and a CFA was conducted on the three-factor model. Results suggested no improvement over the four-factor model proposed by Latané and Darley (1970), and thus the four-factor model was maintained.

⁵Final categories describing participants' knowledge of how to help included: Recycle (n = 306; 59.0%), Reuse (n = 124; 23.9%); Reduce (n = 110; 21.2%); Refrain from littering/cautious waste removal (n = 44; 8.5%); Responsible purchasing (n = 43; 8.3%); and Composting (n = 19; 3.7%). Detailed information on the categories is available from the first author and is not presented, in the interest of space.