Dependency, Threat, and Helping

Abstract

Both increased dependency and decreased threat were found to increase likelihood of American Ss' assisting an experimenter by signing their names. A threat by dependency interaction indicated that the effect of threat was operative only under low and moderate dependency levels. No comparisons involving sex of E or of S were significant, providing no support for status threat or reactance theories which would predict that men would be less likely to help under high dependency conditions, particularly for a male E or under conditions of high threat.