Cost reward theory of helping behaviour

Students
Take note.
This is related to the Piliavin study on helping behaviour. If you don´t want to watch the video, please don´t but do read about what happened.


http://youtu.be/wCnNGw9--hA


Outcry in China over hit-and-run toddler left in street

The incident was captured on surveillance cameras
Chinese media and internet users have voiced shock at a hit-and-run incident involving a two-year-old child left injured in the road as passers-by ignored her.

The toddler was hit by a van on Thursday in the city of Foshan.

After the van sped off, several pedestrians and vehicles passed the girl without stopping. Several minutes later she was hit by another vehicle.

A rubbish collector finally helped her, but she is said to be seriously hurt.

The incident was captured on surveillance cameras and aired on local media.

'Lacking conscience'
The footage showed the van hitting the little girl, pausing briefly while she was under the vehicle and then driving off, running over her legs.

It then showed about a dozen passers-by, including cyclists, a motorcyclist and a woman and child, noticing the little girl lying injured in the street but walking on.

16 comments:

lautaro trabanco said...

janet i'm lautaro i really think that there are exceptions about what people really thinks and how they behave in this case unlike the kitty genovese case there was no danger in helping people could have just called 911 or taking her to a hospital ,and as we saw in class the enviorment has a lot to do maybe in that are of china that was a common situation but that 18 people saw what was happening that is just terrible i think this people could just learn some about the english people like in the terrorist attack at the london subway station.

cata stamadianos said...

janet, when I finished looking at the video I was quite astonished. I quite agree with Lautaro in the fact that the people walking by should have called the poliece or actually help the toddler , since there wasn't any risk of them getting involed.Besides, I do believe that the people that were walking around SAW the girl , but didn't want to get involed , which worries me a lot , showing their indiference. Also ,I agree with the woman talking in the video , that talks about how you would feel if you were the toddler in the accident , and you see a lot of people passing by , but nobody stops to help you. I was also shocked because of the fact that none of the ones who walked by , later on felt sorry for the girl , and returned to help her , but instead , they never came back , not even called the poliece or someone. However , I dont know the policy of the country where the accident happened , but I don't think that this would inhibit someone to help a little girl in need , showing lack of artruism.Finaly , i would really like to know why is it that nobody helped her , and how does human beings react in this cases.

Anonymous said...

Janet. I could not realize what had happened. This really shows as that humanity is completely lost. Moreover we can notice that most of the countries of asia and oceania suffers a sindrom that talks abou
t how that poblation do not care of what is happening, they only care of work and continue with their life, not even having responsability.

Anonymous said...

Janet i'm Dolors, i totally agree with this statement. As Catalina and Lautaro said the fact that peolple passed near the little girl and nobody called 911 was compare with the case of kitty genovese. This luck of wanting to help the other is extremely important in nowadays society. First, we have to understand why that people didn't intend to call 911; may be as Catalina said they didn't want to get involved with the whole situation because of fear, fear to be blamed or accused for the accident. On the other hand, we can say that the people didn't call the police because of fear of being named and then, when the killer knew who the person that accused him, maybe he will tale revenge. We are leaving in a society were security is suffering from fall, and individual security is put over the others. We must face this problem and tried to resolve it.

Anonymous said...

Janet after watching the video i felt a little surprised and sad for the little girl's accident. Moreover im astonished as regards people's reaction towards the crash since as the video shows, nobody help the little girl in pain. This demostrates that those people paasing by the accident and not helping, either by calling the police or an ambulace, clearly shows a picture of what they might have been afraid of. This reaction towards an accident like this, creates a picture of society's characteristics for instance their fear for being punished or blamed as the guilty person. Besides, this little case of indiference is not the only one, since a very similar situation occured in kitty genovise's case. Last but not least, i think that before judging people's reaction we must consider their cultural and personal background. However i clearly think that no matter the consecuences that might occur we have to help someone in need, at least calling the police since it can save someone's life. Milagros gaido

Miss Janet said...

Remember as we saw in class with the cost reward model this can be an examle of thie theory. In spite of the fact obviously you are stressing the helping behaviour which unfortunately can not be observed.

Anonymous said...

Dario, After reading the comments I must say i agree with all of them. I believe the kitty genovese case could have been severely affected by the environment, of course one couldve called 911. However what are the odds a murder takes place 20 ft away from ones home? I believe this thought could have influenced people into not actually doing anything about it. However I think the toddlers case in China was just otrageous, at first I couldnt believe the case was real, I didnt believe one could be so cold, so mercyless and actually walk by a child who was dieing in pain and pass by her without any concern on the childs state. Both of these cases show me that security world wide is not provided by a man in a uniform, security is provided by the people around us who are willing to take the risks one must take in order to save an innocents person's life. If we cannot trust one another, if we do not care for one another we will prevail as a society. One cannot survive as an individual we all need help and there is nothing wrong in asking or offering it.

agustina de giovanni said...

after watching the video I was suprised, and I can´t understand the way people did´t react at such terrible incident. When I first finish looking to the video all this questions came to my maind: where is the sensibility of these people? where is the consideration with the other? where is the empathy?. what I also think was that it wasn´t a big work what they have to do but oly colling the police or the ambulace.finally, what I think is that one of the most importnt thing is to help and care other.

Juancho Bustamante said...

Dear Janet,
After watching the video I was very shocked for the situation shown in it. This shows, as it says in the video, that people have become so selfish with other people...they didn't even cared for the safety of that poor girl, for the only reason that they didn't want to have trouble. I was speechless at the time I saw the people in the video passing right at her side, without helping her. This demonstrates the indifference that people have among themselves, as it was in the case of Kitty Genovese, the one we saw in class, in which something similar happened, where mostly 30 people saw the women being stabbed by the thief several times and no one reacted, nor by helping these poor women, or by at least calling 911. Here, what we saw in class about the cost reward model can be explained. The cost-reward model (also called Negative-state relief model), states that people help because of egoism. Egoistic motives lead one to help others in bad circumstances in order to reduce personal distress experienced from knowing the situation of the people in need. Egoistic motives lead one to help others in bad circumstances in order to reduce personal distress experienced from knowing the situation of the people in need. I may be wrong with the things explained above, but the case of this little two-year old girl is unbearable, because, in the case of Genovese, the person helping might had run a risk if helping that women, due to the dangerous men ( which is not an excuse neither, as they could have called the police, running no risks), but with this girl, you had only to call an ambulance, having stopped the traffic, among others, which leaves no excuse for the 12/15 people that saw her, lying in the floor, bleeding...... There was no excuse for not helping that poor girl, whose life might have been saved.
Juancho Bustamante

Anonymous said...

Janet,
iwas shocked by the situtation. it is very similar to the case of kitty genoves, nobody helpped because they didnt want to get in troubles, shows how people have become selfish, slefcentered, and dont caer about what happen to others.Helping behavior refers to voluntary actions intended to help the others, with reward regarded or disregarded.
ther was only one person, which helpped the girl, who was alturism( didnt expect a reward or dont matter the consequences).
also, Piliavin developed the cost reward model to explain why people do and do not help in emergency situations as this one.
this girl may have been saved if somone hade reacted sooner and had helped her on time.
martu beverati

carolina ferdkin said...

Hi Janet, I am Caro. I think that what happened with this girl and how society took i was unbelievable but I insist we have to see things from a different perspective. A video can show as no more that what really happen there in the day to day

Anonymous said...

Janet, I am Sebastián García, i had already watched the video by my own few days before.I complety aggre whith the ideas of my peers, and I shared it whith my family and we all agree about how wrong the society is nowadays. When people walked beside that poor girl they just evade her, and look at her as something with no importance.Furthermore, some cars also evade it but one just pass over her, it is really impessive; but I wonder if this situation is presented in a different part of the world, this would happen again, and also what was in the mind of that people that didn´t care about her.

Anonymous said...

Miss Janet, I am nicole alleman, I really can't get to the idea that this things are possible to happen. Despite, we don't know the case in detail, I would like to know and analyse what the people around there thought and what was going through their minds at that moment. I thought about it and the only thing I can imagine is that this people who didn't help this little girl, didn't want to get involved or to have something to do with that accident I think so, but in spite of that I really think you cannot leave a little girl that was suffering all this, alone lying on the floor. For my conclusion this is not okay and I think this will not happen in any country the same.

Anonymous said...

Hi Janet, I'm Maggie. I have already seen this video on my own and I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It is terrible. I cannot understand how people didnt't help that poor little girl. There is no excuse for not having helped her. I totally agree with my companions that they could have even called the police without getting involved or in trouble. Nowadays nobody cares about each other. As regards the society, I trully think that the helping behaviour has been lost.

Anonymous said...

Hi Janet, my name is Francisco Probaos and i really can't understand how people didn't help this poor child; it's amazing how the helping behaviour has been lost in the nowadays society

Miss Janet said...

Francisco it´s up to you to offer some explanation. Read the study and the information and see what you think.

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