The Subtlety of White Racism: Race of Victim, Diffusion of Responsibility, Heart-Rate and Helping Behavior in an Emergency Situation.

摘要

Supportive of a model which explains how whites may discriminate against blacks without feeling personally responsible for the consequences of their actions, white bystanders (N=64 female University students) helped black and white victims equally when each believed that she was the sole witness to an emergency; however, when Ss had the opportunity to diffuse responsibility among other bystanders, white victims were helped 37.5% more frequently and 52.5 seconds faster than black victims. Analysis of variance of the mean changes in the bystander's heart-rate paralleled the pattern of findings with regard to the helping behavior measures. Thus Ss with other bystanders and a black victim, showed the smallest change in heart-rate and also the slowest helping time. In addition, supportive of a Piliavin, et al., (1969) arousal model, the latency of intervention was related to the magnitude of change in the bystander's heart-rate initiated by the emergency (r=-.61, p<.001). (Author)