Overcoming Bystander Apathy and Non-Intervention in Alcohol-Poisoning Emergency Situations: Advancing Field Testing of Training-for Intervention Theory via Thought Experiments

Carol M. Megehee, Sandra K. Strick and Arch G. Woodside
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Carol M. Megehee: Wall College of Business Administration, Coastal Carolina University, U.S.A.
Sandra K. Strick: School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management, University of South Carolina, U.S.A.
Arch G. Woodside: Carroll School of Management, Boston College, U.S.A.

International Journal of Business and Economics, 2012, vol. 11, issue 2, 93-103

Abstract: Consider groups of partying college students failing to helpfully assist someone in life-threatening distress from alcoholic poisoning. Anecdotal evidence (Davis and DeBarros, 2006) supports the social-norming theory subfield of unresponsive bystander research by Latane and Darley (1970) and others (Cialdini and Goldstein, 2004). This article is a call for structurally transforming the dynamics of the unfolding dramas in natural groups where alcoholic poisoning leading to death occurs. The present article includes the proposal for a quasi-experiment of natural groups (members of fraternities and sororities) in naturally occurring contexts (party situations) using placebo, a standardized training for intervention programs for servers (TIPS) designed for peer intervention, and two versions of advanced TIPS designed to structurally introduce a designated interventionist (DI). The DI and DI training designs are crafted to overcome the unresponsive bystander effect. The proposal includes thought experiments to explain both short- and long-term dependent measures of program impact in such quasi-experiments that include immediate measures of alcohol drinking and intervention knowledge, the medium-term creation and assignment of a group DI position, and the long-term interventionist behavior of groups appointing persons holding DI appointments versus groups not making such appointments.

Keywords: alcoholic poisoning; thought experiments; training (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D03 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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