A helping hand is hard at work: Help-seekers’ underestimation of helpers’ effort

Daniel A. Newark, Vanessa K. Bohns and Francis J. Flynn

Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 2017, vol. 139, issue C, 18-29

Abstract: Whether people seek help depends on their estimations of both the likelihood and the value of getting it. Although past research has carefully examined how accurately help-seekers predict whether their help requests will be granted, it has failed to examine how accurately help-seekers predict the value of that help, should they receive it. In this paper, we focus on how accurately help-seekers predict a key determinant of help value, namely, helper effort. In four studies, we find that (a) helpers put more effort into helping than help-seekers expect (Studies 1–4); (b) people do not underestimate the effort others will expend in general, but rather only the effort others will expend helping them (Study 2); and (c) this underestimation of help effort stems from help-seekers’ failure to appreciate the discomfort—in particular, the guilt—that helpers would experience if they did not do enough to help (Studies 3 & 4).

Keywords: Help effort; Help-seeking; Social judgment; Prosocial behavior; Decision-making (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jobhdp:v:139:y:2017:i:c:p:18-29

DOI: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2017.01.001

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