A field study was carried out in Turkey in order to compare the level of helpfulness in towns, cities, and urban squatter settlements. Three different naturalistic measures of helpfulness were used: willingness to give change, willingness to cooperate with an interview, and response to a small accident. The results generally showed significantly less helpfulness in Turkish cities than in the towns and urban squatter settlements, which showed equivalent levels of helpfulness. This supports the view that the squatters may in a psychological and social sense be "urban villagers." Consistent differences in helpfulness were also found between other types of city districts. Environmental input level was found to influence the level of helpfulness for female subjects but not for male subjects. Finally, males were significantly more helpful than females and this sex difference did not lessen between towns and cities; the strongest sex difference, in fact, occurred in the urban squatter settlements.
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