Modeling,Anonymity,and Performance of an Undesirable Act

Abstract

To see whether or not a model would influence persons to take a shopping bag without paying 100 female shoppers preparing to obtain a shopping bag in a downtown department store were randomly assigned to one of five conditions: (a) controls; (b and c) a female model who did not interact with the S but who either paid for a bag or stole one immediately ahead of S; (d and e) a female model who took a bag without paying after interacting in either a polite or impolite manner with S. The presence of another person per se had an inhibiting effect on the stealing behavior. Controls were more likely to steal bags than Ss in any of the modeling conditions. Ss with a polite stealing model were least likely to steal bags. It was concluded that group inhibition of an act may be a function of embarrassment as well as diffusion of responsibility.