Predicting Motorists' Altruism

Abstract

Three variables distinguished those altruistic motorists who stopped for a male hitch-hiker from those non-altruistic motorists who did not. All motorists who stopped for the hitch-hiker were male, motorists who passed by the hitch-hiker tended to have no experience of hitch-hiking, and motorists who reported that they lacked experience of hitch-hikers or hitch-hiking tended to express negative affect toward hitch-hikers. The result that previous experience of hitch-hiking was positively correlated with the response of picking up hitch-hikers was considered in terms of the indirect or generalized reciprocation demonstrated by motorists making this response and also in terms of the learning demonstrated by these motorists after their exposure to a model of appropriate behavior.