The purpose of this experiment was to study the effects of sex, urgency, and time of day on altruism among 160 subjects who were telephoned by a male or a female either early or late at night and told that the caller had reached a wrong number. The caller went on to explain that he was stuck on a parkway and had either no more money or no more change and asked the person reached to call another number for assistance. Women and people who had no mote money were helped most quickly. The implications for the study of altruism as well as research on sex differences were discussed.
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