Urban Size Differences in Incidence of Altruistic Behavior

Abstract

Two field experiments using 828 “lost letters” tested the hypothesis that altruism would be higher in small urban communities or towns than in cities unless the person needing help was a social deviant. The effect of deviance did alter return rates in both studies. In Study A, the effect of location and social deviance on altruistic responses from cities was generally greater than from smaller communities, except when the person in need of help was affiliated with the highly deviant prostitute conditions. In Study B, altruistic responses from cities were generally less than those from small towns even when the needy person was affiliated with the Communist or needle-exchange conditions.