Factors Affecting Helpful Behavior

Situational Factors 

1. The presence of others

Research conducted by Darley and Latane, 1970 (in Taylor et al., 2009: 479) shows the results that people who see an emergency event would prefer to help when they are alone rather than with others. Because if only one person witnessed the victim suffer, he was fully responsible for responding to the situation and would feel guilty if he did not intervene. But if several people are present in the situation, assistance will come from various sources.

Staub (1978) (in Sampson, 1976 in Dayakisni, 2009) precisely finds a contradiction with the above phenomenon, because in his research it was proven that individuals who pair up or with other people prefer to act prosocial than when individuals are alone. Because with the presence of others will encourage individuals to be more compliant with social norms that are motivated by hope of getting praise.

2. Helping those who are liked (Helping Those You Like)

Most studies are more interested in researching the help a person gives to strangers, because it is clear that the person will be very likely to help family members and friends. A person will tend to help strangers who become victims, if the victim has similarities (age, race) with the helper (Shaw, Borough, & Fink in Baron, Byrne, & Branscombe, 2006 in the thesis of Doris Evalina, 2010).

3. Sacrifice to be incurred

Although prospective rescuers do not experience obscurity of responsibility, but if sacrifice (for example, money, time, energy, risk of physical injury) is anticipated too much, then it is less likely for him to act prosocial (William, 1981 in Dayakisni & Hudaniah, 2009). On the other hand, if sacrifice is low with strong gurus, people will be better prepared to provide assistance (Baron & Byrne, 1994 in Dayakisni & Hudaniah, 2009).

4. Attribution to victims

A person will be motivated to provide assistance to others if he assumes that victim misfortune is beyond the victim's control (Weiner, 1980 in Sarwono, 2009: 133). Therefore, someone will be more willing to contribute to disabled and old beggars compared to healthy and young beggars. Thus, help will not be given if bystander assumes that a less favorable event on the victim is due to the victim's own fault (internal attribution).

Personal Factors

1. Mood (mood)

A person's emotions can influence his tendency to help

(Baron, Byrne & Branscome, 2006 in Sarwono, 2009). Own emotion

often divided into two parts, namely positive and negative emotions.

Positive emotions, In general, someone who is in a good mood will be more likely to display helping behavior. There is a lot of evidence that people are willing to help in a state of good mood, for example after finding money (Isen & Simmonds, 1978 in Taylor, 2009: 471), or when they have just found a gift (Isen & Levin, 1972 in Taylor, 2009: 471) or after listening to pleasant music (Fried & Berkowitz, 1979 in Taylor, 2009: 471). Positive mood causes us to have more positive thoughts and we help to maintain the positive mood (Taylor, et al, 2009: 472).

Negative emotions, In general, someone who is in a negative mood is less likely to help others. It is true, that a person who is not happy (unhappy) is focusing on the problem, tends to be less in prosocial behavior. The effects of bad mood on helping actions are more complex (Carlson & Miller, 1987 in Taylor, 2009), bad mood causes us to focus on ourselves and our needs, then this will reduce our chances of helping others. However, on the other hand negative emotions can have a positive impact on helping behavior. If we think that helping others causes us to feel better and reduce our bad feelings, then we are more likely to help (Cialdini, Darby, & Vincent, 1973; Schaller & Cialdini, 1988 in Taylor et al., 2009)

2. Nature

Some studies show that there is a relationship between a person's characteristics and his tendency to help. People who have forgiving nature (forgiveness), he will have a tendency to be easy to help (Karremans, et al, 2005 in Sarwono, 2009).