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Giving and Social Appearance

DOES IMPROVED SOCIAL APPEARANCE IMPROVE THE GIVING RESPONSE?

Many American citizens have become skeptical of pleas for help from strangers, particularly when the help requested is money. The increasing level of class consciousness that characterizes contemporary society in the United States leads many people to perceive requests for monetary assistance from some strangers within the context of a ruse designed to permit such strangers to generate income without participating in societally productive work. This issue provided the basis for an experiment in social psychology designed to test the willingness of female subjects as individuals to provide monetary assistance to a another female who is not known to the subjects.

The results of the research found that women would empathize with a female stranger seeking a low-level of monetary assistance in a situation wherein the need was easily apparent, and that the requested assistance would be provided. The research also found that a female stranger perceived a being a member of a lower socioeconomic classification that the person from whom help was requested would be subjected to greater efforts to verify the actual need.

Providing assistance or rendering aid to a stranger in need traditionally has been regarded as a near obligation in civilized society. From as far back as the biblical era, however, the concept of the Good Samaritan has been questioned. In the increasingly violent social environment in the United States in the mid-1990s, however, otherwise caring and compassionate citizens make an effort to avoid situations wherein they may be asked to provide assistance or render aid to a stranger because of fears for their own safety. The increasingly litigious society that the United States has become also acts as a deterrent for individuals to provide assistance or render aid to a stranger, in spite of so-called Good Samaritan laws designed to shield those individual...

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Giving and Social Appearance. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 04:01, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1687265.html