Andreas Kastenmüller

The Bystander-Effect: A Meta-Analytic Review on Bystander Intervention in Dangerous and Non-Dangerous Emergencies.

Research on bystander intervention has produced a great number of studies showing that the presence of other people in a critical situation reduces the likelihood that an individual will help. As the last systematic review of bystander research was published in 1981 and was not a quantitative meta-analysis in the modern sense, the present meta-analysis updates the knowledge about the bystander effect and its potential moderators. The present work (a) integrates the bystander literature from the 1960s to 2010, (b) provides statistical tests of potential moderators, and (c) presents new theoretical and empirical perspectives on the novel finding of non-negative bystander effects in certain dangerous emergencies as well as situations where bystanders are a source of physical support for the potentially intervening individual. In a fixed effects model, data from over 7,700 participants and 105 independent effect sizes revealed an overall effect size of g = -0.35. The bystander effect was attenuated when situations were perceived as dangerous (compared with non-dangerous), perpetrators were present (compared with non-present), and the costs of intervention were physical (compared with non-physical). This pattern of findings is consistent with the arousal-cost-reward model, which proposes that dangerous emergencies are recognized faster and more clearly as real emergencies, thereby inducing higher levels of arousal and hence more helping. We also identified situations where bystanders provide welcome physical support for the potentially intervening individual and thus reduce the bystander effect, such as when the bystanders were exclusively male, when they were naive rather than passive confederates or only virtually present persons, and when the bystanders were not strangers.

The Racing-Game Effect: Why Do Video Racing Games Increase Risk-Taking Inclinations?:

The present studies investigated why video racing games increase players’ risk-taking inclinations. Four studies reveal that playing video racing games increases risk taking in a subsequent simulated road traffic situation, as well as risk-promoting cognitions and emotions, blood pressure, sensation seeking, and attitudes toward reckless driving. Study 1 ruled out the role of experimental demand in creating such effects. Studies 2 and 3 showed that the effect of playing video racing games on risk taking was partially mediated by changes in self-perceptions as a reckless driver. These effects were evident only when the individual played racing games that reward traffic violations rather than racing games that do not reward traffic violations (Study 3) and when the individual was an active player of such games rather than a passive observer (Study 4). In sum, the results underline the potential negative impact of racing games on traffic safety.

Coping With Terrorism: The Impact of Increased Salience of Terrorism on Mood and Self-Efficacy of Intrinsically Religious and Nonreligious People

It was hypothesized that intrinsic religiousness helps to cope with increased salience of terrorism. Intrinsically religious and nonreligious participants were told that it is highly probable or highly improbable, respectively, that terrorist attacks will occur in Germany. High probability of terrorism only negatively affected the mood of nonreligious participants but not of intrinsically religious participants (Study 1). Using as a realistic context of investigation the terrorist suicide bombings in Istanbul, the authors replicated this finding and shed some light on the underlying psychological processes (Study 2): On the day of the terrorist attacks (high salience of terrorism), nonreligious participants experienced less positive emotions and less self-efficacy than did intrinsically religious participants. Two months later (low salience of terrorism), no differences were found between nonreligious and intrinsically religious participants with regard to mood and self-efficacy. Mediational analyses suggested that the mood effects were associated with differences in the reported sense of self-efficacy.

Civil Courage and Helping Behavior

The present research reveals that peoples implicit theories of civil courage and helping behavior are clearly distinguishable. In three studies, it was shown that situations requiring civil courage rather than helping assistance were perceived more quickly and were associated with greater perceived responsibility, less perceived intervention skills, a lower degree of expected positive social consequences, a higher degree of expected negative social consequences, a higher salience of societal norms, more evaluation apprehension, anger, and more empathy. Moreover, results revealed that the decisions on whether or not to engage in either civil courage or helping behavior are differentially influenced by perceived responsibility (the influence was greater for the decision to help than for the decision to show civil courage) and empathy (empathy was only important for the decision to help, but not for the decision to show civil courage). Implications of these results are discussed and the question of whether ...

Ego Depletion Increases Risk-Taking

ABSTRACT We investigated how the availability of self-control resources affects risk-taking inclinations and behaviors. We proposed that risk-taking often occurs from suboptimal decision processes and heuristic information processing (e.g., when a smoker suppresses or neglects information about the health risks of smoking). Research revealed that depleted self-regulation resources are associated with reduced intellectual performance and reduced abilities to regulate spontaneous and automatic responses (e.g., control aggressive responses in the face of frustration). The present studies transferred these ideas to the area of risk-taking. We propose that risk-taking is increased when individuals find themselves in a state of reduced cognitive self-control resources (ego-depletion). Four studies supported these ideas. In Study 1, ego-depleted participants reported higher levels of sensation seeking than non-depleted participants. In Study 2, ego-depleted participants showed higher levels of risk-tolerance in critical road traffic situations than non-depleted participants. In Study 3, we ruled out two alternative explanations for these results: neither cognitive load nor feelings of anger mediated the effect of ego-depletion on risk-taking. Finally, Study 4 clarified the underlying psychological process: ego-depleted participants feel more cognitively exhausted than non-depleted participants and thus are more willing to take risks. Discussion focuses on the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

Romantic motives and risk-taking: an evolutionary approach

Risk-taking behavior is puzzling insofar as it may involve considerable losses (such as increased mortality rates). The present research advances an evolutionary account of risk-taking behavior in that one of its main functions is to get access to potential mating partners. Inasmuch as reproductive competition among men is more pronounced than among women, men in particular are expected to take risks in order to gain sexual access to women. In fact, four studies revealed that activating a mating goal was associated with men’s propensity to risk-taking. Across a wide range of different risk-taking domains, a romantic motive increased men’s reported willingness to take risks. In contrast, women’s risk-taking was not affected by activating a mating motive. These findings suggest that risk-taking behavior has (in part) been evolved to enhance an individual’s ability to attract a mate.

Social exclusion and xenophobia: Intolerant attitudes toward ethnic and religious minorities

The present research investigates the effects of social exclusion on attitudes toward ethnic and religious minorities. Native-born German participants who were socially excluded rather than included reported greater approval for stricter legislation regarding the naturalization of immigrants (Study 1), reported greater prejudice against openly observant Muslims (Studies 2 and 3), and stronger agreement with the view that immigrants are financial burdens to the state (Study 4). Social exclusion threatens the sense of personal control, which in turn leads to stronger rejection of stigmatized outgroups (Study 3). When perceived control was experimentally enhanced, the social exclusion effect disappeared (Study 4). The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Das Münchner Zivilcourage-Instrument (MüZI)

Zusammenfassung. Zivilcourage und Hilfeverhalten sind Unterformen prosozialen Verhaltens, wobei Zivilcourage mit hohen, Hilfeverhalten dagegen mit niedrigen negativen sozialen Konsequenzen verbunden ist. Bisherige Instrumente erfassten ausschlieslich Hilfeverhalten. Um Zivilcourage messbar zu machen, wurde ein Instrument entwickelt, das speziell auf prosoziales Verhalten mit hohen negativen sozialen Konsequenzen abgestimmt ist. Hierbei werden 13 Zivilcourage-Situationen prasentiert und jeweils die Bereitschaft einzugreifen erfasst. Eine explorative Faktorenanalyse (Studie 1) legte eine Drei-Faktoren-Struktur nahe, die mit einer konfirmatorischen Faktorenanalyse bestatigt werden konnte (Studie 2). Ferner wurde die Zivilcourage-Skala an einem verhaltensnahen Mas und an selbst berichtetem Verhalten validiert: Die Zivilcourage-Skala sagte prosoziales Verhalten mit hohen negativen sozialen Konsequenzen (Zivilcourage) besser vorher als eine etablierte Hilfe-Skala, wogegen sich die Hilfe-Skala als besserer Pradi...

Perceived openness of climate during training and transfer motivation: testing two short and simple interventions

Transfer of soft skills (e.g. communication skills) to work situations is one of the most important outcomes of training. However, research suggests that there is less than optimal transfer of training to actual work behavior. A potential reason for this is a pessimistic perception of openness of climate (OOC). Perceived OOC refers to the extent to which members of one’s organization (e.g. colleagues, managers) are perceived by trainees to be able and willing to change their habits and consequently allow the trained soft skills to be performed. In the present research, two different short and simple interventions aimed at strengthening optimistic perceptions of OOC were employed and their effect on motivation to transfer were examined. Results showed that trainees who were asked to write down positive (vs negative) aspects of their organization (‘organization intervention’) or of workshops (‘workshop intervention’) reported a more positive perception of OOC and, in turn, an increased motivation to transfer. This shows that such interventions have the potential to increase motivation to transfer.

Posttraumatic growth: why do people grow from their trauma?

Abstract In two experimental studies we found that participants who recalled a highly traumatic autobiographical event (trauma recall) compared with a lesser traumatic event (stress recall) reported having increasingly grown (posttraumatic growth, PTG). Moreover, participants who recalled a traumatic (vs. stressful) event perceived more death-related thoughts (Study 1) and reported coping with this event in a more emotion-focused and in a less problem-focused way (Study 2). Mediation analyzes revealed that the effect of trauma versus stress recall on PTG was mediated by emphasizing the positive, a subscale of emotion-focused coping. These results imply that growth resulting from traumatic events can be traced back to an illusion. No evidence was found that real PTG took place or that the effects shown resulted from death-related thoughts (terror management theory).