Udo Rudolph

A meta-analytic review of help giving and aggression from an attributional perspective: Contributions to a general theory of motivation

The present review syntheses 64 investigations on the determinants of helping and aggression involving more than 12,000 subjects, providing empirical tests of Weiners (1986, 1995) theory of social conduct. A meta‐analytic test of the proposed causal cognition‐emotion‐behaviour sequence reveals that judgements of responsibility determine the emotional reactions of anger and sympathy, and that these emotional reactions, in turn, directly influence help giving and aggression. Results are highly consistent across several potential moderator variables including type of culture, sample characteristics, publication year, and publication status. Moreover, the present analyses suggest that the hypothesised model holds true for real events as well as for simulated data. Exploratory comparisons between the helping versus the aggression domain suggest that comparable results are obtained for these two domains, except that perceptions of responsibility are more likely to exert an additional proximal role in aggressive retaliation as compared to help giving. The implications of these findings for a general theory of motivation in the interpersonal and the intrapersonal domains are discussed.

An Attributional Analysis of Reactions to Poverty: The Political Ideology of the Giver and the Perceived Morality of the Receiver

An attributional analysis of reactions to poverty is presented. The article begins by discussing the perceived causes of poverty and their taxonomic properties (locus, stability, and controllability). One antecedent of causal beliefs, political ideology, is then examined in detail, followed by a review of the effects of causal beliefs on emotions and behavior. It is contended that helping the poor is a moral issue, but the moral evaluation concerns the targeted recipient of aid rather than the potential help giver. Persons perceived as responsible for their plight, a dominant construal for conservatives, elicit anger and neglect. In contrast, those seen as not responsible for their financial hardship, an outlook predominantly endorsed by liberals, arouse sympathy and help giving. Sympathy is the most important proximal determinant of aid. This analysis is extended to reactions to achievement failure, abortion, and rape. Policy implications are also examined.

Temporal characteristics of the surprise reaction induced by schema-discrepant visual and auditory events

Abstract Two experiments investigated the effects of a schema-discrepant event on the surprise reaction. Schema-discrepancy concerned a physical feature of irrelevant distractor words that were presented while the subjects performed a choice reaction time task. The stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between the distractors and the task-relevant stimuli was manipulated in both experiments. The occurrence of the schema-discrepant event led to subjective feelings of surprise and enhanced recall of the stimulus material. In Experiment 1, the presentation of a schema-discrepant auditory event resulted in a pronounced increase of reaction time (RT) with a 0.2sec SOA but not with a 1.5sec SOA. In Experiment 2, the effects of both fixed and variable SOAs of four different lengths (simultaneous onset, 0.5sec, 1sec, or 2sec SOA) were investigated within a visual task context. The increase of RT was found to be most pronounced with SOAs of 0.5sec and lsec respectively, and more pronounced with variable than with fixed ...

Whom Would You Rather Help: An Acquaintance Not Responsible for Her Plight or a Responsible Sibling?

Abstract When 2 persons—an acquaintance who could not have avoided a problem and a close relative who is responsible for her own plight—ask for help, attribution theory and sociobiology conflict about who will receive help. Attribution theorists assume that the nonresponsible acquaintance will be supported, but sociobiologists argue that the responsible sibling will receive help. The authors tested the hypothesis that characteristics of the situation affect which theory better predicts help giving. The results confirmed that in situations that do not affect life and death, a nonresponsible acquaintance would receive more help than a responsible sibling. But in life-or-death situations, inasmuch as the reproductive fitness of the person in need is in danger, a responsible sibling would be supported more than a nonresponsible acquaintance.

An Attributional Analysis of Moral Emotions: Naïve Scientists and Everyday Judges

This article provides an analysis of moral emotions from an attributional point of view, guided by the metaphors of man as a naïve scientist (Heider, 1958) and as a moral judge (Weiner, 2006). The theoretical analysis focuses on three concepts: (a) The distinction between the actor and the observer, (b) the functional quality of moral emotions, and (c) the perceived controllability of the causes of events. Moral emotions are identified (admiration, anger, awe, contempt, disgust, elevation, embarrassment, envy, gratitude, guilt, indignation, jealousy, pity, pride, rage, regret, remorse, resentment, respect, schadenfreude, scorn, shame, and sympathy). A classification of these moral emotions is suggested and the empirical evidence briefly summarized. In discussing our results, we identify unresolved issues awaiting further analyses and research.

The Discovery of Common-Sense Psychology

This special issue of Social Psychology commemorates the 50th anniversary of Fritz Heider’s 1958 book The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations. The contributions to the special issue address the history and current state of attribution research, or illustrate contemporary research in the field. The historical articles document that Heider’s analysis of causal attribution and of common-sense psychology was significantly influenced by his academic teachers Alexius Meinong and Ernst Cassirer. We distinguish between the mainstream reception of Heider’s book, which has given rise to an extensive empirical research program, and a minority reception by authors who emphasized aspects of Heider’s thinking not well represented in mainstream psychology. Currently, there are indications of a “back to Heider” movement in social psychology. This new phase of attribution research is inspired by a fresh reading of Heider’s book, and is marked by an interdisciplinary orientation. The articles illustrating current attribu...

Daniel has fallen into a muddy puddle--schadenfreude or sympathy?

The present study investigated the experience of schadenfreude among children. Participants were 4- to 8-year-old children (n = 100) who were told stories of another child experiencing a misfortune while pursuing a morally positive versus morally negative goal. Schadenfreude, sympathy, and helping behaviour towards the suffering child were assessed. Results showed that beginning at the age of 4, emotional and behavioural reactions towards a misfortune of another child were predicted by the moral valence of the other childs goal. Furthermore, morally negative goals decreased helping behaviour and morally positive goals increased helping behaviour. Multilevel mediation analysis revealed that the relation between goal valence and helping behaviour was mediated by both schadenfreude and sympathy. However, those effects were especially pronounced in older children.

Covariation, Causality, and Language Developing a Causal Structure of the Social World

Implicit verb causality refers to the phenomenon that even minimal descriptions of interpersonal events (e.g., A dominates B, A amuses B) elicit causal attributions. Two experiments investigated whether children of different age groups are able to (a) perceive the causality implicit in interpersonal verbs and (b) to detect patterns of cause-effect covariation (consensus and distinctiveness) presumably mediating the verb causality effect. Experiment 1 found that 5-year-old children detect the causal structure inherent in verbs describing interpersonal events and are able to indicate corresponding covariation patterns. Experiment 2 replicated these findings for 3-year-old children using a more sensitive method for assessing causal and covariation beliefs. Statistical mediation analyses supported the hypothesis that the verb causality effect is mediated by implicit beliefs about cause-effect covariation. Taken together, the results provide support for a covariation-based explanation of the verb causality effect.

50 Years of Attribution Research

in1958. In psychology it is only rarely the case that a singlepublication serves as a lighthouse, providing both the pointof departure and a continuing reference point for subse-quent researchers. Such has been the case for Heider’sbook, which played a pivotal role in starting one of socialpsychology’s most extensive research programs (Lakatos,1978). As Jones et al. (1972) put it: “It is due to Heidermore than to any other single individual that attributiontheory can be ‘attributed’” (Jones et al., 1972, p. xi). Wewill say more about the history of attribution research inour introduction to the articles of the special issue. Here, afew words about the author of the book seem appropriate(for additional information, see Weiner, 2001; Heider,1983).Fritz Heider’s (1896–1988) life overlapped a largestretch of the development of academic psychology, fromits beginnings in the 19th century to the present, and mir-rors many of the developments that took place during thistime. He began his “life as a psychologist” (Heider, 1983)as a student of philosophy and psychology in Graz (Aus-tria), where he attended the lectures of Alexius Meinong,the founder of both the Graz School of Gestalt Psychologyand one of the first experimental laboratories in the historyof psychology. Meinong also supervised Heider’s disserta-tion. Later, Heider came under the influence of the GermanGestalt Psychologists, whom he met during the 1920s inBerlin; among them Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Kohler,and Kurt Lewin (the latter being a close friend of Heider).Like mainstream psychology, which shifted from Europeto the US during the first half of the 20th century, Heiderleft Germany in 1930 to work in the US, at first with KurtKoffka at Smith College and from 1947 as Professor ofPsychology at the University of Kansas, Lawrence. Heiderwas already in his early sixties when he published

Causes and Consequences of Schadenfreude and Sympathy: A Developmental Analysis

Moral judgments and moral emotions are a ubiquitous feature of social interactions. Humans decide quickly and intuitively whether an action is morally right or wrong. Schadenfreude and sympathy, as emotional reactions to the misfortunes of others, are prototypical moral emotions. So far, however, little evidence exists concerning children’s understanding of schadenfreude. Within three studies, we investigated the experience of schadenfreude and sympathy among N = 364 children of different age groups. We interviewed the children while showing them picture stories. In the picture stories, we varied the behavior of the protagonist prior to a misfortune: (1) whether his behavior had been morally right or wrong, (2) whether the protagonist attained his goal, (3) whether the protagonist was responsible for the misfortune. In addition, in one study we varied (4) the emotional relationship of the interviewed children to the protagonist. Furthermore, we asked the children to decide whether they want to sit next to the protagonist or do him a favor. Results show that children experience sympathy as well as schadenfreude at the age of 4 years. Sympathy is more likely to arise when the protagonists of a story are likable, when these actors typically pursue morally positive goals, and if they are not responsible for their misfortune. In contrast, schadenfreude is more likely when the protagonist is disliked, when actors pursue immoral goals and if they are responsible for their misfortune. In addition, sympathy increases approach (helping behavior, sitting next to the agent and doing favors), whereas schadenfreude increases avoidance tendencies.