Do good samaritans discourage helpfulness? Self-perceived altruism after exposure to highly helpful others

Determined whether being exposed to paragons of helpfulness might reduce an important source of intrinsic motivation for helping: self-perceived altruism. 64 undergraduates served as Ss. Applying self-perception theory, it was suggested that individuals who help after being exposed to highly helpful models may perceive the models' helpfulness to be a source of extrinsic pressure that, to some extent, compelled them to help. If so, these individuals should be less likely to attribute their decision to help to their own intrinsic altruism. Ss were exposed to either highly helpful others or only moderately helpful others and then were either induced to offer help or were not given an opportunity to help. As predicted, Ss who were exposed to highly helpful models and then agreed to help perceived themselves to be less altruistic than did Ss who agreed to help after being exposed to moderately helpful models. Also as predicted, the helpfulness of models manipulation had no effect on self-perceived altruism of Ss not asked to help. (19 ref)