Inter-Group Helping as Status Organizing Processes: Implications for Inter-Group Misunderstandings

In their review of four decades of research on helping behavior Penner, Dovidio, Piliavin & Schroeder (2005) classify these works into: (a) Micro-level research which focuses on identifying the evolutionary origins and individual differences in people's tendency to help others; (b) Meso-level research which focuses on variables and processes in the helper-recipient dyad; and (c) Macro level research which studies prosocial behavior within groups, communities and organizations. Although research in each of these three categories has a different emphasis they are all united by the goal of uncovering variables and processes that explain and predict people's willingness to offer a helping hand to others in need. The present chapter, however, takes a different tack. It examines the implications of intergroup helping on status relations between the actors involved. It postulates that groups create, maintain or challenge status relations through helping relations. More specifically, giving to the outgroup may be motivated by the wish for positive ingroup distinctiveness, and dependency on the outgroup’s help may signal the acceptance of the helper’s higher status whereas rejecting it may reflect a desire to change existing status relations. These dynamics may give rise to intergrou