The Effect of Prosocial Priming in the Presence of Bystanders

This study investigated influence of the priming and bystander apathy on helping behavior. After priming prosociality through a Scrambled Sentences Test, participants encountered a woman who dropped the books she was carrying. Helping behavior in bystander and no-bystander conditions was tested. The results showed that people in a prosocial-prime condition were more likely to help than people in a neutral-prime condition and that the effect of priming persists even in the presence of bystanders