The survey asked 598 adult residents of North Carolina to judge their altruistic qualities.
The questions: "How willing would you be to do something for the good of your community even if this was not in your own best interest—extremely willing, very willing, somewhat or not very willing? How often do you go out of your way to be courteous or kind to strangers—very often, sometimes, rarely or never?"
Results: 58 percent said they would be only somewhat willing or not very willing at all to do good for their neighbors if not in their own best interests. Some 38 percent said they would be extremely willing or very willing to help their community.
When asked how often they go out of their way to be courteous to strangers, 91 percent said they go out of their way at least some of the time. About 9 percent said they rarely or never were kind to strangers.
Dr. Bibb Latane, professor of psychology at UNC and a leading altruism researcher, was questioned about the results. He said he found them to be surprising.
Latane quotation: "There is a big difference in what people say they will do and what they will really do when a situation arises. The data have a lot to do with
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impression management—not with a measure of actual helpfulness."
Impression management is what people believe they will do, not what action they really perform in a given situation.
Latane quotation: "Their actual behavior is not predictable."
Margin of error of the survey is 4 percentage points. This means that in 95 out of 100 samples of this type, the results would vary by no more than 4 percent from what would have been obtained if every telephone in North Carolina had been dialed.
The poll was sponsored by the School of Journalism at UNC and the Institute for Research in Social Science. Phone numbers were chosen by a random computer process by KPC Research, the market research arm of Knight Publishing Co., in Charlotte.
Other results: More than 92 percent of white respondents said they were courteous to strangers; 87 percent of minorities said they were. Almost 40 percent of the Democrats and Independents said they would be willing to do good for their community regardless of personal benefits. Some 33 percent of the Republicans said they would be. Sex and race did not produce significant results on altruistic behaviors toward the community.
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Exercise 12.8
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2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education