Response to Altruistic Opportunities in Urban and Nonurban Settings

Abstract

Summary A field experiment utilizing three dependent measures was conducted to test the generality of the urban incivility hypothesis: interaction between strangers is less civil, helpful, and cooperative in an urban environment than in a nonurban environment. One hundred sixteen field situations were enacted in Boston and in several small towns in eastern Massachusetts and involved requests for assistance by a wrong-number phone caller, overpayments to store clerks, and “lost” postcards. For each measure, the likelihood of help was greater in the nonurban than in the urban locales.