Ricerc@Sapienza

Why do some people help others in need, and some do not? One potential answer is sympathy, which reflects an other-focused desire to help others in need. Consequentially, we posit that sympathy toward a specific target joined with the attainability of successful helping forms a helping goal. In three experiments we found that helping behavior was highest when a helping goal was present, although there was a level of superficial helping when sympathy was high but attainability low. Moreover, locomotion mode, or the tendency to move forward, was associated with a higher importance placed on attainability.