DOI: 10.5061/dryad.f7m0cfxw0
title: Prosocial behaviors in urban context

description: We analyzed prosocial behaviors in a field experiment (N=307) conducted in
 an urban context (Timisoara, Banat region, Romania), starting from a
 classical Cross-Cultural Psychology research organized in UK and Iran by
 Collet & O'Shea in 1976. If the evoked study is
 focused on comparing prosocial behaviors in two very different national
 cultures (UK vs. Iran), we compared helping strangers strategies within
 the same national culture in relation to the regional identities of the
 help-seeking subjects. A behavioral scenario was created by asking naïve
 participants to offer support and give directions to a place even if they
 did not know its whereabouts. Drawing on social identity theory, it was
 tested whether regional belonging of the help-seeker (in-group vs.
 out-group) predicts the availability of help-givers for offering help,
 their availability for giving wrong directions, as well as their emotional
 expressiveness. Results are interpreted within the perspective of social
 distance between groups and show that the more distant regional identities
 are perceived to be, the less generous help-givers are, both in terms of
 their decision to help and to give wrong directions, as well as in their
 expressed emotions.
description: The data have been collected
 in a field experiment, in urban settings. The participants have been
 involved in a spontaneous interaction with a confederate, who has declared
 his regional identity in a interactional scenario. For an adequate
 calibration of our sample size, we performed a power analyses (PA), using
 G*Power, version 3.1.9.7. Because our analyses imply chi-square tests and
 one-way ANOVA, we performed PA for both. Thus, for an average effect of
 Cohen's w = .30, an a priori PA for a chi-square test with df = 4, α
 = .05 and a power of .80, revealed that the required sample size was N =
 133, while if the effect was lower (w = .20), the required sample size was
 N = 299. Regarding the PA for ANOVA test, for an average effect size f =
 .25, with five groups, α = .05 and a desired power of .80, the total
 required sample size was N = 200, while for a smaller effect size f = .20,
 the required sample size was N = 305. In the end, we decided to select the
 most conservative option for being assured that our sample size is
 sufficient to identify even a smaller effect. Based on this
 rationale, our global sample was established at N &gt; 305. Our
 concrete sample was formed by N= 307 subjects. SPPS v 21.0 was used to
 conduct all analyses.
description: There are any missing values.  We have
 uploaded on this repository both versions (Romanian and English) of the
 databse (as *.sav files).  In order to understand the
 content of our database, the variables used are the following
 ones: - the independent variable (IV) was the
 <i>regional belonging </i>of the help-seeker (manipulated,
 with five conditions). - the dependent variables were:
 <i>acceptance of helping </i>others operationalized by
 engaging or not in a conversation with the help-seeker and indicating the
 availability to help, (DV1); <i>sending other to nowhere</i>,
 operationalized by giving directions to a fictional place or not (DV2);
 <i>emotional expressiveness</i> of the pedestrians, which was
 measured by a group of experts situated in the location of this
 spontaneous interaction (DV3), who observed all the communication between
 the confederate and the naïve subject and assessed his/her emotional
 disclosure by using behavioral descriptors.