When Situations Not Personality Dictate Our Behaviour





A good Samaritan


Unknown to the study's participants, they were to experience their very own 'Good Samaritan' test. For after filling out their questionnaires and while making their way to the other office to give their talk, they would encounter an experimental confederate lying in a doorway, doubled over, eyes closed and coughing. Participants would have to pass the apparently highly distressed man, but would they stop to help?


1. "Oh, you're late. They were expecting you a few minutes ago. We'd better get moving..."
2. "The assistant is ready for you, so please go right over."
3. "...It'll be a few minutes before they're ready for you, but you might as well head on over..."


In a hurry, can't stop


* Low hurry: 63%
* Medium hurry: 45%
* High hurry: 10%


Judge on context

Before I asked you to imagine what the results might be, were you close? Perhaps you were surprised by how little effect personality had on whether the seminarians stopped? That is what catches most people out because of what psychologists call the 'fundamental attribution error'. This is the aforementioned tendency to assume that other people's behaviour reflects on their personality rather than on the situation they are in. Contrary to our instincts, however, studies such as this one demonstrate that it is frequently the situation that controls our actions more strongly than personality.

If you saw the trainee priest stepping over the moaning man, what would you think? Perhaps time for them to switch to a career in investment banking? Maybe, but in the light of this experiment that's probably unfair on the priest (and the investment bankers) because we all of us have situational pressures on us that can easily drown out the influence of our personalities (see also the bystander effect). 'Bad' actions don't necessarily mean 'bad' people just as 'good' actions don't issue forth solely from 'good' people.

The old adage that a person can be judged on their actions isn't the whole truth. Often people's behaviour, and our own, may say very little about our personalities and much more about the complexities of the situation in which we find ourselves.