HELPFULNESS TO LOST TOURISTS

In this field study, the helpfulness of natives to English-speaking to urists was measured in Salzburg, Austria; Florence, Italy; and Prague, Czech Republic. Helpfulness, the willingness of participants to provi de the tourists-confederates with directions to popular landmarks, occ urred in 77% of the 366 cases. Participants in Salzburg, Austria, were most attentive to the confederates' requests for directions. Male par ticipants stood closer, spent more time, and listened more attentively to requests for directions from female confederates than to those fro m male confederates. Neither the city in which the helping situations occurred nor the gender of the participants was significant in the rat e of giving directions. Participants similar in age to the confederate s gave directions more often than did those who were older. More frequ ent assistance occurred during encounters on sunny or partly sunny day s than during encounters on cloudy or rainy days.