A Hurried Life is Less Caring and Less Engaged

 

Humans often turn a blind eye to others in need. But if we are able to reduce the time pressure on people, more of them will help.

We see this in a study by social psychologists John Darley and Daniel Batson. They wanted to know why people help in some situations but not others. They decided to study one allegedly charitable group: seminary students training to become priests.

The researchers asked each of 67 seminary students to deliver a sermon on the parable of the Good Samaritan,  a Bible story about helping strangers in need. The researchers then randomly assigned the students to one of two conditions. 

In the hurried condition, a research assistant concluded the sermon instructions with, “Oh, you’re late. They were expecting you a few minutes ago. We’d better get moving.

In the unhurried condition, the research assistant ended the instructions with, “It’ll be a few minutes before they’re ready for you, but you might as well head on over.”

Each student walked alone to the building where he would deliver the sermon. On the way, the student encountered a man slumped in a doorway with his eyes closed, coughing and moaning, clearly in distress.

From afar, researchers watched: Would the seminary student stop to help the stranger in need?

Darley and Batson found that only 10% of seminary students in the hurried condition stopped to help the man. In comparison, 63% of the participants in the unhurried condition stopped. 

In other words, being in a hurry can lead even a seminary student with the Good Samaritan on the mind to ignore a person in distress. 

This conclusion fits with what we see around us. People who are pressed for time must choose between helping and meeting other goals. But when people are not hurried, they can pursue multiple goals, in order of importance. In addition, people with time to spare can broaden their attention and notice more details about their environments.   

In the case of this study, even seminary students benefited from slowing down. 

Reducing time pressure for the rest of us will likely help us pay attention to our surroundings and respond more readily to others in need. 

How does this apply to being an engaged neighbor: we need margin in our lives to make or have time for others. At my house, we sometimes call this the "ministry of being available." You have to have some time in your schedule to engage with neighbors, which should be our goal.

A hurried life is less caring and less engaged, which leads to more isolation and loneliness, which oftentimes makes us invest more time in work and become even more hurried. But that is another study for another time!

The Original Study: Darley, J. M., & Batson, C. D. (1973). "From Jerusalem to Jericho": A study of situational and dispositional variables in helping behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 27(1), 100.

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Contact the blog author, David L. Burton at dburton541@yahoo.com.