The Helping Experiment - How to Change Your Mind

Psychology professor wanted students to see low base rate as causal, just like in the case of a fictitious yale exam. But did their beliefs about human nature really change? To find out, nisbit and borgida showed them videos of brief interviews allegedly conducted with two people who had participated in the new york study. After watching the video of an interview, the students guessed how quickly that particular person had come to the aid of the stricken stranger. The probability that an unidentified participant had been immediately helpful is therefore 27%. Thus your prior belief about any unspecified participant should be that he did not rush to help.