Compliance with Direct Requests for Help: A Series of 6 Behavioral Studies

A series of 6 behavioral studies led by Francis J. Flynn of Stanford University tested whether people underestimate others' likelihood of complying with direct requests for help. The first three studies found underestimations of up to 50% across experimental and natural field settings. Subsequent studies explored the source of this bias, finding help seekers undervalued the social costs of refusal.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the gap between predicted and actual compliance rates based on experimental results.
• Studying the effect of perspective manipulation (help seeker vs. helper) on compliance judgments.
• Investigating the role of perceived social costs versus instrumental costs in help-seeking decisions.

Strengths

• Based on a series of 6 structured studies with experimental and natural field settings.
• Quantifies a specific underestimation bias, with one study showing a discrepancy of up to 50%.

Limitations

• Row count and specific column-level documentation are absent; field semantics must be inferred.
• The dataset is closed license, restricting reuse and redistribution.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

Stanford University

Collection Method

A series of behavioral experiments and field studies.