Altruism in Drunk Driving Situations: Personal and Situational Factors in Intervention

• Published in: Social psychology quarterly Vol. 53; no. 3; pp. 199 - 213
• Main Authors: Rabow, Jerome, Newcomb, Michael D., Monto, Martin A., Anthony C. R. Hernandez
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Sociological Association 01-09-1990; American Sociological Association, etc
• Subjects: Affinity; Alcohol drinking; Alcoholic beverages; Altruism; Behavior; Behavior. Attitude; Biological and medical sciences; College Students; Decision Making; Driving while intoxicated; Drunk Driving; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Helping behavior; Intervention; Men; Modeling; Moral responsibility; Parametric models; Psychology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Situation; Situational factors; Social psychology; Social research; Human; Prevention; Altruitism; Vehicle driving; Decision making; Alcoholism; Operation; Causality
• ISSN: 0190-2725; 1939-8999
• DOI: 10.2307/2786959

The decision to intervene in a potential drunk driving situation is examined in a survey administered to two upper-division university classes. In this sample of 192 students, 61 percent of whom are female and 53 percent of whom are persons of color, 51 percent report having intervened at least once in the last year. A stage model of decision making developed by Latane and Darley (1970) was modified to reflect the DUI situation and was used to interpret the data. We tested a set of hypotheses examining the modified four-step decision-making process of intervention and the individual and situational factors that influence each of the steps. An elaborated, structural model revealed that no individual variable predicted any step in the decision-making model. Situational variables that predicted intervention and other apects of the decision to intervene included 1) affinity toward the driver, 2) amount of alcohol consumed in the drunk driving situation, 3) number of persons present in the situation, and 4) number of persons in the situation known by the respondent.