Perceived Characteristics of the Person in Need Although many characteristics of a person in need might affect whether that individual is helped, researchers have paid special attention to two: the personal attractiveness of the person in need and whether the person seems responsible for being in the position of needing assistance.
Attractiveness ,The social advantages that phys- ically attractive individuals enjoy. The bias toward beauty also affects helping. Attractive people are more likely to be offered help and cooperation across a number of different settings, whether it be asking for directions on campus, play- ing a game that could be either competitive or cooperative, or requesting money in a health emergency. In addition to physical attractiveness, interpersonal attractiveness matters; peo- ple who seem particularly nice, sociable, or happy, for example, are more likely to receive help, even for acts as seemingly mindless as holding a door open for someone .The role that weight can play in people’s per- ceptions about attractiveness. Weight can influence whether someone is likely to be helped by others. For example, Jason Randall and others (2017) found across a series of studies that participants were less likely to help someone (such as sup- port a charity event they were promoting or complete a survey given by a fellow student) if they thought the person was heavy.