Studies Show That People Are Twice as Likely To Help as You Think

Studies show that people are almost twice as likely to be willing to help you out than you think. Here's why.

When you are working in the medical profession, it might seem as though you are always asking people for help. Asking them to give you information, to fill out forms, to help you with a test you need to run or to wait until you are ready. For the most part, people will be fairly co-operative to your requests and are mostly very patient.

Of course, you are helping them out, so there is some reward for them. However, it really isn't always necessary for them to do so. Even if they didn't co-operate, you would try to find another way to accomplish the tasks. But, still they are typically more than willing to do what they can to make things easier for you.

When it comes to our personal lives though, we are much less likely to ask for help. Even when it would make things much easier for us, we still hesitate to ask strangers for assistance. Which made me wonder why it is that we can ask for all kinds of help at work, but away from work, we don't think that anyone would be willing to help us.

In fact, a new study shows that most of us underestimate how willing someone would be to help us by almost 100 percent. That means that on average, people are twice as likely to provide assistance than we think they would. That is a huge difference.

So, why are our expectations so far off?

One theory is that when we try to anticipate how our request will be received, we only consider what is going on in our own heads. We routinely underestimate the social pressure to say “yes” and to be helpful. Let's face it, if someone came up to you on the street and asked you to do something simple like give them directions or hold their bag for a moment, it would be extremely uncomfortable to say “no” and refuse to provide them assistance. Even if you were in a hurry, you would still try to help.

In fact, in the study they had groups who first had to ask others for help, and then later, they were asked for help. When they were in the position of asking others for help, almost all of them expected it to be easy for their request to be turned down. When the tables were turned and they were the ones who were asked, they quickly saw how hard it is to refuse to help.

So, what can we learn from all of this research? The main things are that if you need help, just ask someone. Asking strangers for help can cause a lot of anxiety, but they are much more likely to help you out than you'd think.

The other thing is, make it easy for someone to say no. Keeping in mind that we all seem to underestimate how hard it is to say “no”, even when we really, really want to, leave an opening for someone to decline without feeling bad. Especially if you are asking for a lot of assistance or need help with something difficult, give people an out.

Have you ever had to ask a stranger for help? Did they surprise you by agreeing? Let me know in the comments.

By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a 9 year blog veteran and a freelance writer for HealthcareJobsiteBlog. Along with helping others find the job of their dreams, she enjoys computer geekery, raising a teenager, supporting her local library, writing about herself in the third person and working on her next novel.