Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 9, 2025

The Joint Effect of Social Comparison and Social Distance on Evaluation of Intertemporal Choice Outcomes in Event-related Potential Studies
Published on: August 25, 2023
Social prediction errors in assisting strangers: the role of outcomes and contexts
Yan Li1, Zhiwei Liu1
1School of Education and Psychological Science, Sichuan University of Science and Engineering, Zigong, Sichuan, China.
Introduction:
Helping behavior is a fundamental aspect of social interaction, yet little is known about how accurately helpers can predict the emotional responses of help-seekers, particularly when interacting with strangers.
Methods:
This study investigated social prediction errors in helping behavior between strangers and examined how outcomes and contexts influence these errors. In three scenario-based experiments, we assessed helpers' predictions and help-seekers' evaluations of gratitude, satisfaction, enthusiasm, and competence across different helping situations.
Results:
Our findings reveal consistent underestimation of help-seekers' positive emotions by helpers, with the degree of underestimation varying based on the outcomes and contexts of the helping behavior.
Discussion:
The results demonstrate that social prediction errors in helping behavior are context-dependent and outcome-based, highlighting the complexity of social cognition in prosocial behavior.
More Related Videos
05:22Dissociation of the Confounding Influences of Expectancy and Integrative Difficulty Residing in Anomalous Sentences in Event-related Potential Studies
Published on: May 9, 2019
07:36Eye Tracking During Visually Situated Language Comprehension: Flexibility and Limitations in Uncovering Visual Context Effects
Published on: November 30, 2018
Related Concept Videos
Fundamental Attribution Error
Bystander Effect
Hindsight Biases
Social Cognitive Perspective on Personality
Social Facilitation
Social Scripts