Does Warmth Trump Competence in Helping?: The Influence of Warmth, Competence, and Emotions on the Type of Help Given

This study examined how perceptions of competence and warmth of young debtors influenced autonomy and dependency oriented help giving. With dependency oriented help, the help giver provides the help seeker with the solution to their problem. With autonomy oriented help, the help giver provides tools to solve the problem. There is a focus on competence in this field even though warmth has a primacy effect in perception over competence. To examine the role of warmth, it was expected that warmth would have a primary role in the type of help given. An additional aim was to examine how the Stereotype Content Model emotions of pity, admiration, envy, and disgust relate to the types of help. A between-subjects design with survey assessed these predictions in which participants (N = 246) imagined working for a debt assistance organisation. In this scenario, low or high warmth and competence help seeker characteristics were manipulated to measure the dependent variables willingness and...Show moreThis study examined how perceptions of competence and warmth of young debtors influenced autonomy and dependency oriented help giving. With dependency oriented help, the help giver provides the help seeker with the solution to their problem. With autonomy oriented help, the help giver provides tools to solve the problem. There is a focus on competence in this field even though warmth has a primacy effect in perception over competence. To examine the role of warmth, it was expected that warmth would have a primary role in the type of help given. An additional aim was to examine how the Stereotype Content Model emotions of pity, admiration, envy, and disgust relate to the types of help. A between-subjects design with survey assessed these predictions in which participants (N = 246) imagined working for a debt assistance organisation. In this scenario, low or high warmth and competence help seeker characteristics were manipulated to measure the dependent variables willingness and preference for the type of help given. Findings revealed participants’ willingness to help or not was determined by warmth for autonomy oriented help and by competence for dependency oriented help. When participants chose their preference between one or the other type of help, both warmth and competence were important. Contrarily, only two emotions were related to the types of help. These findings show the importance of warmth in autonomy and dependency oriented help giving for researchers and social workers alike and suggest further exploration of warmth and emotions in this field.Show less

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Does Warmth Trump Competence in Helping? The Influence of Warmth, Competence, and Emotions on the Type of Help Given