CET-6 Listening Lectures: The Default Effect and the Bystander Effect

Recording One.

Imagine two countries with very similar people and very similar values.

In one, about twelve percent of people agree to donate their organs. In the other, almost everyone does!

This was the case for Germany and Austria in a study published in 2003.

The difference wasn't culture, religion or education.

It was the form.

In Germany, you had to tick a box to become a donor. In Austria, you had to tick a box to say no.

Most people simply accept whatever is already chosen for them.

Economists call this the default effect.

It means that whoever designs a form has real power over our choices.

Questions sixteen to eighteen are based on the recording you have just heard.

Question sixteen. What was the main difference between Germany and Austria?

Question seventeen. What is the default effect?

Question eighteen. What does the speaker suggest about people who design forms?

Recording Two.

Are you more likely to get help if many people are around, or just one?

Most of us would say: more people, more help.

Research suggests the opposite.

In a famous 1968 study, students sat in a room filling in a questionnaire.

Then smoke began to pour in through a small vent in the wall.

When students were alone, about three quarters of them went to report it.

But when they sat with two strangers who ignored the smoke, only one in ten reported it!

Each person looked at the others, saw no reaction, and decided there was no danger.

Psychologists call this the bystander effect.

So if you ever need help in a crowd, don't shout to everyone.

Point to one person and ask them directly.

Questions nineteen to twenty-one are based on the recording you have just heard.

Question nineteen. What happened during the 1968 study?

Question twenty. Why did so few students report the smoke when others were present?

Question twenty-one. What does the speaker advise people who need help in a crowd?