Abstract

Why do learners fail to seek help, when doing so would be beneficial? Principles of rational decision suggest that seeking help is not an optimal action if its costs are greater than its expected benefits. Accordingly, learners should be sensitive to three parameters when making the decision to seek help: the benefits of doing so, but also the probability of obtaining these benefits, as well as the intrinsic costs of seeking help. We report three experiments that pitted the financial, temporal, and social costs of help-seeking against its expected benefits. Participants were more likely to seek help when help came at no financial cost, but showed little sensitivity to other parameters. These findings contribute to identify low-priority interventions to improve help-seeking behaviour. Learners may not need reassurance that help will come if they ask, and that they will not waste time by seeking help.

摘要

为什么学习者不寻求帮助，这样做会有所帮助？理性决策的原则表明，如果寻求帮助的成本大于预期收益，则寻求帮助并非最佳选择。因此，学习者在做出寻求帮助的决定时应该对三个参数敏感：这样做的好处，但是获得这些好处的可能性，以及寻求帮助的内在成本。我们报告了三个实验，这些实验将寻求帮助的财务，时间和社会成本与预期收益相提并论。当无偿提供帮助时，参与者更有可能寻求帮助，但对其他参数几乎没有敏感性。这些发现有助于确定低优先级的干预措施，以改善寻求帮助的行为。