Notes

I noticed that in both the baby study and the dog study, the babies and the dogs were shown people helping and people not helping in different ways. With the babies, they were shown the puppet that helped and the puppet that didn't help and were asked to pick between the two. More often, the babies would show a preference for the puppet that helped. The experiment was similar with the dogs where they were offered treats by someone who helped their owner versus someone who did not help their owner. The dogs were more likely to accept a treat from the person who helped their owner, and reject a treat from the person who refused to help their owner. One of the key differences between the two experiments was that the babies were not rewarded but the dogs were. In another experiment mentioned, dogs were show different positive and negative facial expressions and some of the dogs were given treats for selecting positive facial expressions while others were rewarded for selecting the negative facial expressions.
The impact of helping and not helping is clearly impressionable, as shown by the results of these experiments, not only by other adults but also by babies and dogs. I believe that it is important to lead by example and help others, even when we may not want to. If even babies are able to pick up on good and bad behavior, it is important to show the good. I also think that this ties in with the idea of conformity and the bystander effect. If people see other people not helping, they are more likely to also not help. I think the impact of not helping can prove to be detrimental during a dire situation like a stranger being injured on the street asking for help.