Effect of hair ornamentation on helping.

Previous research has found that restaurant waitresses wearing flowers in their hair received higher tips. Here, the effect of hair ornamentation on responses to an explicit request for help was assessed. Two female confederates wearing a barrette with or without a flower asked 240 passersby (120 men, 120 women; apparently 30 to 40 years of age) in the street for bus fare change. The uccess rate was 76.7% when they wore the ornamentation and only 50.8% without the ornamentation. Both men and women more readily helped those with the hair ornamentation.