Source: Julian Wills & Jay Van Bavel-New York University Social psychologists and personality psychologists both attempt to predict human behavior, but they focus on very different factors. Whereas personality psychologists focus on how personality traits, character, and individual differences affect behavior, social psychologists focus primarily on the power of social situations in shaping behavior. We often underestimate the role that social situations can play in determining behavior. We often believe that people who smile are pleasant and happy, people who act rudely are mean, and people who stumble in the street are clumsy. Social psychologists have repeatedly demonstrated that these beliefs may be unfounded, and instead emphasize the importance of the social context in which behavior takes place. Why are some people more apt to help people in need than others? Most of us would surmise it is a function of their personalities-some people are more inclined to help than others. However, psychological research shows that the social situation is often more likely to influence a person's inclination to be helpful than their personality (which includes religiosity and ethics). The classic experiment of Darley and Batson tested the Biblical parable of the Good Samaritan in which a priest and a Levite-two pious, upstanding citizens-passed by an injured man in need, whereas a non-religious Samaritan stopped to help.1 This video highlights some of the experimental techniques used by Darley and Batson in the difficult task of separating personality and situational factors when analyzing human behavior.