helpful
General Social Survey https://gss.norc.org
Question 161. Would you say that most of the time people try to be helpful, or that they are mostly just looking out for themselves?
For further details see the official GSS documentation.
Counts by year:
| year | depends | don't know | iap | looking out for themselves | no answer | try to be helpful | not available in this year | Total |
| 1972 | 100 | 22 | 1 | 740 | 1 | 749 | - | 1613 |
| 1973 | 56 | 4 | - | 739 | 3 | 702 | - | 1504 |
| 1974 | - | - | 1484 | - | - | - | - | 1484 |
| 1975 | 99 | 8 | - | 545 | 2 | 836 | - | 1490 |
| 1976 | 91 | 5 | - | 756 | 1 | 646 | - | 1499 |
| 1977 | - | - | 1530 | - | - | - | - | 1530 |
| 1978 | 80 | 4 | - | 536 | 5 | 907 | - | 1532 |
| 1980 | 64 | 9 | - | 678 | 3 | 714 | - | 1468 |
| 1982 | - | - | 1860 | - | - | - | - | 1860 |
| 1983 | 68 | 11 | - | 603 | - | 917 | - | 1599 |
| 1984 | 54 | 3 | - | 650 | 3 | 763 | - | 1473 |
| 1985 | - | - | 1534 | - | - | - | - | 1534 |
| 1986 | 76 | 7 | - | 565 | 5 | 817 | - | 1470 |
| 1987 | 81 | 11 | - | 935 | 5 | 787 | - | 1819 |
| 1988 | 46 | 6 | 484 | 448 | 3 | 494 | - | 1481 |
| 1989 | 52 | 5 | 502 | 459 | 1 | 518 | - | 1537 |
| 1990 | 55 | 7 | 473 | 372 | 1 | 464 | - | 1372 |
| 1991 | 72 | 8 | 500 | 436 | 5 | 496 | - | 1517 |
| 1993 | 60 | 14 | 549 | 431 | 1 | 551 | - | 1606 |
| 1994 | 128 | 9 | 981 | 935 | 7 | 932 | - | 2992 |
| 1996 | 138 | 10 | 979 | 940 | 4 | 833 | - | 2904 |
| 1998 | 176 | 7 | 921 | 815 | 2 | 911 | - | 2832 |
| 2000 | 166 | 10 | 921 | 851 | 3 | 866 | - | 2817 |
| 2002 | 88 | 2 | 1853 | 391 | - | 431 | - | 2765 |
| 2004 | 76 | 3 | 1936 | 359 | - | 438 | - | 2812 |
| 2006 | 194 | 4 | 2521 | 924 | - | 867 | - | 4510 |
| 2008 | 118 | 2 | 658 | 624 | - | 621 | - | 2023 |
| 2010 | 135 | 5 | 667 | 588 | 2 | 647 | - | 2044 |
| 2012 | 98 | 8 | 636 | 612 | 2 | 618 | - | 1974 |
| 2014 | 145 | 5 | 851 | 742 | - | 795 | - | 2538 |
| 2016 | 137 | 7 | 911 | 892 | 3 | 917 | - | 2867 |
| 2018 | 142 | 9 | 785 | 694 | 1 | 717 | - | 2348 |
| 2021 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 4032 | 4032 |
| 2022 | 149 | 9 | 2325 | 549 | - | 512 | - | 3544 |
| Total | 2944 | 214 | 25862 | 18809 | 63 | 20466 | 4032 | 72390 |
1 try to be helpful
2 looking out for themselves
3 depends
NA(d) don't know
NA(i) iap
NA(j) I don't have a job
NA(m) dk, na, iap
NA(n) no answer
NA(p) not imputable
NA(q) not imputable
NA(r) refused
NA(s) skipped on web
NA(u) uncodeable
NA(x) not available in this release
NA(y) not available in this year
NA(z) see codebook