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Background: Kitty Genovese Murder
13th March 1964
- Kitty Genovese is stabbed, then raped and murdered by Winston Moseley in Kew Gardens, New York city
23rd March 1964
- Police commissioner claims that 38 witnesses had refused to intervene
27th March
- New York Times prints front-page article by Martin Gansburg
Background: New York times article
Leads to public outcry and debate about the breakdown of moral and social values
- Popular hypothesis = Living conditions in the city divide people and undermine their capacity to empathise
John Darley asks
How are all people the same and how might anybody in that situation be influenced to respond not why were those people monsters?
Went on to devise a -5-step cognitive model
- A set of experiments to test the model
Background: the five-step model
- Notice something is happening
- Interpret event as emergency
- Take responsibility for providing help
- Decide how to act
- Provide help
The studies
1 - White smoke experiment
2 - Seizure experiment
The bystander hypothesis
Latane and Darley suggest an inverse relationship between the number of bystanders and the likelihood of emergency helping
- More bystanders, less emergency help
Two processes
- pluralistic ignorance
- diffusion of responsibility
Pluralistic ignorance
The presence of other people who remain inactive or seem unconcerned during an event (a norm of inactivity) can dissuade or discourage an individual from intervention, even though they might have felt concerned by the situation
- Don't interpret event as emergency
The white smoke experiment: Method
Male Columbia University undergraduates
- cover story: Problems involved in life at an urban university
- Asked to sit in 'waiting room' and fill in a survey
- Room begins to fill with an invisible/harmless white smoke
White smoke experiment: IV
Group size: Partcipant alone/with two others
Others = confederates who do not react/naive ps
White smoke experiment: DV
Behavioural response to emergency
Did the P leave the room to report the smoke?
How many minutes did it take until the person reports
White smoke experiment results alone
75% intervened and 55% reported within 2 minutes
White smoke experiment results: two or more
38% intervened and 12% reported smoke within 2 mins
White smoke experiment results: two confederates
10% intervened and 10% reported within 2 mins
Diffusion of responsibility
As the number of other people present in a give situation increases the responsibility that a given individual feels for responding to that situation is correspondingly diminished
- We expect on of the others to take on responsibility
- 3rd rule of taking responsibility
The seizure experiment method: No.
72 New York University undergraduate Psychology students
The seizure experiment: Cover story
Discussion about personal problems of students while at uni
- seated in one of several small rooms and communicate via intercoms in turns
- Can hear other discussants (actually recordings) through headphones
- Experimenter will not listen or participate in the discussion
The seizure experiment: emergency event
One discussant admits to being prone to seizures and expresses distress when it is hi turn again
The seizure experiment: method, IV
Group size of 1, 2 or 6 others
The seizure experiment: method, DV
Behavioural repsonse to emergeny
- Did P leave to report?
- How many minutes does it take?
The seizure experiment results: Alone
85% intervene
Average time of 52 seconds for intervention
The seizure experiment results: One more
62% Interventions
96 seconds for intervention
The seizure experiment results: Four or more
31% Interventions
166 seconds to intervene
Debate and Controversy
- Culturally-embedded theorising
- The danger of groups
- The responsive bystander experiments
- Kitty Genovese revisited
Debate and controversy: Culturally-embedded theorising
1960s: Domestic violence and violence of men against women were not discussed
- Researchers have failed to translate this gender aspect of the Kitty Genovese case into their experiments
Debate and Controversy: The danger of groups
Groups are portrayed as reducing personal control due to conditions of anonymity
According to the social identity approach, the willingness to help should depend on
- the norms of the group
- whether bystanders share social identity
- whether bystanders and the victim/perpetrator share a social identity
Debate and Controversy: The Responsive Bystander Experiments; Theory
Psychological relationship of bystanders
Composition of bystander group
- in-/out-group
- female/male
Group norms
- Norm of men being chivalrous towards women in need
Debate and Controversy: The Responsive Bystander Experiments; Method
N = 76 Lancaster University undergraduates
Phase 1 = Ps watch CCTV footage of man attacking woman on street and fill in quesionnaire
Phase 2 = A female grad student comes into the room and gets rudely rebuffed by the experimenter; she looks upset
Phase 3 = Ps can help her by offering to participate in the study
Debate and Controversy: The Responsive Bystander Experiments; DV
Offer to help?
Debate and Controversy: The Responsive Bystander Experiments; Hypotheses
Female Ps are most likely to help after being in a group of three women compared with being tested on their own
Female Ps will be least likely to help in the minority condition compared with any other condition
Men are most likely to help when in the minority condition compared with any other condition
- chivalry effect
Debate and Controversy: The Responsive Bystander Experiments; Results
76.9% of males in minority group helped
27.3% of females in minority group helped
75.0% of females in group helped
Debate and controversy: Kitty Genovese revisited
- Court proceedings suggest far fewer than 38 witnesses
- People did intervene - Moseley was driven away by shouting after first attack and residents called police w/out 911 system but were ignored
Impact
Meta-analysis shows that vystander effect is a robust and reliable finding across many different situations and demographics
- however, little effect on promoting helping
