Exam 3 - Bystander Effect

Situational Factors - The tragic story of Kitty Genovese, 1964

• Attacked 3 separate times by same killer

• 38 people saw or heard cries for help

  • 45 minutes

• By the time someone called police, Kitty was dead

Bystander Effect Definition

Tendency for IDs to be less likely to provide help, or intervene during an emergency, when other people are present

Latane & Darley, 1968 - 2 Studies

• Intercom Conversation

• Students put in waiting groom that started filling with smoke

Intercom Conversation - Conversation with other students in 3 conditions:

1) Just one partner (seizure guy)

2) seizure guy +1

3) seizure guy +4

Intercom Conversation - Percentage who reported seizure within 4 minutes

Just one partner (seizure guy) – 85%

Seizure guy - 62%

Seizure guy - 31%

Students put in waiting groom that started filling with smoke - Were either:

1) alone

2) with a couple non-reacting confederates

3) in groups of 3 participants

Students put in waiting groom that started filling with smoke - Percentage of participants reporting smoke in each group?

Alone (73%), Groups of 3 (38%), Non-Reacting Confederates (10%)

Informational Influence

misunderstanding of group norms

Darley & Batson, 1973 - Good Samaritan Study - Subjects

Students in Princeton Theological Seminary

Darley & Batson, 1973 - Situations overpower…

Situations overpower personalities/tendencies towards moral/ethical things

Darley & Batson, 1973 - Procedure

Sent from one building to another through an alley

Encountered a victim (confederate) in the alley wo needed medical aid

Slumped in doorway, coughed twice as person passed

Darley & Batson, 1973 - Variable 1 (speech content)

Half of subjects asked to go to other building to give a talk on good Samaritan parable

Other half to give talk on jobs available

Darley & Batson, 1973 - Variable 2 (Rush)

Some S’s told they had to rush to get to talk on time

Some S’s told there was no rush

Some S’s given moderate speed instructions

Darley & Batson, 1973 - Results (Speech Manipulation)

53% of S’s going to give talk on Good Sam helped

29% of S’s going to give talk on jobs helped

This latter difference not “significant” – only 40 S’s though

Darley & Batson, 1973 - Results (Rush Manipulation)

63% of S’s in low rush group offered help

45% of S’s in medium rush helped

10% of S’s in high rush helped

 5 Necessary Steps to Helping

1. Noticing

2. Interpret as Emergency

3. Taking Responsibility

4. Deciding how to Help

5. Providing Help

Necessary Steps to Helping - Noticing

Do you see or hear someone in need of help?

Evidence for reduced helping when rushing

Noticing - Stimulus Overload

Ppl who live in large cities or noisy environments get used to seeing people lying in the streets or hearing screams & begin to tune these things out

Necessary Steps to Helping - Interpret as Emergency

Look at other people and see what they are doing

• Is what you’re seeing or hearing really an emergency?

  • You see a person lying on the sidewalk

    • That person had a heart attack?

    • That person is homeless and sleeping?

  • You hear a woman screaming

    • The woman is being attacked?

    • The woman is playing around with a friend?

A. When people think victim and perp are related – less likely to intervene

B. Pluralistic Ignorance

Interpret as Emergency - A

When people think victim and perp are related – less likely to intervene

If man is hitting a woman but it appears that he is her husband, people are less likely to help

Interpret as Emergency - B

Pluralistic Ignorance

State in which people mistakenly believe that their own thoughts are different from others, even when the same

When there appears to be an emergency, each person looks to other bystanders

Misinterpretation of norms at the group level

Necessary Steps to Helping - Taking Responsibility

Diffusion of Responsibility: the belief that others will help or should take responsibility for providing assistance to another person

If you are the only person there, you know that you are the only one that can help, so you are more likely to do so

If there are others there, you expect someone else will help

Necessary Steps to Helping - Deciding how to Help

Do you help them yourself or do you call someone to help them?

Do you have the skills necessary to help?

Necessary Steps to Helping - Providing Help + Audience Inhibition

Audience Inhibition: reluctance to help for fear of making a bad impression on observers

Mood & Helping - Good Mood Effect

People are more likely to help others if they are in a good mood

Ambient smell research

Mood & Helping - Why feeling good leads to doing good (4x)

• Desire to maintain one’s good mood

• Positive expectations about helping

• Positive thoughts

• Positive thoughts and expectations about social activities

Good moods occasionally lead to decrease in ______

Helping

Why feeling good might not lead to doing good (2x)

• Costs of helping are high

• Positive thoughts about other social activities that conflict w helping

Bad Moods - Negative State Relief Model

Helping makes us feel good. Sometimes if we feel bad (especially if we feel guilty) wea re more likely to help

• Not as strong and consistent as good moods in relation to helping

• Interacts with social identity process

Psychology & Morality - ____ approach among (social) psychologists

Piecemeal

Psychology & Morality - Focus on Behavior (4x)

• Aggression (bobo doll)

• Social influence and atrocity (Milgram)

• Bystander intervention

• Social dilemmas

Intuitive Primacy

Research suggests intuition is prime

Intuitive Primacy - Evidence

• Rapid evaluative judgments of others

• Moral/economic judgment/behaviors involve brain areas related to emotion

• Psychopathy

• Moral perception in infancy

• Empathy affects moral actions

• And more…

Obviously, it’s a complex issue

Moral Foundations Theory - Haidt & Graham (2007) (5x)

Care/harm: cherishing and protecting others

Fairness or proportionality/cheating: rendering justice according to shared rules

Loyalty or ingroup/betrayal: standing with your group, family, nation

Authority or respect/subversion: submitting to tradition and legitimate authority

Sanctity or purity/degradation: abhorrence for disgusting things, foods, actions

Moral Foundations Theory - Authority or Respect

submitting to tradition & legitimate authority

Moral Foundations Theory - The foundations shift on a…

… Sliding scale in different combinations as a function of (among other things) cultural context

Moral Foundations Theory - Example During Busch Administration

During Busch administration, in a study, they found that ppl who identified as strongly liberal focused on care and fairness

Those who were conservative had more of a balance between all of the things