Bystander Intervention in Emergencies: Diffusion of Responsibility

who was the researcher?

Darley and Latane

What year was this published?

1968

What was the historical context?

The Kitty Genovese Case (1964) and Media Response

Civil Rights Movement

What was the implicit research question

Did no one help because of indifference or as a response to the reactio of the other observers

Who were the participants

72 NYU Psych Students (59 F 13 M)

Can you explain the setup of the experiment?

Discussion over intercoms; no experimenters are listening; victim has a medical emergency
IV: size of percieved group (2, 3, or 6)
DV: time taken to report emergency
Variation in some 3-person groups: Other “bystander” was female, Other “bystander” was male, Other “bystander” was a premed male who occasionally worked at emergency wards in a hospital

What were the overall results

- About equally likely to get help if only one bystander vs 2
- No difference in response time for sex of other bystander, if the bystander is a premed, or sex of actual participants
- In the first 45 seconds victim’s chances by single bystander were 50%, but 0% with 5 bystanders.
- Surveys to measure levels of machiavellianism, authoritarianism, acceptance of social responsibility, need for approval, anomie, social desirability, vital statistics and SES data, but there was no significant correlation
- Individual difference measures correlated with speed of helping, the size of the community that the subject grew up in

Is this study generalizable?

- most people would not be in separate rooms and would be around other people
- large gender bias
- all participants were students (younger age may not have knowledge to help; older age may not have physical ability)

What were some main issues with the study?

Ethical - deception of true emergencies; psychological distress
Methodological - The participants were asked to recall thoughts that entered their minds when recalling the fit. This is a flawed method as asking people to recall memories is subjective and could lead to inaccurate data; Subjects were blocked from seeing each others reactions to the emergency, which isn’t an accurate representation of what would happen in an authentic one.

Is there any other important information?

cultural differences (collectivist vs individualist cultures)!!