What the Kitty Genovese Killing Can Teach Today’s Digital Bystanders
As Retro Report notes, two social psychologists in New York, John M. Darley and Bibb Latané, conducted experiments that led them to posit that Ms. Genovese might have survived had there been fewer witnesses. Numbers can inhibit action, they concluded.
Chapter 5: Experimental Research – Research Methods in Psychology
In the late 1960s social psychologists John Darley and Bibb Latané proposed a counter-intuitive hypothesis. The more witnesses there are to an accident or a crime, the less likely any of them is to help the victim (Darley & Latané, 1968). They also suggested the theory that this phenomenon occurs because each witness feels less responsible for helping—a process referred to as the “diffusion of responsibility.” Darley and Latané noted that their ideas were consistent with many real-world cases.
Police: Up to 20 people saw gang rape - US news - Crime & courts
RICHMOND, Calif. — The gang rape and beating of a 15-year-old girl on school grounds after her homecoming dance was horrific enough. But even more shocking, police say, was that up to 20 people watched and did nothing to stop it. The attack over the weekend rattled this crime-ridden city of 120,000 in the San Francisco Bay area, where one police official called it one of the most heinous crimes he has ever seen. Some students have already left the school district in response to the attack.
Bystander Effect: What Is It and What You Can Do About It
What the bystander effect looks like A little after 3 a.m. on March 13, 1964, Catherine “Kitty” Genovese parked her car and walked to her apartment in Queens, New York, after finishing her shift as a bar manager. Serial killer Winston Moseley was out to victimize someone that night. Genovese became his target.
How Diffusion of Responsibility Affects Group Behavior
Diffusion of responsibility is a psychological phenomenon in which people are less likely to take action when in the presence of a large group of people.1 For example, imagine that you are in a large city on a bustling street. You notice a man fall to the ground and start convulsing as if having a seizure. Many people turn and look at the man, but no one moves to help or call for medical assistance.
Khaseen Morris: Teen held for killing that bystanders filmed
Image copyright Nassau County Police A New York teenager has been charged with the fatal stabbing of a 16-year-old boy whom bystanders filmed bleeding to death. Tyler Flach, 18, is accused of second-degree murder in the deadly after-school brawl that broke out not far from the victim's Long Island school. Police said that most of the "50, 60, 70" kids who witnessed the attack on Khaseen Morris did nothing to stop it. "That's egregious," said Detective Lt Stephen Fitzpatrick. "Kids stood here and didn't help Khaseen," Lt Fitzpatrick said.
Why we still look away: Kitty Genovese, James Bulger and the bystander effect
More than half a century later, the death of Kitty Genovese continues to remind us of the disconnect between what we believe about ourselves and how we really act under pressure. The murder of the 28-year-old outside her apartment in the Queens neighborhood of Kew Gardens in the early morning of 13 March 1964 rippled through New York City and around the world. How could a young, independent woman who lived on her own terms be so easily struck down? How could so many neighbors look on and turn away as she was stabbed repeatedly on the street and in her apartment building? What did that collective inability to act reveal about ourselves, our communities, and our belief systems?
Pluralistic Ignorance (SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY) - iResearchNet
Pluralistic Ignorance Definition Pluralistic ignorance occurs when people erroneously infer that they feel differently from their peers, even though they are behaving similarly. As one example, imagine the following scenario: You are sitting in a large lecture hall listening to an especially complicated lecture. After many minutes of incomprehensible material, the lecturer pauses and asks if there are any questions. No hands go up. You look around the room.
What Is the Bystander Effect?
If you witnessed an emergency happening right before your eyes, you would certainly take some sort of action to help the person in trouble, right? While we might all like to believe that this is true, psychologists suggest that whether or not you intervene might depend upon the number of other witnesses present. What Is the Bystander Effect? The term bystander effect refers to the phenomenon in which the greater the number of people present, the less likely people are to help a person in distress. When an emergency situation occurs, observers are more likely to take action if there are few or no other witnesses. Being part of a large crowd makes it so no single person has to take responsibility for an action (or inaction).
