Kitty Genovese Study

Throughout life, one is to see many people they don’t know Humans walk past each other and no interaction occurs. Depending on a particular situation one might be in, it can change the ability to react, help and care for a stranger in need. In the article “We are all bystanders”, by Jason Marsh and Dacher Keltner, it shows how in certain settings people don’t act to help another, even though one might want to. “Everyday Stuart would board the bus and a couple of boys would tease him. I would sit silent and watch. I wish I would’ve helped” (Marsh/Keltner 3). People develop a feeling that prevents them from caring for strangers. This is due to a thought of peer pressure or judgement that could be given to an individual for taking action.

The Bystander Effect was first demonstrated by psychologists Bibb Latané and John Darley in 1968, four years after the brutal murder (encompassing thirty or more witnesses) of Kitty Genovese. It is a social phenomenon in which observers believe that someone else in a group will intervene and offer help to a victim in need (1). According to these psychologists, there are two important factors attributed to this phenomenon, social influence and a perceived diffusion of responsibility. Social

Humans are prenatally motivated to help those around us due to its evolutionary benefits that our species has a better chance of survival if all cooperate. Humans can also be nurtured to exhibit altruistic behavior through good parenting. Although most of the population agrees that altruism benefits society, scientific research has shown that even those who believe they are altruistic are not when they are put in situations which calls for selfless behavior. One phenomena that refutes the claim that most of the population strives for selfless behavior is known as the bystander effect. The bystander effect is when a person feels less responsible for doing selfless acts when they are in an environment of a group of

Fear is one reason why people do not speak up to save someone in danger. According to “Debunking the myth of Kitty Genovese”

The bystander effect is a social psychological scenario where a person who is in an urgent situation is not given any help by the people around due to the discourage from the presence of others (whatispsychology.biz, 2017). Social psychologists, John Darley and Bibb Latane, introduced the bystander effect in the 1960s after the murder of Kitty Genovese, a young woman who was stabbed to death outside her home in New York City. It took her attacker more than half an hour to kill her, and during that time, thirty-eight people saw her being murdered, and they did nothing to help her. “The responsibility for helping was diffused among the observers” (Darley & Latane, 1968).

In today’s society, many people are taught the difference between good and bad decisions. But what truly prevents people from acting on these beliefs if they know what is good and bad? Researchers such as John Darley, Bibb Latane, Milena Tsvetkova, and Michael Macy have explored this question through numerous experiments. The first two factors of decision making come from these findings, the pressures from society and diffusion of responsibility. First hand experiences from a Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel, and from a brave citizen, Tara McCartney, tell of real life instances of another factor, selfishness.

The psychologists John Darley and Bibb Latané (1968) were interested in the Genovese incident and sought to find the answer to this psychological phenomenon. In their experiment, Darley and Latané hypothesized that the higher number of bystanders would decrease helping behavior and vice versa. The two manipulated the number of confederates during each trial and recorded the time it took for the participants to report the simulated seizure. Their results confirmed that if were more confederates, each participant would feel less pressured to help, leading to the discovery of the bystander effect.

The presence of other individuals in an emergency situation tends to make people less likely to help a victim. This is known as the bystander effect. Having others around you makes you feel less responsibility and want to make the correct social decision. If a person were by himself or herself, this effect would not happen because they are not feeling judgment of those around and all the accountability is on them. The articles for this paper look at experiments conducted to test the bystander effect and how participants act according to social norms. For example, the murder of a woman in the middle of a New York street took place and not one of the thirty-eight witnesses helped her. This may seem insane but research shows most people would react the same. Social and group norms have a great influence on the social psychological concept of the bystander effect. This concept has been thought to happen due to factors of diffusion of responsibility, social influence, audience inhibition, and an overall lack of a sense of community (Chekroun, P., 2002).

Altruism, also known as selflessness, is one of the most puzzling topics in the public domain today. The main issue from the perspective of many scholars is how altruism can be effective. Even though many people get involved in lifelong altruism, only a few of them emerge to be effective in it. What could be the reason behind this? And what makes altruism such a common issue that everyone needs to engage in it? The producer, Peter Singer, puts on important points that give more light on the urgency of the altruism to the younger generation and how to make it effective in the long run.

People didn't want to respond due to their own reasoning, weather it was because they didn't want to be apart of it or if they truely thought the women was okay. With this effect people will go with the group becuase it is easier than to take action. Such as when "Kitty" was killed no one helped because they didn't see anyone else doing it. So this effect deffenatly relates to this case.

Why the witnesses demonstrated a lack of reaction towards the victim's need for help? In 1968, two Social psychologists Bibb Latané and John Darley came up with a concept called “The Bystander Effect”, which supposed “the presence of diffusion of responsibility” and “social influence”.

The testimony itself contains the essential components of a scientific research paper, complete with illustrations and works cited. The abstract opens with, “Why do people help strangers when there is a low probability that help will be directly reciprocated or socially rewarded? A possible explanation is that these acts are contagious: those who receive or observe help from a stranger become more likely to help others. We test two mechanisms for the social contagion or generosity among strangers: generalized reciprocity (a recipient of generosity is more likely to pay it forward) and third-party influence (an observer of generous behavior is more likely to emulate it). We used an online experiment with randomized trials to test the two hypothesized mechanisms and their interaction by manipulating the extent to which participants receive and observe help. Results show that receiving help can increase the willingness to be generous towards others, but observing help can have the opposite effect, especially among those who have not received help. These results suggest that observing widespread generosity may attenuate the belief that one’s own efforts are needed.” (Tsvetkova). Not a bad start for the average reader to grasp, although a few words could have been substituted. For example, instead of using the word “attenuate,” the author could have chosen “lessen, undermine, or cripple.” However, the subsequent introduction was a grueling twenty paragraphs

Humans care about the well-being of the world and the people in it, but that does not mean that they can be bothered to make the world better. In 1964 a young woman’s life was less important than the call of indifference. Her name was Catherine “Kitty” Genovese and she was ultimately murdered because her thirty-eight neighbors could not be bothered to lift a finger to save her life. If this were the case in today’s society, the thirty-eight witnesses would have more than likely put on trial for accessory to murder because current laws make it illegal to be so indifferent to such a gruesome and heinous crime. If everyone was this indifferent to all crime, there would be nonstop theft and murder, the society and economy would quickly fall apart and there would be total chaos.

The bystander effect has been studied multiple times across many different scenarios, and the overall findings have been quite similar (Fischer et al., 2011). Darley and Latane’s (1968) pivotal study uncovered the effect of bystanders in the classic experiment where participants witnessed another participant having a seizure over an intercom system. Participants were witness to the emergency either alone, or in the perceived presence of other participants. Darley and Latane found the individual’s speed of reporting the emergency and feelings of personal responsibility decreased with the presence of other bystanders. This study opened the gates for subsequent research and led researchers to understand that it is often the presence of bystanders, rather than an indifference towards the victim, that leads to inaction in an

Another important factor involved in helping behaviour is the influence of others, known as bystander effects. When considering the incident involving the murder of Kitty Genovese in 1964, Darley and Latane (1968), (as cited in Collins 2004) proposed that the fact that were so many possible helpers may have contributed to the lack of intervention. They proposed a cognitive model of helping which they used as a possible explanation as to the reluctance of others to help in situations such as the one involving Kitty Genovese. The first component of the model is known as the 'diffusion of responsibility', involving the suggestion that when a person is alone in a situation where somebody needs help, they feel solely responsible for providing that help. In a situation where two people may be involved, the responsibility is divided and the more people there are, the further the responsibility is divided. When there are many people involved, each person may feel less and less individually responsible. The second component of Darley and Latane's cognitive model is known as 'pluralistic ignorance', which suggests that when it comes to deciding