Why We Don’t We Help?
Research Studies That Illustrate Factors or
Variables That Restrain People From Helping
KITTY GENOVESE, 1964
Kitty Genovese (age 28) was coming home from work at 3:20 am when she
was attacked by a man, Winston Moseley, who stabbed her repeatedly.
After she screams, a neighbor yells “to let that girl alone.” The attacker runs
off but returns to attack her again when he sees nobody is helping.
Police receive the first call about the attack at 3:50 am and respond within 2
minutes.
Police arrive too late, she was already dead.
There were 37 witnesses to the crime! (Only 1 called the police and only
after calling a friend). He didn’t want to “get involved.”
Why did Kitty Genovese die?
What did Kitty Genovese
say?
“He stabbed me!”
“Oh, my God, he stabbed me! Please help me. Please help me!”
“I’m dying! I’m dying!”
What did witnesses say?
“We thought it was a lover’s quarrel!”
“Frankly, we were afraid.”
“I tried to call, I really tried, but I was gasping for air and was unable to talk
into the telephone.”
“We went to the window to see what was happening, but the light from our
bedroom made it difficult to see the street.”
“I didn’t want to get involved.”
“I told [my husband] there must have been 30 calls already.”
“So many, many other times in the night, I heard screaming.”
“I was tired, I went back to bed.”
What did the police say?
“As we have reconstructed the crime, the assailant had three chances to kill
this woman during a 35 minute period. He returned twice to complete the
job. IF we had been called when he first attacked, the woman might not be
dead now.”
“A phone call, would have done it.”
“We can understand the reticence of people to become involved in an area
of violence, but where they are in their homes, near phones, why should
they be afraid to call the police?”
Not an isolated
incident...
Andrew Mormilleis attacked on a New York City subway train. 11 other
passengers run to another car. Nobody comes to Andrew’s aid, even after
his attackers fled, and he bleeds to death.
Eleanor Bradley trips and breaks her leg while shopping on 5th Ave. in NY.
As she calls for help other shoppers hurry past her. Only after 40 minutes
does a taxi driver stop to take her to to the hospital.
11-year-old Vanessa Moretti (in Italy) tries to flag down a passing car for 30
minutes to get help for her father who had a heart attack in their car in a
tunnel. Cars go by so fast, Vanessa is knocked down by the wind several
times. Finally, a motorist stops to help a battered and bleeding Vanessa and
the police are called.
SHS-Math teacher falls a breaks wrist and students walk past for 5 min.
Why Does Bystander Effect
Occur?
Ambiguity: “Is this really an emergency”
Pluralistic Ignorance: “No one else is doing anything; I guess there’s no
problem.”
Fear of Looking Foolish: “I don’t want to look stupid.”
Diffusion of Responsibility: “Someone else will handle it”
High Intervention Costs: “It’s dangerous; rather be safe.”
Conformity, Obedience: “I just do what I’m told to do; If no one tells me to
do anything then I won’t do it.”
Note: Bystander Effect occurs less frequently with friends as bystanders than strangers.
Bystander Effect
STEP 1: DOES
THE PERSON
NOTICE THE
EVENT?
YES
“MAYBE IT’S NOTHING.”
PRESENCE OF
OTHERS
TAKING NO
ACTION
“IT’S IMPOLITE TO STARE”
NO
STEP 2: DOES THE
PERSON INTERPRET
THE SITUATION AS AN
EMERGENCY?
YES
STEP 3: DOES THE
PERSON TAKE
PERSONAL
RESPONSIBILITY??
“IT COULDN’T BE
AN EMERGENCY,
OR SOMEONE
WOULD BE DOING
SOMETHING.”
“SOMEONE
ELSE WILL
CALL THE
APPROPRIATE
AUTHORITY.”
“IT COULD BE A HOAX”
“I DON’T
WANT TO GET
INVOLVED.”
NO
NO
NO INTERVENTION
YES
INTERVENTION
Darley and Latane’
Situational Determinants of Pro-Social Behavior:
When will people help?
The number of bystanders: The Bystander Effect
The greater the number of bystanders who witness
an emergency, the less likely any one of them is to
help the victim.
In trying to decide whether a situation is critical, researchers say, “a person often looks at those
around him/her to see how he/she should react himself/herself. In general, it is considered
embarrassing to look overly concerned, to seem flustered, to ‘lose your cool.’ A crowd can thus force
inaction on its members by implying, through its passivity and apparent indifference, that an event is
not an emergency.”
Latane Experiment
College students in waiting room heard a tape
recording that simulated the sounds of a woman
climbing into a chair to reach a stack of papers.
She fell, injured her ankle, and began to moan,
“Oh my God-my foot! I...can’t get this thing off
me.”
70% of people who were waiting alone-offered
help.
Only 20% showed concern, with another person in
waiting room.
Noticing An Event
People who are concerned with being late for an
appointment are less likely to pay attention to
what is going on around them and, as a
consequence, less likely to help a stranger in
need.
Good Samaritan
Experiment
67 Princeton University Seminary Students, talk
about Bible, other groups talk about religious jobs.
Experimental person lying in a doorway, doubled
over, eyes closed and coughing.
On their way to the talk, the students would have
to pass the apparently highly distressed man, but
would they stop to help?
Good Samaritan
Experiment
Experimenters thought it would depend on how
much participants were hurried...
On average 40% of the seminary students offered
help (with a few stepping over the injured man)
The amount of hurry they were in had a large
influence on behavior.
Good Samaritan
Experiment
Region 1
PERCENTAGE OF PARTICIPANTS
THAT OFFERED HELP BY
CONDITION:
Low Hurry
Medium Hurry
High Hurry
0
17.5 35.0 52.5 70.0
Good Samaritan
Experiment
Subtle aspects of the situation affect the way
people behave.
When the effect of personality was compared with
situation, i.e. how much of a hurry they happened
to be in or whether they were thinking about a
relevant parable, the effect of religiosity was
almost insignificant.
Situation easily trumps personality!
controls our actions more strongly than personality!
Frequently it is the situation that
Polite or Rude?
34 participants were divided into 3 groups with
each group subconsciously cued into a different
state: one “rude”--one “polite”--and one “neither”
Word puzzle to unscramble and discover these
words...
After unscrambling, participants left the room to
track down the experimenter but found them in a
conversation.
Polite or Rude?
The question of researchers: What percentage of
people would interrupt if the experimenter kept
ignoring them by talking to the other person for
10 minutes?
Results...
Neither
Polite Words
Impolite Words
36 % WAIT
70.0
52.5
35.0
64% WAIT
82 %
WAIT
17.5
0
% of People Who Interrupted & those that waited the full 10 minutes before interrupting
What this study
demonstrates is...
How sensitive we are to the minutiae of social
interactions.
Subtle cues from the way other people behave
and more generally from the environment can cue
automatic, unconscious changes in our behavior.
Sometimes stereotypes can easily influence our
behavior and our conscious mind seems to have
no say.
Interpreting the Event as
an Emergency
Pluralistic Ignorance
Bystanders’ assuming that nothing is wrong in an
emergency because no one else looks concerned.
Assuming Responsibility
Diffusion of Responsibility
The phenomenon whereby each bystander’s sense
of responsibility to help decreases as the number
of witnesses increases.
Milgram Experiment
How would people behave when told to give an
electrical shock to another person?
To what extent would people obey the dictates
of the situation and ignore their own misgivings
about what they were doing?
Solomon Asch’s Study
Exactly how far does
conformity go?
Do you think you
would deny
unambiguous
information from your
own senses just to
conform with others?
COMPARE THE LINE ON THE LEFT WITH THE THREE LINES ON
THE RIGHT: A, B, C.
WHICH OF THESE LINES IS THE SAME LENGTH AS THE
LONESOME LINE?
Asch’s Study
76% of people denied
their own senses at
least once and chose
either A or B--when
obviously C.
FOUND WHEN PEOPLE WERE FACED WITH
MAKING A JUDGMENT ON AN AMBIGUOUS
TEST, THEY USED OTHER PEOPLE’S
JUDGEMENTS AS A REFERENCE POINT.
WHEN I AM NOT SURE ABOUT
SOMETHING, I’LL CHECK WITH
SOMEONE ELSE.
Asch’s Study Part II
Male undergrads, in a
room with 8 others (in
on experiment).
Shown lines...asked to
call out which line: A,
B, C was the same
length as the reference
line.
Repeated 12 times...
Asch’s Findings:
50% of people gave the same wrong answer as
the others on more than half of the trials.
Only 25% of participants refused to be swayed by
the majority’s blatantly false judgement on all 12.
5% ALWAYS conformed with the majority
incorrect opinion.
Over all the trials, conformity rate was 33%.
Why go along with the
false majority, they said:
All felt anxious, feared disapproval from others and
became self-conscious.
Most explained they saw the lines differently to the
group but then felt the group was correct.
Went along with the group to avoid standing out,
although they knew the group was wrong.
A small number said they saw the lines in the
same way as the group.
Social Identity Theory
Our identities are formed through the groups to
which we belong. As a result we are motivated to
improve the image and status of our own group in
comparison with others.
Thus the characteristics of the victim influence
whether or not we will help.
Characteristics of the
Victim:
Males are more likely to help females than other
males.
Males and females are equally likely to be helped
by a female helper.
Physically attractive people are more likely to get
help.
Deservingness of victim...If perceive that victim
contributed to own problem, less help given.
...IT SEEMS LIKE WE OFTEN HAVE A REASON OR AN EXCUSE THAT
REDUCES OUR DESIRE TO CARRY OUT THESE 5 SIMPLE STEPS.
EMERGENCY
NOTICING
THE
EVENT
INTERPRET
THE EVENT
AS AN
EMERGENCY
ASSUME
RESPONSIBILITY
(1.)
(2)
(3)
PLURALISTIC
IGNORANCE
(INTERPRET THE
EVENT AS A NONEMERGENCY)
DISTRACTED IN A HURRY, FAIL TO NOTICE
KNOW
APPROPRIATE
FORM OF
ASSISTANCE
IMPLEMENT DECISION
(5)
(4)
LACK OF KNOWLEDGE,
LACK OF COMPETENCE
(CAN’T OFFER ADEQUATE
HELP)
DIFFUSION OF
RESPONSIBILITY (FAIL TO
ASSUME PERSONAL
RESPONSIBILITY)
NO INTERVENTION/NO HELP IS GIVEN
DANGER TO SELF; LEGAL
CONCERNS;
EMBARRASSMENT; (COSTS
OF HELPING TOO HIGH)
INTERVENE AND OFFER
ASSISTANCE
How can helping be
increased?
Simply being aware of the barriers to
helping in an emergency can increase
people’s chances of overcoming those
barriers.