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>> In 1964, Kitty Genovese was brutally stabbed to death in Queens,
New York the attack lasted over 30 minutes.
Her assailant twice left the scene and returned to continue the assault; 38 witnesses watched
from their apartment windows, neither coming to her aid,
nor calling the police as she cried for help.
The public was outraged over the apparent callousness and lack
of social responsibility on the part of the bystanders.
Intrigued by the bystander's inaction, Princeton Psychology John Darley
and his colleague Bibb Litany decided to try to identify the factors
that produced this type of passivity.
>> The key to unlocking this is the fact that 38 people failed to help, that's what shocks us
and if we picture one person looking, turning away and failing to help,
another person looking, turning away, that's awful, that's terrifying.
But if we realize that there were complex networks of relationships between the bystanders
and that these network tend -- these --
the effects that produces tend to cascade to produce no responding, then we get it and what's
so terrifying turns out to be the explanatory cue.
>> Darley and Litany hypothesize that the presence
of others can influence an individual's interpretation of events.
Emergencies occur infrequently and often are ambiguous; for example,
is this man experiencing a medical emergency or is he perhaps intoxicated?
Is action warranted in this situation?
When in a group, a person checks the reactions of others.
If other observers appear calm and indifferent, it is assumed everything must be okay;
one concludes the man must be drunk and continues walking.
By contrast, when a bystander is alone, the hypothesis predicts he or she is more likely
to assess a situation accurately and then provide help to the individual in distress.
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