Do you know the famous Kitty Genovese case? A woman who was stabbed in the street before the eyes of 38 neighbors who looked out of the window but who did not provide help. What are the circumstances that drive people to help or remain passive? How and why is rendering aid or relief influenced by the number and behavior of other bystanders, moods, personality traits, and personal values? With this Psychology-Online article we are going to discover together a social psychology theory which aims to explain the motivations behind these behaviors: the bystander effect.
What is the bystander effect
On March 13, 1964 at 3 a.m., Catherine Susan Genovese, a 28-year-old bar manager, was attacked with two stab wounds in the back while returning home from work in the Queens neighborhood of New York (Myers , 1983). Her screams of terror, asking for help, woke up 38 neighbors (according to an initial report by the New York Times): after the first stab, the woman managed to escape her attacker twice, and many looked out the window of the house where she was stabbed. The image of the aggressor escaping was seen while he inflicted the second stab wound on the woman; but only when the aggressor disappeared did someone decide to call the police (Myers, 1983). About 45 minutes had passed since the attack began, and shortly after “Kitty” Genovese died (Myers, 1983).
The famous “Kitty Genovese” case is the emblem of deresponsibility that describes group processes, and in the years following her death, social psychology scholars soon became intrigued and concerned about the lack of help provided by casually called bystanders during events such as the murder of Kitty Genovese, and decided to conduct a series of experiments to identify the circumstances in which people provide help in cases of real emergencies (Myers, 1983). In particular, social psychologists Bibb Latane and John Darley They staged ingenious emergency cases and found that a single situational factor – the presence of other casual bystanders – substantially reduced intervention in helping situations (Myers, 1983).
How is this phenomenon defined? He bystander effect -or pass-through effect- is, then, the effect whereby a person is less likely to render aid or succor when other casual bystanders are present (Myers, 1983). Because of the case of Kitty Genovese, the bystander effect is also called Genovese syndrome.
Why does the bystander effect occur?
The bystander effect for Latané and Darley is based on a series of variables on which the behavior of those who witness violence will depend:
- understand the situation;
- assess the interpretation of the situation as something serious;
- perception of the degree of responsibility;
- knowledge of the most appropriate forms of assistance at that time;
- make the decision (Foschino Barbaro and Russo, 2019).
The more people, the less sense of responsibility
Latané and Darley argue that as the number of spectatorseach individual and specific observer is less likely to notice the accident, less inclined to interpret the accident as a problem or emergency, less inclined to assume responsibility for intervening directly, less inclined to recognize the most appropriate modality of assistance and implement the decision ( Myers, 1983).
The perception of one’s own responsibilities and possible assistance require subjective reasoning that can considerably influence the final decision and, generally, in a matter of seconds. Bystanders evaluate whether the victim deserves help, whether it is the bystander’s responsibility to intervene and if there is a certain relationship between victim and spectator (Foschino Barbaro and Russo, 2019). Once these aspects have been analyzed, the observer will decide whether to intervene and how to do it, either directly or indirectly, assisting the victim or asking other people for help (Foschino Bárbaro and Ruso, 2019).
In a context of crowd the responsibility to act tends to spread among more people decreasing the personal impact understood as a motivator of helping behavior (Myers, 1983).
“If others don’t help, neither can I”
Furthermore, the immobility of the different spectators is generated and reinforced at the same time by pluralistic ignorance, a process according to which the behavior of the spectators is trusted to receive information about what is being witnessed: the meaning of the situation would be subordinated to the attitudes of others, so Collective passivity would reinforce the idea that it is the best attitude because it is common to several people (Foschino Barbaro and Russo, 2019). Consequently, even those who would be inclined to take action and defend the victim would stop any attempt at defense for fear of finding themselves isolated from the rest of the group (Foschino Barbaro and Russo, 2019).
Living in a big city reduces altruism
Some psychological research has confirmed other variables involved in the bystander effect or Genovese syndrome. Those who live in urban areas are rarely alone in public places, which, in part, explains why city people are often less willing to help than rural people: a kind of “caring fatigue.” compassion” and “sensory overload” resulting from encountering such a large number of people in need, and that further limits acts of relief and altruism in large cities from all over the world (Yousif and Korte, 1995). The larger and more populated the city, the less likely people are to help.
Less aid is provided in economically developed countries
The willingness to help people who do not know each other varies from one region of the globe to another: people from economically developed countries tend to provide less help to strangerswhile people from cultures with more friendly and open attitudes are more motivated to provide help (Levine et al., 1994, 2001, 2003).
Examples and cases of the bystander effect
Although the most important case regarding the bystander effect is that of Kitty Genovesethere are also other examples, such as the cases offered below to illustrate the bystander effect or Genovese syndrome:
- Eleanor Bradley tripped and broke her leg while shopping: dazed and in pain, she called for help, but for 40 minutes The pedestrians on the street continued to pass by her, simply avoiding her. (in the end the taxi driver took her to a doctor) (Darley and Latané, 1968).
- In 1968, Darley and Latané asked some male subjects at Columbia University to complete a questionnaire in a classroom, alone or in the company of two strangers (Darley and Latané, 1968). While they were at the work, observed through a special mirror, the room was filled with smoke: the students present alone in the classroom they noticed the smoke almost immediatelyusually in less than 5 seconds, while those in the group took about 20 seconds (Darley and Latané, 1968).
- To confirm the bystander effect, Latané and Rodin constructed an experiment considering a woman in difficulty: a researcher asked men at Columbia University to complete a questionnaire and left through a door covered by a tent to get to work in her room. next to it (Latané and Rodin, 1969). Four minutes later, a recorded voice of the woman, sobbing, pretended to be in difficulty, and she spoke of not being able to get something off of her; Only after two minutes of pain and moaning did the woman leave through the door of her office and return to the questionnaire room (Latané and Rodin, 1969). 70% of those who were alone when they heard the accident entered the room next door to ask if they needed help; when two were present, only in 40% of the cases, one of them offered help (Latané and Rodin, 1969).
- When Latané, Dabbs and 145 other collaborators accidentally dropped coins or pencils during 1,497 elevator rides, They were helped 40% of the time when there was another person in the elevator and less than twenty% of the times when there was six passengers (Latané and Dabbs, 1975).
How to avoid the bystander effect or Genovese syndrome
To provide help it is necessary for the person to understand and decide what is the most appropriate form of assistance, but even if it is decided to intervene, there may be reasons why it is decided not to act: for example, we may recognize that we do not have the capabilities, or We estimate that the costs of our intervention may be too high (Myers, 1983). Research suggests that to increase helping behaviors, it is necessary to reduce or eliminate factors that hinder them, encourage action of the norm of reciprocity and teach prosociality and altruism (Myers, 1983).
But, if it is true that we can learn altruism, how can we spread it on a social level? Here are some possible practices to increase altruism:
- Remove the brakes that block altruistic actions: reduce ambiguity and increase responsibility; activate the feeling of guilt and concern for one’s own image (Myers, 1983). In this article we talk more about .
- Spread altruism at a social level: teach moral inclusion; create models of altruism; learning by doing; attributing altruistic behavior to altruistic motivations; know the mechanisms that regulate altruism (Myers, 1983). Here you can find more information about the .
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
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Bibliography
- Darley, JM, Latané, B., (1968). Group inhibition of bystander intervention in emergencies. in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 10:308-324.
- Foschino Barbaro, M.G., Russo, P., (2019). Bulli, cyberbully and vittime. Dynamiche relations e azioni di prevenzione, responsabilità civili e laugharcimento del nono. Milan: Franco Angeli.
- Latané, B., Rodin, J., (1969). A lady in distress: Inhibiting effects of friends and strangers on bystander intervention. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 5(2):189-202.
- Latané, B., Dabbs, JM, (1975). Sex, Group Size and Helping in Three Cities. Sociometry, 38:2:180-194.
- Levine, RV, Martinez, T.S., Brase, G.L., Sorenson, K., (1994). Helping in 36 United-states cities. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67(1):69-82.
- Levine, R.V., Norenzayan, A., Philbrick, K., (2001). Cross-cultural differences in helping strangers. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 32(5):543-560.
- Levine, R. V., (2003). Measuring Helping Behavior Across Cultures. Online Readings in Psychology and Culture, 5(3).
- Myers, D.G., (1983). Social Psychology. New York: McGraw-Hill.
- Yousif, Y., Korte, C., (1995). Urbanization, culture, and…