Facts & Summary of Kitty Genovese Catherine Susan “Kitty” Genovese was born in Brooklyn, New York, on July 7, 1935, to parents Vincent and Rachel Genovese. The oldest of five children, Genovese was a graduate of Prospect Heights High School and remembered as a very good student and voted “Class Cut-Up” in her senior year. Following her graduation in 1953, Genovese’s mother witnessed a murder on the streets, which motivated the family to move to New Canaan, Connecticut. Kitty Genovese, however, remained in New York City, working as a secretary at an insurance company and working nights at Ev’s 11th Hour, a bar in the Hollis neighborhood of Queens, first as a bartender then as the manager, prompting her to move to Queens. A decade later, Genovese met her lesbian girlfriend, Mary Ann Zielonko, in a Greenwich Village nightclub.
From Empathy to Apathy: The Bystander Effect Revisited - Ruud Hortensius, Beatrice de Gelder, 2018 When people are asked whether they would spontaneously assist a person in an emergency situation, almost everyone will reply positively. Although we all imagine ourselves heroes, the fact is that many people refrain from helping in real life, especially when we are aware that other people are present at the scene. In the late 1960s, John M. Darley and Bibb Latané (1968) initiated an extensive research program on this so-called “bystander effect.” Three psychological factors are thought to facilitate bystander apathy: the feeling of having less responsibility when more bystanders are present (diffusion of responsibility), the fear of unfavorable public judgment when helping (evaluation apprehension), and the belief that because no one else is helping, the situation is not actually an emergency (pluralistic ignorance). Neural Mechanisms of Bystander Apathy Can neuroimaging studies inform the investigation of the bystander effect? Fig. 1. Dispositional Influences on Bystander Apathy
4 Major Implications of Bystander Effect on the Society | Life | SuccessStory The Bystander effect is a social psychological phenomenon wherein a bystander is unlikely to help someone in need when there’s presence of other people around. The bystander effect, also known as bystander apathy is inversely proportional to the total number of bystanders. The more the bystanders, lesser chances of someone helping the person in need, the lesser the bystanders, the more are the chances of someone helping the person in need. The main cause of bystander effect is diffusion or diversion of responsibility. Some of the implications of bystander effect on the society are: We follow what we see. We can work towards solving the bystander effect by being more proactive, more positive and happier, and by creating a well-knit society.
Diffusion of Responsibility Reduces Sense of Agency and Outcome Monitoring Article #4 - How Diffusion of Responsibility Affects People 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. Why? Because there are so many people present, no one person feels pressured to respond. This situation is often used to explain the bystander effect, which suggests that the greater the number of people present, the less likely people are to help a person in distress. Darley and Latané on Diffusion of Responsibility In a series of classic experiments conducted in the late 1960s, researchers John Darley and Bibb Latané asked participants to fill out questionnaires in a room which suddenly began to fill with smoke.2 Factors That Influence Diffusion of Responsibility
How to Overcome the Bystander Effect Psychologists have long been interested in exactly why and when we help other people. There has also been a tremendous amount of interest in the reasons why we sometimes don't help others. The bystander effect is a social phenomenon that occurs when people fail to help those in need due to the presence of other people. In many cases, people feel that since there are other people around, surely someone else will leap into action.1 While the bystander effect can have a negative impact on prosocial behavior, altruism and heroism, researchers have identified a number of different factors that can help people overcome this tendency and increase the likelihood that they will engage in helping behaviors.2 Some of these include: Witnessing Helping Behavior Sometimes just seeing other people doing something kind or helpful makes us more willing to help others. Imagine that you are walking into a large department store. Being Observant Being Skilled and Knowledgeable Guilt Feeling Good
Article #2 - The Bystander Effect: Reactions and Causes - PSYCHROD Bystander Effect: Reactions and Causes The bystander effect is an element of social psychology that implies that when the number of bystanders is increased in an emergency situation, the less likely any of the bystanders will aid, or assist in the situation (Aronson, Wilson, & Akert, 2013). The bystander effect is one of the most significant well established social psychology findings, which manifested in the late 1960’s (Levine & Crowther, 2013). The cause for social psychologist to begin to study how bystanders react during emergency situations, was due to Kitty Genovese being attacked and murdered in front of her Queens, New York apartment in 1964 (Aronson et al., 2013). Kitty’s unfortunate attack lasted nearly 45 minutes and was witnessed by nearly 38 residents who did not assist by calling police, or trying to stop her attacker (Aronson et al., 2013). Cultural Differences of Helping Behavior and The Bystander Effect References Aronson, E., Wilson, T., &Akert,R. (2013).
How to Break the Bystander Effect They could have left it to someone else. An Army veteran blocked a shooter in Oregon from entering his classroom. Three friends on a high-speed train from Paris to Amsterdam helped stop a gunman wielding an AK-47. This past spring, an Army captain in North Carolina pulled a couple to safety after a fiery car crash. Were these men instinctively courageous, or had they learned to be? The Army captain (aptly wearing a Captain America T-shirt) credited his military training for knowing what to do and remaining calm. These heroes are dramatic examples. And this conundrum is not limited to thwarting terrorism or physically saving someone. But we often look the other way, like the priest and Levite in the Good Samaritan parable. The Bystander Effect The bystander effect is a phenomenon that occurs when individuals witness someone in trouble, but don’t offer help. Causes of the Bystander Effect Fear and Uncertainty: Sometimes, it’s not easy to tell if intervention is needed. We seek guidance.
Article #1 - Why does the Bystander Effect occur? What is happening inside the minds of people who fail to act when they see someone else in distress? We explore the theory behind the ‘bystander effect’. We all like to think we would be the one to step up if we saw someone in trouble; and people who have witnessed traumatic events often feel guilt about the inability to act. But psychological conditioning usually takes over in such situations, and when people do fail to act, it’s not necessarily because they made a conscious choice to abandon their fellow human beings. In fact, most of the time, it’s a result of something that psychologists describe as the ‘bystander effect.’ Why does the bystander effect occur? The bystander effect describes a phenomenon whereby people become less likely to act in an emergency if there are others present. This could be put down to two factors: Aside from that, there’s the confusion such situations create. The bystander effect experiment: Where there’s smoke… Overcoming the bystander effect
Reducing the Bystander Effect As discussed, there are a number of factors that magnify the Bystander Effect. Fortunately, there are also a number of factors that weaken it. Once again, factors can be divided into characteristics of the situation, and of the people. Situational characteristics Dangers of the incident The perceived danger of intervening in a critical situation has the greatest influence in reducing the Bystander Effect. Several explanations could account for the role of perceived danger. Most fundamentally, the arousal: cost–reward model suggests that taking action is a response to the physiological arousal engendered by a critical situation, and that … bystanders intervene in part because they seek to reduce their own arousal [1] Presumably, bystanders experience stronger arousal the more dangerous they perceive the situation to be, making the reward for intervening—in terms of reducing arousal—correspondingly greater. Bystander behavior Bystander characteristics Competence Sex Age Summary References
The legend of Kitty Genovese and those who ignored her screams When I was growing up in New York City, everyone knew about Kitty Genovese. We all knew the story of the 28-year-old bar manager who had been robbed, raped and stabbed to death outside her apartment building in Queens in 1964 while 38 people watched or listened to her screams outside their apartments but did nothing to stop the attack. It was more than just another tabloid murder; it was a morality tale — exhibit A for the argument that cities were alienating and dehumanizing, that there was no such thing as neighborhood or community, that people were cold, cruel, selfish, indifferent. Thirty-eight witnesses, the New York Times said, and no one did anything over the 35 minutes the attack was taking place. It was an appalling story. So what about the idea that no one cared or tried to help? Let’s back up a moment. Some stories become part of the zeitgeist because they seem to encapsulate some elusive truth or tell us something fundamental about human beings. Rest in peace, Sophia Farrar.
What is the Bystander Effect and How Can We Overcome it? You may think that you are more likely to receive life-saving care if you experience a Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) in a crowd or busy area – but the opposite is actually true. This is due to the bystander effect; a natural phenomenon where the greater the number of bystanders, the less likely any individual is going to act to provide help. It’s a complex phenomenon but one we actively need to combat in order to support people in distress. Understanding the Bystander Effect When an emergency situation occurs, people are more likely to take action if there are fewer people around. Someone else is already doing somethingSomeone else is more qualified to assistYou may hurt the person further rather than helping if you try assistYou may be punished (sued or held responsible) if you try to help and fail This is very different to pluralistic ignorance, which is the fear of standing out, overreacting or looking stupid in front of other people, which may also occur in an emergency situation.