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Study: bystanders actually help… — 6 Comments

  1. The murder of Kitty Genovese in 1964 with 38 witnesses who did nothing became a standard proof of the Bystander Effect. Later, like so many psychological narratives, it was debunked:

    While there was no question that the attack occurred, and that some neighbors ignored cries for help, the portrayal of 38 witnesses as fully aware and unresponsive was erroneous. The article grossly exaggerated the number of witnesses and what they had perceived. None saw the attack in its entirety. Only a few had glimpsed parts of it, or recognized the cries for help. Many thought they had heard lovers or drunks quarreling. There were two attacks, not three. And afterward, two people did call the police. A 70-year-old woman ventured out and cradled the dying victim in her arms until they arrived. Ms. Genovese died on the way to a hospital.

    –New York Times, via https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Kitty_Genovese

  2. But at least Phil Ochs got a good folk song out of the Genovese story:

    Look outside the window, there’s a woman being grabbed
    They’ve dragged her to the bushes and now she’s being stabbed
    Maybe we should call the cops and try to stop the pain
    But Monopoly is so much fun, I’d hate to blow the game

    And I’m sure it wouldn’t interest anybody
    Outside of a small circle of friends.

    –Phil Ochs, “Outside of a Small Circle of Friends”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta_iKeH4tsg

  3. Gosh, with all the questions in the last two pragraphs, one might think that
    “Latest published academic studies, by alleged experts, OFTEN intentionally disingenuous!”
    ….or something like that.

  4. CaptDMO:

    Actually, because I was only able to see the abstract (a short summary of the report, that is) and the article for the layperson rather than the actual research, I have no idea whether the research answered those questions or not. It may have, and that part just wasn’t reported on. I’d prefer to read the entire research article before I dismiss it as meaningless.

  5. Huxley: “The murder of Kitty Genovese in 1964 with 38 witnesses who did nothing became a standard proof of the Bystander Effect.”

    Very true. I read the book about Kitty Genovese and one of the things the author debunked was that high number of witnesses. It turns out that high number the Press was reporting as “witnesses” was actually the number of neighbors that the police interviewed over the next few days – almost all, except for handful who did something, did not hear a thing. They were NOT witnesses as the press claimed.

    Ha! The Press, even back then, was creating “False News.”

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