Procedure

• • team of 4 students boarded a carriage on the NY subway train via separate doors
  • 2F observers took separate seats
  • 2M students remained standing: 1 played victim, 1 played model
  • victim always stood centrally in the ‘critical area’
  • 70s into the journey, victim collapsed on the floor, laid on their back, looking at the ceiling until they received help
  • if no help given by the time the train reached the next station -> the model helped the victim up -> the team then re-board a train along the same route in the opposite direction
  • 6-8 trials completed per day
• Victim

  • 4 teams of students, each with a victim aged between 26-35
  • victim dressed identically: same old trousers, jacket, no tie
  • 1 black 3 white victim
  • 38 trials on drunk; 65 trials on ill
  • ill victim: carried a black cane
  • drunk victim: carried a liquor bottle wrapped in a brown bag, smelt of alcohol
  • each student victim played both roles during the course of the study
• Model

  • all white male, aged 24 - 29
  • 4 conditions, model helped the victim to a sitting position & stayed with them until the train stopped; 1 no model condition
  • order of conditions randomised:

  1. Critical area-early: stood in critical area & gave help after 70s
  2. Critical area-late: stood in critical area & gave help after 150s
  3. Adjacent area-early: stood in adjacent area & gave help after 70s
  4. Adjacent area-late: stood in adjacent area & gave help after 150s