piliavin

• background: Kitty Genovese murdered in New York 1964


  For more than 30 mins 38 respectable law-abiding citizens in Queens watched a killer stalk and stab a women (Kitty) in three separate attacks.

  Not one person called the police during the assault; one witness called after the woman was dead.
• background: Diffusion of responsibility 


  responsibility for behavior is shared between those present. 

  Here responsibility for helping would be shared amongst all passengers in the carriage.

  • As number of bystanders increases, likelihood that any individual would help decreases.
• Why did Piliavin did not provide evidence of diffusion of responsibility?

  diffusion of responsibility may not have occurred because people were in a closed situation a train carriage and not able to leave the situation so it was harder for them to think that someone’s else would do something because it was obvious that no-one was doing anything.
• aims:


  To investigate how people would react if they saw a person who collapsed on a train.

  Specifically:

  Would an ill victim get more help than a drunk victim?

  Would people help others of the same race before helping those of a different race?

  If a model person helped the individual, would other people also help?

  Would the number of bystanders influence how much help was given?
• sample

  4450 men and women who used the New york subway on weekdays 11am-3pm each day April-June 1968

  About 45% were black 55% white

  60% were male, 40% were female
• method


  • field-> The field situation was the A & D trains on the 8th Avenue New York Subway between 59th street and 125 street. The journey lasted 7.5 min
  • independent measures
• Independent Variables


  -Type of victim (ill/drunk)

  -Race of victim (black/white)

  -Size of witnessing group (naturally occurring)

  -Effect of model
• Procedure:

  4 teams of 4 researchers  (2 female and 2 male observers). One acting as a victim and one acting as the model

  The victims (2 white and 1 black) were all male students 26-35yrs, all dressed alike

  The victims either smelled of alcohol and carried a brown paper bag with “alcohol” in or they appeared sober and carried a black cane. In both conditions the victims acted the same

  The models (all white) were males 24-29 years, there were 4 model conditions:

  (i) critical area-early

  (ii)critical area-late

  (iii) adjacent area-early

  (iv) adjacent area-late
• Procedure:

  The observers recorded th DV. On each trial one observer noted the race, sex and location of every rider seated or standing in the critical area

  The other observer noted the race,sex and location of all persons in the adjacent area. She also recorded the latency ( delay of help) of the first helper’s arrival after the victim had fallen and on appropriate trials, the latency of the first helpers arrival after the programmed model had arrived

  Both observers recorded comments spontaneously made by nearby passengers and attempted to elicit comments from a rider sitting next to them
• Procedure:

  The victim stood in the critcal area

  After 70 sec he collapsed

  He remained supine on the floor, looking up at the ceiling until he received help

  If no help received by the time to train stopped the model helped him back on his feet

  At the next stop, the team disembarked and waited separately until other passengers had left the station. They then changed platforms to repeat the process in the opposite direction

  Between 6-8 trials were run on an given day, all using the same “ victim  condition”