Piliavin (subway Samaritans)

• A field experiment was performed to investigate the effect of several variables on helping behavior, using the express trains of the New York 8th Avenue Independent Subway as a laboratory on wheels
• Variables investigated


  • Type of victim (drunk or ill)
  • Race of victim (black or white)
  • Presence or absence of a model
• Major findings of the study were that (a) an apparently ill person is more likely to receive aid than is one who appears to be drunk, (b) race of victim has little effect on race of helper except when the victim is drunk, (c) the longer the emergency continues without help being offered, the more likely it is that someone will leave the area of the emergency, and (d) the expected decrease in speed of responding as group size increases— the "diffusion of responsibility effect" found by Darley and Latane—does not occur in this situation
• Since the murder of Kitty Genovese in Queens, a rapidly increasing number of social scientists have turned their attentions to the study of the good Samaritan's act and an associated phenomenon, the evaluation of victims by bystanders and agents
• There is evidence that agents, and even bystanders, will sometimes derogate the character of the victims of misfortune, instead of feeling compassion
• Recent findings indicate that under certain circumstances there is not "safety in numbers," but rather "diffusion of responsibility"
• Darley and Latane (1968) have reported that among bystanders hearing an epileptic seizure over earphones, those who believed other witnesses were present were less likely to seek assistance for the victim than were bystanders who believed they were alone
• Latane and Rodin (1969) on response to the victim of a fall confirmed this finding and suggested further that assistance from a group of bystanders was less likely to come if the group members were strangers than if they were prior acquaintances
• Bryan and Test (1967) provide interesting findings that fit common sense expectations; namely, one is more likely to be a good Samaritan if one has just observed another individual performing a helpful act
• Much of the work on victimization to date has been performed in the laboratory
• The ideal research strategy over the long haul is to move back and forth between the laboratory, with its advantage of greater control, and the field, with its advantage of greater reality
• The present study was designed to provide more information from the field setting
• Similarity and liking


  Assumption that an individual would be more inclined to help someone of his race than a person of another race
• Responsibility for plight


  People regarded as partly responsible for their plight would receive less sympathy and consequently less help than people seen as not responsible for their circumstances
• Sympathy for drunk victims


  Whatever sympathy individuals may experience when they observe a drunk collapse, their inclination to help him will be dampened by the realization that the victim may become disgusting, embarrassing, and/or violent
• Several investigators have found that an individual's actions in a given situation lead others in that situation to engage in similar actions
• In previous laboratory studies, increases in group size led to decreases in frequency and increases in latency of responding
• Visual cues are likely to make an emergency much more arousing for the observer, and provide clear information as to whether anyone has yet helped the victim or if he has been able to help himself
• The emergencies were staged during the approximately 7-1/2 minute express run between the 59th Street and 125th Street stations of the Eighth Avenue Independent (IND) branch of the New York subways
• The racial composition of a typical train, which travels through Harlem to the Bronx, was about 45% black and 55% white
• The mean number of people per car during these hours was 43; the mean number of people in the "critical area," in which the staged incident took place, was 8.5
• The designated experimental or critical area was that end section of any car whose doors led to the next car
• Four different teams, whose members always worked together, were used to collect data for 103 trials
• On 38 trials the victims smelled of liquor and carried a liquor bottle wrapped tightly in a brown bag (drunk condition), while on the remaining 65 trials they appeared sober and carried a black cane (cane condition)
• im remained supine on the floor looking at the ceiling
• If the victim re ceived no assistance by the time the train slowed to a stop


  1. The model helped him to his feet

  2. At the stop, the team disembarked and waited separately until other riders had left the station

  3. They then proceeded to another platform to board a train going in the opposite direction for the next trial
• From 6 to 8 trials were run on a given day
• All trials on a given day were in the same "victim condition"
• Victim


  Males between the ages of 26 and 35, three were white and one was black, identically dressed in Eisenhower jackets, old slacks, and no tie
• Victim conditions


  • Drunk (smelled of liquor and carried a liquor bottle wrapped tightly in a brown bag)
  • Cane (appeared sober and carried a black cane)
• Model


  Four white males between the ages of 24 and 29
• Model conditions


  • Critical area—early (stood in critical area and waited until passing fourth station to assist victim)
  • Critical area—late (stood in critical area and waited until passing sixth station to assist victim)
  • Adjacent area—early (stood in middle of car in area adjacent to critical area and waited until passing fourth station)
  • Adjacent area—late (stood in adjacent area and waited until passing sixth station)
• When the model provided assistance, he raised the victim to a sitting position and stayed with him for the remainder of the trial
• An equal number of trials in the no-model condition and in each of the four model conditions were preprogrammed by a random number table and assigned to each team
• Teams 1 and 2 (both white victims) started the first day in the cane condition. Teams 3 (black) and 4 (white) began in the drunk condition. Teams were told to alternate the conditions across days
• Team 2 violated the instruction and ran cane trials when they should have run drunk trials
• The Columbia student strike occurred, the teams disbanded, and the study of necessity was over
• At this point, Teams 1 and 3 had run on only 3 days each, while 2 and 4 had run on 4 days each
• On each trial one observer noted the race, sex, and location of every rider seated or stand ing in the critical area. In addition, she counted the total number of individuals in the car and the total number of individuals who came to the victim's assistance. She also recorded the race, sex, and loca tion of every helper
• A second observer coded the race, sex, and location of all persons in the adjacent area. She also recorded the latency of the first helper's arrival after the victim had fallen and on appropriate trials, the latency of the first helper's arrival after the programmed model had arrived