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
• Subsequent research by 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
• The field experiments of 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
• The primary focus of the study was on the effect of type of victim (drunk or ill) and race of victim (black or white) on speed of responding, frequency of responding, and the race of the helper
• It was assumed that an individual would be more inclined to help someone of his race than a person of another race
• It was expected that help would be accorded more frequently and rapidly to the apparently ill victim
• It was assumed that people who are regarded as partly responsible for their plight would receive less sympathy and consequently less help than people seen as not responsible for their circumstances
• It was assumed that 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, and this modeling phenomenon was expected to be observed in the present study
• In previous laboratory studies, increases in group size led to decreases in frequency and increases in latency of responding, but it was not clear that such considerations would be relevant determinants of the observer's response to the emergency when visual cues were provided
• 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
• About 4,450 men and women who traveled on the 8th Avenue IND in New York City, weekdays between the hours of 11:00 A.M. and 3:00 P.M. during the period from April 15 to June 26, 1968, were the unsolicited participants in this study
• 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 A and D trains of the 8th Avenue IND were selected because they make no stops between 59th Street and 125th Street, providing a captive audience for about 7-1/2 minutes
• Four different teams of four Columbia General Studies students, two males and two females, were used to collect data for 103 trials, with each team varying the location of the experimental car from trial to trial
• The female confederates took seats outside the critical area and recorded data as unobtrusively as possible for the duration of the ride, while the male model and victim remained standing
• The victim always stood next to a pole in the center of the critical area and as the train passed the first station (approximately 70 seconds after departing) the victim staggered forward and collapsed
• 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)
• In all other aspects, victims dressed and behaved identically in the two conditions, and each victim participated in both drunk and cane trials
• Victim response


  1. Remained supine on the floor looking at the ceiling

  2. Received no assistance by the time the train slowed to a stop

  3. Model helped him to his feet at the stop

  4. Team disembarked and waited separately until other riders had left the station

  5. Proceeded to another platform to board a train going in the opposite direction for the next trial
• Victim characteristics


  • 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 condition - smelled of liquor and carried a liquor bottle wrapped tightly in a brown bag
  • Cane condition - appeared sober and carried a black cane
• Model characteristics


  • Four white males between the ages of 24 and 29
  • Wore informal clothes, although not identically attired
• Model conditions


  • Critical area - early: Model stood in critical area and waited until passing fourth station to assist victim
  • Critical area - late: Model stood in critical area and waited until passing sixth station to assist victim
  • Adjacent area - early: Model stood in middle of car in area adjacent to critical area and waited until passing fourth station
  • Adjacent area - late: Model 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 victim "didn't like" playing the drunk
• 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 standing in the critical area. A second observer coded the race, sex, and location of all persons in the adjacent area