background context

• Milgram

  Holocaust in WWII - why German soldiers obeyed destructive orders
• Bocchiaro

  inspired by Milgram's research into destructive obedience, but looked more into disobedience to unjust authority through whistle-blowing.

  Picked up on the distinction between dispositional and situational factors that affect compliance and obedience - assessed dispositional factors like personality and social values
• Piliavin

  Kitty Genovese murder - murder that took place in New York in 1964.

  38 citizens watched a killer stalk and stab a woman in three separate attacks in Kew Gardens - not one person telephoned the police during the assault; one witness called after the woman was dead
• Levine

  differences in helping behaviour have been noted around the world - very little scientific evidence

  previous research often tests the popular hypothesis that the tendency to help strangers declines as a city increases.

  look at levels of spontaneous help to non-emergency situations and to scientifically test cross-cultural differences