Latané and Darley experiment

• What was the aim?

  To determine whether the presence of other people actually inhibits helping behaviour
• What was the IV?

  There were three groups of participants: some waited alone, some were in the room with two confederated acting as naive participants, and some were in the room with two other real participants
• What was the DV?

  The time it took the participants to leave the room to report the smoke
• What was the method?

  Participants were seated in a small waiting room to fill out a preliminary questionnaire. After some time smoke began to enter the room through a wall vent. The participants were observed through a one-way mirror to see how long it took for them to leave the room.
• what were the results of people who were alone?

  alone: 75% reported the smoke, taking 2 minutes on average
• what were the results of the two passive confederates?

  10% reported the smoke, coughing and rubbed their eyes but continued with the questionnaires
• what were the results with the two real participants?

  38% reported the smoke
• what did the post-experiment interviews reveal?

  The participants were unsure of the smoke‘s nature and that it looked “strange,” not knowing if it was dangerous
• what can be concluded?

  • when faced with an ambiguous event, a bystander is likely to look at the reactions of other people and be influenced by these reactions
  • this can lead to lack of intervention due to interpreting the situation as not dangerous (pluralistic ignorance)
• What did the experiment contribute to psychology?

  A deeper understanding of social influence