In 1964 March,Kitty Genovese,a bar manager,was was stabbed to death outside her apartment building in Kew Gardens,in New York.It is indicated that her death is witnessed by 37 of her neighbors.This tragedy broke a huge storm at the local media,and caused the two psychologists: John Darley and Bibb Latane to focus on the phenomenon that they call "Bystander Effect".
What a tragedy!!! 37people witnessed the case but none of them helped,but the thing is it is not about the ignorance of the people whether it is something related to Human Psychology.In the later experiments done it is discovered that,if people is alone in the room with a needy people,they immediately help,but when there are 3 or 4 people with them,the probability that they will help decreases.According to the results, Darley and Latane connected this to two different reasons:
1- Because there are other people in the society as well, people think that the responsibility is shared.So,this may be the situation in the Kitty case.May be,each of 37 people thought that someone has called the police.
2-People can't figure out the seriousness of the case,and they can't decide is there really something serious going on.For example,Does the man who lies on the floor have really health problems?Or Is this just a simple wife-husband fight? They face difficulties to answer those questions and are scared to shame as a result in case they help.
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