piliavin study
Storyboard Text
- Following the Murder of Kitty Genovese in New York, Darley and Latane decided to conduct a study into 'diffusion of responsibility'.
- They said that the more witnesses there were the less likely a victim was to receive help.
- The study was a field study done on the New York Subway. The aim was to conduct a field experiment to investigate the several different variables on who responded to help, the speed of responding and the likelihood of responding.
- The main focus of the research was to investigate the effect of the type of victim (drunk or ill) and the ethnicity of the victim (black or white) on the frequency and speed of the response and the ethnicity of the responder.
- They staged the emergencies in the short 7.5 minute journey between 2 stations without a stop in-between. 4 researchers entered the train for each study, 2 male, 2 female.
- The females always took seats, talking notes inconspicuously and the male victim and male potential 'helper' stood near the pole in the centre of the train.
- The 4 victims were male, 3 white 1 black, aged between 26 and 35. In 38 of the trials the victim smelled of alcohol and carried alcohol in a brown paper bag. In 65 he appeared sober and carried a cane. The models were all white aged between 24 and 29.
- After the first station, the victim collapsed . In the 'no help' situation the model did nothing until the train slowed to a stop, and then helped the victim to his feet. In the 'helping' condition, the helper came to the victims aid.
- There were 4 different helping conditions used in both 'drunk' and 'cane' situations: 1)Critical area - early : the model stood in the critical area and waited until after the train had passed the 4th station, and then helped the victim. (~70s after collapse).2) Critical area - Late : The model stood in the critical area and waited until after the train passed the 6th station before helping the victim. (~150s after collapse)3) Adjacent area - early : The model stood a little further away, adjacent to the critical area and waited until after the train passed the 4th station, and then helped the victim.4) Adjacent area - Late : the model stood in the adjacent area and waited until after the 6th station before helping.
- Results: In all but 3 of the 'cane' situations, the victim received help before the model was due to help (62/65 trials). In the 'drunk' situation, the victim received help in 19/38 trials. Spontaneous help before 70s had lapsed in the model trials was therefore more likely in the 'cane' situation. Men were more likely to help than women.
- There was no difference between the help given to the white and black victims ('Cane'). The 'drunk' black victim was the only one who was more likely to receive help from someone of his own ethnicity. Victims received help in 81/103 trials, and in 60% of these cases help was received from more than 1 person. Once the 1st person had moved to help, 2 or 3 others followed quite quickly. The longer the victim went without help, the more likely the travellers were to move away from the area or to verbally justify their non-justification.
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