Pilivian Study
Storyboard Text
- New York, 1965
- HELP ME!
- Columbia General studies students (Confederates)
- Maybe I'll drink some beer later?
- You think anyone is going to help that drunk man?
- I'm not a part of this situation at all.
- In 1965, Kitty Genovee was murdered in front of her apartment complex. However, this act of murder wasn't committed without one witness; in fact, 38 people witness the death of Kitty Genovee. None of the witnesses called for 911 until she was finally dead. Psychologists were baffled by this situation and created the theory in which the witness diffused responsibility to call 911. Ultimately, Piliavian wanted to truly observe this phenomenon and prove it through his study.
- Need help?
- I wish I could help him, but it's man's job to do so.
- 4,500 men and women that were traveling on the 8th ave Express train from 50th to 125th street and were used as participants for this experiment. A victim was put on the train with either a cane or a brown bag representing their condition. A female observer was also present to observe if people helped, time of help, and comments made. At times, there was also a model that would come either early or late in some trials
- 8th avenue Express train - 7 mins from 50th to 125th street
- Drunks weren't even assisted half of the time. 81% of the time they were helped within 109 seconds by the same race usually. However, these trials are fewer in numbers compared to ill cases. At the same time, female observers wrote down any comments as qualitative data and created conversations if no comments were made.
- No relation between time of help and bystanders
- ill help > drunk help
- People of the same race help each other
- Conclusion
- Escape was impossible
- face-to-face
- Men help > Female help
- Time of help wasn't correlated to race
- The cane victim was usually assisted quickly with a 95% rate of said assistance. All can victims were helped within 5 seconds. 60% of trails showed help given by 2 or more people, surprisingly 9/10 of them were also male.
- After 7 minutes, the teams disembarked along with the passengers and awaited for another train going the opposite direction. There were also a discrepancy within the difference between cane trials and drunk trials due to a rebellion posted by one of the confederates.
- This was repeated 6 times a day 11a.m-3p.m
- In conclusion, the help for ill people were greater than the help for drunks. Men helped the victim more than women. The experiment was face to face and participants couldn't escape from it. Race was a factor in receiving help, but not the amount of time someone helped the victim. Time of help was also not affected by the amount of bystanders. However, this experiment was very unethical due to the fact that there was zero consent and no debriefing of the naïve participants.
- Model help amount decreased if late
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