Psychology 3720F/G Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Murder Of Kitty Genovese, Pluralistic Ignorance

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 3720F/G
• Professor: Doug Hazlewood

Document Summary

Lecture 5: situational influences on helping: the presence of other bystanders: prologue: the case of kitty genovese (and 28 unresponsive bystanders, attacked by man with a knife. 38 heard and screams and none responded: question: why did the bystanders fail to intervene, latane and darley analysis: It was due to the dehumanization in big cities: people who are alienated and don"t give a damn about fellow humans, so no. Latane and darely thought it was something more than dehumanization at work. Situational factors: could effect anyones helping and not just those in the city, considered the possibilities, people were not disturbed by the murder, just the fact that 38 people did nothing. If one person did something the story would not of been so shocking. They had a hunch that noone help because there were too many bystanders: they knew a lot were watching and that is why they did nothing. In reality ps would just listen to fake tapes.