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The Murder of Kitty Genovese

The origin of the term Bystander Effect goes back to the murder of a young woman named Catherine Susan "Kitty" Genovese in 1964 in New York.

On March 13, 1964, Kitty Genovese had just finished her shift as a bar manager at Ev's 11th Hour Sports Bar in Hollis. She drove home to Kew Gardens, Queens, and parked about 30 meters from her apartment. Around 3:15 in the morning, she walked the last few steps from her car in the direction of her apartment on Austin Street.

Meanwhile, she was being watched by a man later identified as Winston Moseley, her murderer.

Moseley followed Kitty as she made her way toward her apartment. As she passed a dimly lit bookstore, he attacked her, stabbing her twice in the back. She screamed for help and lights went on in many nearby apartments as some neighbors noticed what was happening.

Moseley panicked and fled, and Kitty managed to drag herself to the entrance of her building, where she finally collapsed. Shortly afterward, Moseley returned and continued the attack in the back hallway, stabbing Kitty repeatedly, sexually assaulting her, and robbing her.

According to contemporary media reports, over 30 people witnessed or heard parts of the attack without intervening or calling the police.

Later investigations corrected some of these claims, as it turned out that a few neighbors did eventually contact the authorities. Still, help arrived too late and Kitty Genovese died on the way to the hospital.

Following this case, psychologists John Darley and Bibb Latané systematically studied the behavior of bystanders. They found that the presence of other people reduces the sense of personal responsibility. This phenomenon is known as the diffusion of responsibility. When many people are present, everyone unconsciously assumes that someone else will act, creating a kind of social paralysis.

Experiments and Field Studies on Helping Behavior

To analyze how people behave in emergency situations, John Darley and Bibb Latané conducted a series of experiments. The most well-known and influential among them are the "Epileptic Seizure" experiment and the "Smoky Room" experiment.

Epileptic Seizure Experiment

The researchers asked college students to participate in what appeared to be a discussion about their daily concerns at college. Each participant sat alone in a room, connected via headphones and microphones to other supposed participants. The participant was told they were speaking with either one other person, two others, or four others, but in reality, the voices were prerecorded to simulate group size. During the discussion, the participants heard one of the voices start behaving strangely, simulating an epileptic seizure.

The question was how quickly and how often participants would intervene or call for help, depending on how many other people they believed were present. 

And the results were clear. When a person was alone, they usually acted immediately. But the more people were supposedly present, the slower and less frequent the help. Each person unconsciously assumed that someone else would take action.

Smoky Room Experiment

In this experiment, participants were asked to fill out a questionnaire in a room, either alone or with several others. Unexpectedly, smoke was pumped into the room through a ventilation opening to simulate an emergency. The researchers observed whether and how quickly participants noticed the smoke, reacted to it and sought help.

Participants who were alone noticed the smoke quickly and usually reported the emergency promptly. But when multiple people were present, they often hesitated or waited, feeling less responsible or using the behavior of others as a guide. Only a small portion of the groups reported the problem in time, even when the smoke was clearly visible.

In this research series, Darley and Latané conducted additional experiments. And the results were similar in all experiments. The more people were present, the lower and slower the willingness to help, because everyone unconsciously assumed that someone else would step in. Besides the laboratory experiments by Darley and Latané, there were also several field studies conducted a few years later, including the famous Good Samaritan Subway Experiment by Irving Piliavin, Jane Piliavin and Judith Rodin.

The Good Samaritan Subway Experiment

In the New York subway, realistic emergency situations were staged where a "victim" was either presented as physically impaired or as intoxicated.

In many of these situations, the bystander effect appeared only weakly or in a modified form, because passengers were enclosed in the train and clearly recognized the situation. The more obviously injured a victim was, the faster they received help. When the person appeared intoxicated, it took longer and in these cases ethnicity played an even stronger role in helping behavior.

These results show that potential helpers weigh the costs such as effort or risk and the possible rewards such as gratitude or personal satisfaction when deciding whether to intervene.

The Psychological Reasons Behind the Bystander Effect

The Bystander Effect doesn't happen because people are selfish or indifferent. It arises from several psychological mechanisms that come into play in group situations. The main factor is diffusion of responsibility. The more people are present, the more each person unconsciously assumes that someone else will take action. This makes people feel less responsible and often leads them to wait.

And social orientation also plays an important role. Most people observe their surroundings to pick up cues on how to behave correctly. If others do nothing, it's often interpreted as a sign that the situation may not be urgent after all. People adjust quietly to the group to avoid standing out or seeming out of place.

Many people also fear embarrassment, acting inappropriately, or being criticized if they misjudge the situation. Especially when others are watching, the threshold for taking action is much higher.

Overcoming the Bystander Effect

Even though the Bystander Effect is deeply rooted in our behavior, it can be overcome once you become aware of it.

The first step is to actively take responsibility instead of waiting for someone else to help. But in emergency situations, your own safety should always come first. If directly intervening isn't possible or is too dangerous, you should call emergency services or find other safe ways to organize help.

And don't hesitate to directly approach others who haven't acted yet and ask for their help. This breaks the Bystander Effect, because everyone then feels personally responsible to take action.

You should also address a specific person directly if you're the one in an emergency situation. Especially if you are being threatened or facing a medical emergency, be bold, speak up and delegate tasks to specific people. As you now know, when no one helps immediately, it's rarely pure selfishness because it's the Bystander Effect slowing down the response.

And yes, this does not only apply to emergencies. Even small acts of support or stepping in during everyday problems can make a difference.

When an elderly woman at the supermarket struggles to reach something from the top shelf, when someone in a workshop needs help positioning a heavy part, or when a coworker is having trouble with the printer, the more people are present and the fewer offer help, the less likely anyone is to step forward. Everyone unconsciously waits for someone else to act first.

Of course, none of this is as dramatic as bullying, an assault or a serious accident, but it shows how easily we can remain passive in everyday life. Those who are aware of this can choose to step in and offer help, even in small ways.

So, break the bystander effect and take action yourself. Doing so can inspire others to help as well because people are strongly influenced by the behavior of those around them.

Closing Words

Just by knowing this article and being aware that the Bystander Effect exists, you're already better equipped to recognize it and act against it consciously. So share it with your friends and colleagues to make the world a little better.