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SCIENCE OF SHARING : ACTIVITY 10
In this multi-session activity, pairs of participants conduct a field study on helping behavior to explore concepts related to the bystander effect , a situation in which a greater number of observers is associated with a reduced likelihood of assistance in an apparent emergency. This activity is an excellent introduction to research on helping behavior and key principles and techniques in the scientific study of human behavior. It is appropriate for courses on psychology, sociology, urban studies, ethics, philosophy, or research design. The activity requires approximately 60 minutes of setup time with the group. Participants will require several hours of out- of-class time to collect data. Then, data will be analyzed and discussed in a subsequent group session.
THE
BYSTANDER
EFFECT
PREPARATION
PROCEDURE Determine how you will break the class into pairs—randomly, alphabetically, etc. Print out one data collection form for each pair of participants.
D A Y O F
W E E K
T I M E
# O F
OBSERVERS
I G N O R E W A T C H H E L P
¬ A standardized data-collection form for each pair of students. The form should look like this:
MATERIALS
an observation, you need to tell the observers what you’re up to: specifically, that (a) you’re doing a social psychology experiment for this class, and (b) you’re collecting data on factors that influence helping behavior, but their data is completely anonymous, and there is no right or wrong response. Finally, make sure to thank them for their participation. Questions?
Data collection
Give students enough time to collect their data. Plan for at least two days between the initial setup session and data analysis and discussion. You will also need some time to collate the data and present it in an easily understandable format before discussing it. Ask the students to turn in their data collection forms at least one day prior to the discussion. When you have their forms, calculate these results: ¬ total number of observations made ¬ number and percent ignored/watched/helped on each day of the week on which observations were made ¬ number and percent ignored/watched/helped in morning/afternoon/ evening observations ¬ number and percent ignored/watched/helped when one observer was present ¬ number and percent ignored/watched/helped when two to four observers were present ¬ number and percent ignored/watched/helped when five or more observers were present PROCEDURE (CONT’D)
INSTRUCTIONS (CONT’D)
Analyzing and discussing the results
First, share the results you’ve calculated by giving out handouts or writing results on a black/whiteboard. Ask the students what patterns they see in the data. If they have trouble finding patterns, be more specific: Does the day of the week or time of day seem to be related to helping behavior? What about the number of observers?
This second question is at the heart of the bystander effect , which predicts that the greater the number of observers to an emergency, the less likelihood there is that the victim will be helped. This formulation was first described by social psychologists Bibb Latane and John Darley. Their work on helping behavior was prompted in part by the 1964 murder of a woman named Kitty Genovese in New York City. Although a number of Genovese’s neighbors heard or saw the assault, many of them did not provide assistance, and Latane and Darley wanted to understand why. Ultimately, they concluded that it wasn’t that these observers were callous, unfeeling people; rather, a phenomenon called diffusion of responsibility was occurring: When only one person witnesses an apparent emergency, it is clear to that person that he or she is the only one able to respond—in other words, that the responsibility to respond rests solely with that observer. However, the greater the number of observers, the less responsibility each individual observer may feel to offer assistance. (In cases of multiple observers, it is obviously critical that those observers are aware of each other for diffusion of responsibility to occur.) Once you’ve described the bystander effect and diffusion of responsibility to the group, discuss whether or not you see evidence for it in the data your group collected. (Note that a rigorous study requires that data be analyzed using special statistical techniques.) If you did, explain that you’ve done something very important in scientific research—you’ve replicated a previous pattern of results, which adds strength to the theory proposed by earlier researchers. If you did not, one possibility is that you may have conducted your study in a way that obscured the bystander effect. Perhaps students didn’t perform the helping scenario in the same way. For example, some performers may have only dropped 1 or 2 paperbacks while others dropped 10 heavy hardbacks, or some may have worked in close proximity to observers while others stayed many feet away from them. Different teams may also have defined help in different ways, with some noting that they were helped if observers simply offered to pick up some books, but others defining help only as actually picking up books and handing them back. Variations like these, rather than diffusion of responsibility, might have been the primary factors influencing observers’ helping behavior. Explore these possibilities with the group by asking how they set up their scenarios and recorded results, and make the point that methodological standardization is an important part of scientific observations. (More information about the Genovese case and about the research of Latane, Darley, and others can be found in the Resources section.) PROCEDURE (CONT’D)
INSTRUCTIONS (CONT’D)
RESOURCES This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1114781. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. The Bystander Effect youtube.com/watch?v=z4S1LLrSzVE Dangerous Conformity youtube.com/watch?v=vjP22DpYYh Videos showing experiments on the bystander effect and the phenomenon of diffusion of responsibility. Bystander Effect en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bystander_effect Wikipedia’s comprehensive article on the bystander effect describes the research of Latane, Darley, and others on this ubiquitous and powerful social phenomenon. Kitty Genovese: What Really Happened? thepsychfiles.com/2007/11/episode-36-the-myth-of-the-kitty-genovese-story This compelling podcast describes the Kitty Genovese case and its impact on the scientific study of social behavior and provides additional links to articles and videos on the bystander effect.
