Reference Information
Title: Opening Skinner's Box
Author: Lauren Slater
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company (2008)
Chapter 4: In the Unlikely Event of a Water Landing (19 pages)
Summary
In this chapter, Darley and Latane were looking to see how a group of people in a crisis reacts. They first start the chapter with the story of Kitty Genovese's murder. An assailant essentially assaulted her on three different occasions in the span of 35 minutes. Each time, Kitty would yell for help but no one would come. The bystanders (38 in all) would simply watch from their windows.
Darley and Latane tried to come up with an experiment to model this scenario. The subject, an NYU student, sat in a room and took turns speaking into a microphone. He talked to prerecorded students describing their life at NYU, although he didn't know that they were prerecorded. Each student could only speak when it was their turn. One of the prerecorded students has a seizure. Darley and Latane wanted to see how the subject would react. Very few, 31%, of the students acted. Darley and Latane found that varying the size of the group also had a dramatic effect on the outcome. In groups of 4 or more, the subject was unlikely to seek help. When the subject was in a group of 2 however, 85% sought help in the first 3 minutes.
Discussion
Well, I feel sick after reading about the murder. It was pretty horrific. Like the newspaper article suggested, there should be crimes for those who witness murders like that and choose not to act. I read about this sort of "bystander effect" in psychology. I guess in times like this someone needs to take charge and be the authority. If no one does, no one is likely to act.
In this chapter, Darley and Latane were looking to see how a group of people in a crisis reacts. They first start the chapter with the story of Kitty Genovese's murder. An assailant essentially assaulted her on three different occasions in the span of 35 minutes. Each time, Kitty would yell for help but no one would come. The bystanders (38 in all) would simply watch from their windows.
Darley and Latane tried to come up with an experiment to model this scenario. The subject, an NYU student, sat in a room and took turns speaking into a microphone. He talked to prerecorded students describing their life at NYU, although he didn't know that they were prerecorded. Each student could only speak when it was their turn. One of the prerecorded students has a seizure. Darley and Latane wanted to see how the subject would react. Very few, 31%, of the students acted. Darley and Latane found that varying the size of the group also had a dramatic effect on the outcome. In groups of 4 or more, the subject was unlikely to seek help. When the subject was in a group of 2 however, 85% sought help in the first 3 minutes.
Discussion
Well, I feel sick after reading about the murder. It was pretty horrific. Like the newspaper article suggested, there should be crimes for those who witness murders like that and choose not to act. I read about this sort of "bystander effect" in psychology. I guess in times like this someone needs to take charge and be the authority. If no one does, no one is likely to act.
No comments:
Post a Comment