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The Bystander Effect: The Murder Of Catherine Genovese

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Someone is walking down the street in a large city when they are attacked by a stranger. The person calls out to everyone else around for help and no one does anything to help. The attacker gets away without being caught leaving the victim to die. Why would no one call the police or run to help the victim? Are people completely selfish when it comes to helping others in need or is there deeper reasons behind it?
There are many reasons why I chose the bystander effect for my sociological issue. The most well-known event that led sociologists to research the bystander effect was the murder of Catherine Genovese. (Takooshian) On March 13, 1964 Genovese was attacked twice outside her apartment. She was stabbed repeatedly over the course of a half …show more content…
(Hudson & Bruckman, p. 169) There are four things that help determine whether or not someone will help in an emergency. When someone perceives an audience to their actions, they are less likely to help in an emergency they don’t want to look bad in front of others. (Hudson & Bruckman, p. 170) People generally look to others when deciding how to act in a certain situation. (Hudson & Bruckman, p. 170) This causes people to become inactive during an emergency if everyone around them is also not responding to the emergency. (Hudson & Bruckman, p. 170) It causes a sort of snowball effect because the more seeing people not doing anything causes other people to also not respond, which causes even more people to not respond to the emergency. A counter to the second point is blocking. (Hudson & Bruckman, p. 170) Blocking refers to the actions of someone responding to the emergency stopping another bystander from responding. (Hudson & Bruckman, p. 170) This seems to say that people won’t respond in any situation. They don’t help because everyone else doesn’t help, but they also won’t help when another bystander assists because they feel like they would get in the way. (Hudson & Bruckman, p. 170) The last reason that people may or may not offer assistance in an emergency is the diffusion of responsibility. (Hudson & Bruckman, p. 170) When someone is in a large group …show more content…
(Marsh) People have a strong tendency towards helpful behavior from the time they are infants. (Marsh) They just need subtle encouragement. (Marsh) A study that set out to test whether or not children would be willing to help after seeing one of four pictures. The four pictures contained the same common household object, while the background changed. (Marsh) There were dolls in the background and they were either facing each other, facing away from each other, or there was just a single doll. (Marsh) Children who viewed the picture with the two dolls facing each other were helped more frequently when a researcher would come into the room and “accidentally” drop some sticks. (Marsh) By seeing the picture with the dolls facing each children subconsciously connected affiliation and helping behavior. (Marsh) The fact that the dolls were facing each other made the children feel like they were working together. By having this thought the children felt that when help was needed, they were responsible to offer

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