Beirne Matt Dr. Winters Psychology 110-S 11 December 2007
When Will People Help in a Crisis
In this research article, social psychologists John M. Darley and Bibb Latane discuss the rising problem in the low rate of people helping others in emergency situations. The article was published in Psychology Today in 1968, and examines the conditions necessary for someone to actually provide help in emergency situations. To first give an overview on how people do not help others in times of crisis and emergencies, Darley and Latane describe the case of Kitty Genovese. When she was arriving home one night, outside of her building she was attacked by a maniac. 38 of her neighbors witnessed from their windows, Kitty being stabbed. The attacker took half an hour to kill Kitty, and while so, not one of her neighbors called the police or did anything to assist her. This example exemplifies the low growing rate in people responding to emergencies. What seems to be logic and what should be obvious is that the more people that witness or are around an emergency or crisis situation, the more help there will be. In fact, this is highly false. What is actually true is that when more people are around a crisis, they feel that they have less responsibility and less of a need to act because there are so many other people who can over help. However, everyone thinks the same thing and consequently no one acts or responds to the emergency.
There are three steps that an individual must take in order for him/her to decide if they are going to act on an emergency. First, they have to notice if there is something happening. Second, they have to interpret if the situation is an emergency. Lastly, they have to decide if they have personal responsibility for intervention in the situation.