BACKGROUND & CONTEXT
This 1964 murder case inspired psychologists to study bystander behavior.
👉 What is the Kitty Genovese case?
The tendency for people to be less likely to help when others are present.
👉 What is bystander apathy?
This research method was used to study helping behavior on a real subway train.
👉 What is a field experiment?
The victim collapsed approximately this many seconds after the train left the station.
👉 What is 70 seconds?
Approximately this percentage of trials resulted in spontaneous help.
👉 What is 95%?
The study took place on this New York City subway route.
👉 What is the Harlem to Bronx subway line?
The belief that someone else will help, reducing personal responsibility.
👉 What is diffusion of responsibility?
Passengers were unaware they were being studied, making this type of observation covert.
👉 What is naturalistic observation (covert observation)?
This person would intervene after 70 or 150 seconds.
👉 Who is the model (confederate helper)?
Which victim received help more quickly and more often?
👉 Who is the ill (cane) victim?
The study was conducted during this decade, reflecting growing concerns about urban apathy.
👉 What is the 1960s (1969)?
The main aim of the study was to investigate helping behavior in this type of environment.
👉 What is a natural setting?
The victim either appeared drunk or carried a cane—this was an example of this type of variable.
👉 What is the independent variable (type of victim)?
The ill victim carried this object to signal non-responsibility for their condition.
👉 What is a cane?
This gender made up about 90% of helpers.
👉 Who are males?
Piliavin wanted to study helping behavior in real emergencies rather than in this traditional research setting.
👉 What is a laboratory setting?
This concept explains why people might hesitate to help due to fear of embarrassment or doing the wrong thing.
👉 What is social influence / social anxiety?
The time taken to help and number of helpers are examples of these variables.
👉 What are dependent variables?
Trials were timed to include this length gap between subway stations.
👉 What is 7.5 minutes?
Despite large crowds, this phenomenon was NOT strongly supported by the findings.
👉 What is diffusion of responsibility?
Piliavin et al. Subway Samaritan study is one of the strongest classic examples of this assumption, showing how helping behavior is shaped by the presence of others, the situation, and group dynamics.
👉 What is assumption 2, behavior, thoughts, and emotions are shaped by social situations and groups.
Piliavin examined helping behavior by manipulating victim type, presence of a model, race of the victim, and this additional factor.
👉 What is the number of bystanders (group size)?
Different passengers experienced only one condition, making this an example of this experimental design.
👉 What is an independent measures design?
The victim collapse, timing, clothing, and behavior were kept identical across trials to ensure this aspect of the procedure.
👉 What is standardization?
One major ethical issue was that passengers did not give this before participating.
👉 What is informed consent?