The Bystander Effect: The Case Of Kitty Genovese
The Bystander Effect
Why is it so easy to turn away from a problem? To ignore an issue and pretend nothing happened. When we see a crime being committed, the easiest option is to sit back and hope that someone else will step in and intervene, right? The problem doesn’t concern me; I am not responsible to act.
The case of Catherine “Kitty” Genovese in the early 1960s is a painful reminder of the crucial need to intervene. Kitty Genovese, a 28-year old daughter of Italian-American parents, was walking home from a late night at work. She was an ordinary working girl—not at all wealthy, nor a member of any elite class—and she had been followed and brutally murdered on March 13, 1964. Winston Moseley—a 29-year-old married man with two children …show more content…
Another key factor in the understanding of the Bystander effect is pluralistic ignorance. Unlike social influence, where an individual conforms to the same opinion as that of a crowd, pluralistic ignorance is “a situation where no one believes, but everyone thinks that everyone believes” (Krech and Crutcheld). In other words, unpopular moral principles influence an individual because they are mistakenly thought to be the view of the majority of the group. The actual thoughts, actions, beliefs and norms of the crowd are misjudged by individuals. This leads the entire group of to act on certain principles because they believe those principles are held in high esteem by the rest of the group. This creates a false group atmosphere in which no one acts on his own principles, and instead obeys the principles he wrongly believe are important to the rest of the group.
Pluralistic ignorance is dangerous when a life is in jeopardy. Intervention is very hard to achieve when the group creates a false atmosphere in an emergency …show more content…
The students are in the classroom to learn. The teacher is more than willing to provide further explanation on the subject if the need arises. So, why do the students hesitate to ask? No hands are raised, and no questions are asked, until a brave soul decides to take a risk—to show that he doesn’t understand. Students interpret the lack of questions from their peers as a sign that everyone understands the assignment or the concept, so they avoid publically displaying the fact that they don’t understand something that seems to be quite clear to the rest of the group. They don’t want to show themselves as being less intelligent: the dunce of the class. The students are afraid of how the others might see them, thus they hold back what they really think or feel about a subject/concept/assignment.
Pluralistic ignorance is not merely holding wrong beliefs about what others think and feel—pluralistic ignorance is the systematic error in norms and a genuine social
Why is it so easy to turn away from a problem? To ignore an issue and pretend nothing happened. When we see a crime being committed, the easiest option is to sit back and hope that someone else will step in and intervene, right? The problem doesn’t concern me; I am not responsible to act.
The case of Catherine “Kitty” Genovese in the early 1960s is a painful reminder of the crucial need to intervene. Kitty Genovese, a 28-year old daughter of Italian-American parents, was walking home from a late night at work. She was an ordinary working girl—not at all wealthy, nor a member of any elite class—and she had been followed and brutally murdered on March 13, 1964. Winston Moseley—a 29-year-old married man with two children …show more content…
Another key factor in the understanding of the Bystander effect is pluralistic ignorance. Unlike social influence, where an individual conforms to the same opinion as that of a crowd, pluralistic ignorance is “a situation where no one believes, but everyone thinks that everyone believes” (Krech and Crutcheld). In other words, unpopular moral principles influence an individual because they are mistakenly thought to be the view of the majority of the group. The actual thoughts, actions, beliefs and norms of the crowd are misjudged by individuals. This leads the entire group of to act on certain principles because they believe those principles are held in high esteem by the rest of the group. This creates a false group atmosphere in which no one acts on his own principles, and instead obeys the principles he wrongly believe are important to the rest of the group.
Pluralistic ignorance is dangerous when a life is in jeopardy. Intervention is very hard to achieve when the group creates a false atmosphere in an emergency …show more content…
The students are in the classroom to learn. The teacher is more than willing to provide further explanation on the subject if the need arises. So, why do the students hesitate to ask? No hands are raised, and no questions are asked, until a brave soul decides to take a risk—to show that he doesn’t understand. Students interpret the lack of questions from their peers as a sign that everyone understands the assignment or the concept, so they avoid publically displaying the fact that they don’t understand something that seems to be quite clear to the rest of the group. They don’t want to show themselves as being less intelligent: the dunce of the class. The students are afraid of how the others might see them, thus they hold back what they really think or feel about a subject/concept/assignment.
Pluralistic ignorance is not merely holding wrong beliefs about what others think and feel—pluralistic ignorance is the systematic error in norms and a genuine social