WEBVTT - The Bystander Effect and You 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:06.680 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.680 --> 0:00:13.960 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:14.000 --> 0:00:16.440 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. Julie 0:00:16.480 --> 0:00:19.720 takes back to nine. We're we're picking up a newspaper. 0:00:20.239 --> 0:00:23.439 What's going to be the big big news, like, what's captivating? 0:00:23.440 --> 0:00:27.120 What's what's the juicy story that everyone is outraged about. Well, 0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:30.320 there is a woman named Kitty Genovese and this New 0:00:30.360 --> 0:00:32.199 York City, this is in It was actually in Queen's 0:00:32.760 --> 0:00:35.680 and she is a twenty eight year old bar manager 0:00:35.920 --> 0:00:38.519 and she's coming back from her job something like three 0:00:38.560 --> 0:00:40.640 o'clock in the morning, and she gets out of her 0:00:40.680 --> 0:00:44.920 car and she's walking and she is all of a sudden, 0:00:44.920 --> 0:00:48.280 she's in hot pursuit by this guy wielding a knife, 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:52.600 and she happens to be in a neighborhood right um, 0:00:52.680 --> 0:00:55.800 and she calls out for help. He begins to stab her, 0:00:56.760 --> 0:00:59.760 and the story goes like this that for thirty five 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:03.160 in it's during three different attacks because this guy like 0:01:03.400 --> 0:01:06.399 attacks her and then he realizes that his cars in 0:01:06.440 --> 0:01:08.480 the open and people will I d his car, so 0:01:08.600 --> 0:01:10.080 he goes and he moves his car and he comes back, 0:01:10.120 --> 0:01:12.120 and he starts attacking her, and then so on and 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:15.160 so forth, three different attacks. Her cries were heard by 0:01:15.200 --> 0:01:19.120 an estimated thirty eight people, and all of this unprovoked, 0:01:19.520 --> 0:01:25.640 just out of the blue, random attack, and and she dies. Um. 0:01:25.840 --> 0:01:30.240 Finally the one person telephones the police. One person out 0:01:30.240 --> 0:01:32.760 of the thirty eight. This is the story, and it 0:01:32.800 --> 0:01:36.800 absolutely shocks the United States. Um, the people in the 0:01:36.880 --> 0:01:40.319 United States, they're just horrified that we could let this 0:01:40.520 --> 0:01:44.280 happen to a fellow human, particularly when they say that 0:01:44.360 --> 0:01:47.000 the people who overheard this, Yeah, I heard of this 0:01:47.080 --> 0:01:49.560 lady screaming and I didn't know what was going on 0:01:49.720 --> 0:01:52.080 or I didn't want to get involved. That was something 0:01:52.120 --> 0:01:55.560 that they heard. Um, And you know, it's it's just 0:01:55.680 --> 0:01:57.520 awful to think that we could allow something like this 0:01:57.600 --> 0:02:00.760 to happen to another person. Yeah, I mean it is. 0:02:00.840 --> 0:02:03.600 It is a really um to hear this story, as 0:02:03.640 --> 0:02:07.520 it was popularized in the New York Times that year 0:02:07.720 --> 0:02:09.960 and has since. This is and has since become a 0:02:09.960 --> 0:02:14.040 popularized version of this story. Um. Yeah, it's really it's 0:02:14.040 --> 0:02:17.480 really damning information because the ideas, hey, I could be 0:02:17.520 --> 0:02:20.200 that one that one person you know, and then and 0:02:20.200 --> 0:02:21.960 then you feel shameful to think, But then am I 0:02:22.040 --> 0:02:24.480 one of those thirty people that in any other situation 0:02:24.480 --> 0:02:27.600 would do nothing right? Yeah, people really took it um 0:02:27.760 --> 0:02:30.720 to heart, and it became known as the genevase syndrome, 0:02:30.880 --> 0:02:34.119 but also known as the bystander effect, which is something 0:02:34.160 --> 0:02:36.760 that's probably know that term is known better now or 0:02:36.800 --> 0:02:39.359 just bystander apathy, right by standard apathy. Yeah. This, and 0:02:39.680 --> 0:02:41.919 but what we found out though, is that this story 0:02:42.080 --> 0:02:46.400 was actually greatly exaggerated. Yes, Kitty Genevase A was killed 0:02:46.639 --> 0:02:48.760 by a man who went out that night and decided 0:02:48.800 --> 0:02:50.919 that he was going to kill a woman. Um, and 0:02:51.120 --> 0:02:53.640 and and he was very open about this, Like there 0:02:53.919 --> 0:02:57.320 this guy was was mentally disturbed and was very open 0:02:57.320 --> 0:02:59.840 about I went out to kill somebody that night. And 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:04.400 he's still in prison h to this day. Um yeah. 0:03:04.480 --> 0:03:07.280 But it turns out that there weren't as many bystanders 0:03:07.320 --> 0:03:10.320 as previously thought. There was something around the order of 0:03:10.400 --> 0:03:13.600 six people. And in fact, she was at one point 0:03:13.880 --> 0:03:16.000 dragged to this one part of the building I think 0:03:16.000 --> 0:03:19.160 it was in maybe like the portico, and one guy 0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:22.519 could hear her essentially being finished off, so to speak. 0:03:23.000 --> 0:03:26.120 But he, you know, he still didn't contact the police. 0:03:26.120 --> 0:03:30.440 He was inebriated. He didn't want to um get involved, 0:03:30.440 --> 0:03:32.760 so he did ask his neighbor to call the police. Yeah, 0:03:32.800 --> 0:03:37.320 there's an American psychologist paper from two thousand seven where 0:03:37.080 --> 0:03:39.360 they went back and they were they were going beyond 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:41.440 the New York Times article and looking at legal documents, 0:03:41.440 --> 0:03:46.760 court transcripts, and some recent historical research into the the event, 0:03:47.040 --> 0:03:48.960 into the attack, and they had found that there were 0:03:48.960 --> 0:03:52.360 two attacks, not three, that the kind of the way 0:03:52.360 --> 0:03:54.560 that the crime scene was configured would have made it 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:57.280 impossible for all but one of the known witnesses to 0:03:57.400 --> 0:04:01.320 have seen the crime in its entirety. Yeah, and the people, uh, 0:04:01.480 --> 0:04:03.800 the police may have been called him much earlier than thought, 0:04:04.000 --> 0:04:06.760 and she may have been alive when the cops arrived. 0:04:06.920 --> 0:04:09.040 So okay, And the reason why we're bringing all this 0:04:09.160 --> 0:04:11.960 up is because you know, whether or not the story 0:04:12.040 --> 0:04:15.400 was exaggerated, what it did is it actually helped people 0:04:15.440 --> 0:04:17.839 to put a term to to something that actually is 0:04:17.839 --> 0:04:20.800 a real condition, the bystander effect. You kicked off enough 0:04:20.880 --> 0:04:24.280 outrage and public interest that we named it, and a 0:04:24.320 --> 0:04:28.520 lot of really solid research went into why this kind 0:04:28.520 --> 0:04:31.479 of behavior exists in the crowd. Yeah, and we've seen 0:04:31.480 --> 0:04:33.719 this again and again, And in fact, Joseph DeMay, who 0:04:33.720 --> 0:04:37.200 who talks about the story and how it's exaggerated, was 0:04:37.320 --> 0:04:40.160 asked on the show on the Media NPR show, it's 0:04:40.160 --> 0:04:43.359 really great if you checked it out. Um. He was asked, well, so, okay, 0:04:43.440 --> 0:04:46.000 if that story was exaggerated, that doesn't really exist, and 0:04:46.040 --> 0:04:48.839 he said, well, of course, the bystandard effect exists. Just 0:04:48.920 --> 0:04:51.599 look around you. You know, there was that incident where 0:04:51.680 --> 0:04:55.239 poor worker was trampled at the Green Acres shopping center 0:04:55.279 --> 0:04:58.440 by shoppers anxious to get an electronic sale. We've seen 0:04:58.440 --> 0:05:00.480 this again and again, I think just most recently there 0:05:00.480 --> 0:05:03.480 was a pregnant woman who was trampled and lost her baby. 0:05:03.680 --> 0:05:06.840 Um with this same sort of excitement that was happening 0:05:06.839 --> 0:05:09.120 around around a sale. Yeah, and you don't even really 0:05:09.160 --> 0:05:12.320 have You don't even have to go to outrageous newspaper 0:05:12.600 --> 0:05:15.360 stories to to get examples of it. Just any time 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:18.720 you've ever driven down the highway and passed that that 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:22.279 poor guy, that poor family that has a flat tire, 0:05:22.680 --> 0:05:24.640 because you you just keep going and you probably don't 0:05:24.640 --> 0:05:27.080 even really think anything about it. Well you think someone 0:05:27.080 --> 0:05:28.680 else will help. Well, yeah, even if you if you 0:05:28.760 --> 0:05:31.760 even consciously, uh, you know, turn the wheels like maybe 0:05:31.839 --> 0:05:33.520 you know it's having a subconscious level a lot of 0:05:33.560 --> 0:05:35.000 the time, but but you know, you might think, oh, 0:05:35.000 --> 0:05:36.800 well someone else will help them, or oh they probably 0:05:36.839 --> 0:05:39.599 called triple away or they got it well. And even 0:05:39.920 --> 0:05:43.200 even in the circumstance like this, DeMay points out like, okay, 0:05:43.200 --> 0:05:45.320 there was a woman in the King's County psychiatric ward 0:05:45.360 --> 0:05:48.480 who collapsed on the floor there where where she's being 0:05:48.520 --> 0:05:51.680 taken care of, right in theory. So basically the staff 0:05:51.760 --> 0:05:54.520 just left her there to die, you know, four hours 0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:57.159 later she died. Um. And then he also said, you 0:05:57.200 --> 0:05:59.480 know there that you can look in the newspaper on 0:05:59.520 --> 0:06:03.320 any given da and see something that is reflective of 0:06:03.360 --> 0:06:06.440 the bystander effect. Um. And he says that, you know, 0:06:06.520 --> 0:06:09.600 it's a it's this diffusion of responsibility, and it's impossible 0:06:09.640 --> 0:06:11.800 to say that such a phenomenon of some sort does 0:06:11.839 --> 0:06:14.560 not exist. Yeah, So there are four key components in 0:06:14.600 --> 0:06:16.800 the bystander effect, like you said, one of them is 0:06:17.160 --> 0:06:22.159 diffuse responsibility. That's just the simple idea that if thirty 0:06:22.160 --> 0:06:24.960 people were witnessing something, that if I'm one of thirty 0:06:24.960 --> 0:06:27.479 people witnessing an event, well, they're twenty nine other people 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:30.200 that could do something. It's like if I'm driving down 0:06:30.400 --> 0:06:32.479 an interstate and I see somebody with a flat tire, 0:06:32.720 --> 0:06:35.080 they're countless cars. Like, there are plenty of other people. 0:06:35.080 --> 0:06:37.280 I'm just one of many. Somebody will do something about that. 0:06:37.600 --> 0:06:39.720 But if I am on a like say a deserted 0:06:39.800 --> 0:06:42.080 road in the middle of nowhere, that and I know 0:06:42.160 --> 0:06:44.200 that I'm probably one of the only people that are 0:06:44.560 --> 0:06:47.080 going to go down that road today, and I see 0:06:47.120 --> 0:06:49.520 somebody with a flat tire, well, then there's not really 0:06:49.800 --> 0:06:52.640 much in the way of diffused responsibility unless I have 0:06:52.720 --> 0:06:54.640 some sort of mistaken idea that a woodchuck is going 0:06:54.680 --> 0:06:57.359 to help this guy with his tire. A woodchuck could, 0:06:57.480 --> 0:07:00.479 if a witch could, that's true. That's that's to saying. 0:07:01.200 --> 0:07:03.839 Another one is self awareness. All right. This is the 0:07:03.880 --> 0:07:07.560 perceived or actual presence of an audience to your actions 0:07:07.600 --> 0:07:10.040 that inhibits you from acting all right, you don't want 0:07:10.040 --> 0:07:13.520 to appear foolish or inappropriate. An example of this um 0:07:13.720 --> 0:07:16.200 takes me back to this weekend when I was at 0:07:16.200 --> 0:07:18.680 the dentist office and I go in. I'm sitting down 0:07:18.680 --> 0:07:20.400 at the Nednist office, and they always have you know, 0:07:20.440 --> 0:07:22.880 the TVs on it's playing something annoying. I was the 0:07:22.920 --> 0:07:24.880 only person in there, and they were playing an episode 0:07:25.280 --> 0:07:29.480 of UM Law and Order of Special Victims Unit, and 0:07:29.520 --> 0:07:32.000 it was like this whole thing like some it all 0:07:32.040 --> 0:07:34.080 has to do with like sexual assault, like very much 0:07:34.280 --> 0:07:36.240 the kind of thing that we covered, The kind of 0:07:36.240 --> 0:07:38.840 story we covered with at the beginning's not necessarily something 0:07:39.040 --> 0:07:41.880 you want to watch while you are in a dentist chair. Yeah, 0:07:41.920 --> 0:07:43.520 but I'm kind of like, all right, I don't feel 0:07:43.560 --> 0:07:46.200 like like complaining about it. But then a mother and 0:07:46.240 --> 0:07:49.520 two kids comes in come into the dnist dopice and 0:07:49.680 --> 0:07:52.080 they sat down, they like start feeling out the paperwork. 0:07:52.120 --> 0:07:53.920 But it's like two little kids and they're they're reading 0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:56.160 their little children's books, and the mom sitting there looking 0:07:56.160 --> 0:07:59.080 at a magazine and the TV is Special Victims Unit 0:07:59.160 --> 0:08:03.520 with you know, in in investigators looking into like sexual 0:08:03.760 --> 0:08:08.200 offenses and and some pretty graphic discussion of what these uh, 0:08:08.480 --> 0:08:11.680 these these crimes consisted of. And so I'm sitting there 0:08:11.680 --> 0:08:13.960 and part of me is like I should get up 0:08:14.000 --> 0:08:17.200 and go tell the lady the front desk, Hey, there 0:08:17.200 --> 0:08:19.920 are kids here. Why don't you change to Disney Channel 0:08:19.960 --> 0:08:24.320 or something um, you know, or something less um potentially traumatic. 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:27.520 But the other voice was saying, no, the mom setting 0:08:27.600 --> 0:08:29.080 right there, I'm gonna come off looking like a total 0:08:29.160 --> 0:08:31.520 jerk because I'm gonna be implying that she doesn't know 0:08:31.600 --> 0:08:34.319 what she's doing, or she, you know, isn't exerting enough 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:37.440 responsibility for these kids. So that's a self awareness factor 0:08:37.520 --> 0:08:39.920 of it. We're afraid, you know, somebody needs help, but 0:08:39.960 --> 0:08:41.880 are we gonna look stupid getting up and going to 0:08:41.920 --> 0:08:44.000 help them? So we're afraid of being judged right right? 0:08:44.040 --> 0:08:46.199 Then the next one is social clues. All right, Individuals 0:08:46.400 --> 0:08:49.200 actively look to one another for for queues about how 0:08:49.240 --> 0:08:54.040 to behave in the situation. The pluralistic ignorance. Yeah, I 0:08:54.040 --> 0:08:57.439 think so this is like you say, you're on on 0:08:57.480 --> 0:09:00.560 the on the subway train and there's some by the acting, 0:09:00.800 --> 0:09:04.160 there's somebody acting strange there. You sort of look to 0:09:04.240 --> 0:09:06.640 everybody else to say, hey, we should we be concerned 0:09:06.679 --> 0:09:08.520 about this? Is this? Is this for real? Is this 0:09:08.559 --> 0:09:11.200 a deal? You know? And uh? And if nobody everyone 0:09:11.200 --> 0:09:12.880 else is ignoring it, you're kind of like, all right, 0:09:12.880 --> 0:09:14.880 I guess this is nothing. I'm just gonna you know, 0:09:15.000 --> 0:09:16.840 I straight ahead right back to my book or something. 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:18.679 But if everyone else is looking a little weird, then 0:09:18.679 --> 0:09:21.080 you're like, all right, this is something serious. Some one 0:09:21.080 --> 0:09:22.360 of us is gonna pick it up and go push 0:09:22.400 --> 0:09:25.400 the alert button. That kind of situations, and then there's blocking. 0:09:25.520 --> 0:09:28.560 This is a realization that if somebody needs help, all 0:09:28.600 --> 0:09:33.120 thirty of us cannot help in this particular situation. Like 0:09:33.160 --> 0:09:35.160 if if it's a situation where do you just need 0:09:35.200 --> 0:09:39.320 one person maybe to to help this individual with their situation, 0:09:39.760 --> 0:09:42.920 thirty people is just gonna overwhelm them and possibly make 0:09:42.920 --> 0:09:45.800 a situation worse. So is that that same idea of 0:09:45.840 --> 0:09:48.559 just shirking off the responsibility because you figure that someone 0:09:48.600 --> 0:09:52.320 else is going to help, or like like you're they're 0:09:52.360 --> 0:09:54.319 thirty people. And then there's another person who has a 0:09:54.360 --> 0:09:56.680 cut on their finger. If if we all go and 0:09:56.679 --> 0:09:59.319 put a band aid on it, that's the person doesn't 0:09:59.320 --> 0:10:02.040 need thirty band needs. They need one, maybe two band aids, 0:10:02.080 --> 0:10:03.480 you know, if they want to do the cross thing. 0:10:03.880 --> 0:10:06.199 But um, that would be kind of awesome in that 0:10:06.640 --> 0:10:09.760 and and horrible too, crushed by thirty people just trying 0:10:09.800 --> 0:10:13.720 to get your hand bandaged. Um yeah, I mean this again, 0:10:13.760 --> 0:10:18.680 this diffusion of responsibility. I think is really interesting. And um, 0:10:18.760 --> 0:10:21.280 there are two rules that we usually operate in under 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:23.400 when we're in society, one that we ought to help 0:10:23.480 --> 0:10:25.720 right and too that we ought to do what everyone 0:10:25.760 --> 0:10:30.720 else is doing. So these temporary rules bubble up that 0:10:30.800 --> 0:10:33.520 we inadvertently create when we're a group, which we have, 0:10:33.600 --> 0:10:37.920 we're not even communicating to one another, you know, with language, right, 0:10:37.960 --> 0:10:40.680 we're not even saying, hey, let's not do this because 0:10:40.679 --> 0:10:43.000 we all feel okay with it. But somehow we all 0:10:43.040 --> 0:10:46.680 know that, you know, we're all bouncing off of each 0:10:46.679 --> 0:10:49.200 other and somehow are thinking to ourselves, okay, well if 0:10:49.200 --> 0:10:51.240 you're not concerned about it, that I'm not concerned about 0:10:51.280 --> 0:10:53.920 And I think that's fascinating. And there are a bunch 0:10:53.920 --> 0:10:57.240 of BBC shorts um that were experiences that you can 0:10:57.240 --> 0:11:00.160 go on YouTube and see them where they show us 0:11:00.280 --> 0:11:03.520 in action and I thought it was pretty fascinating. They 0:11:03.600 --> 0:11:07.160 did one UM set of videos at the Liverpool Street 0:11:07.200 --> 0:11:09.880 station in London and there was an actor dressed in 0:11:10.000 --> 0:11:12.920 jeans and overcoat and sneakers and he's crumpled up at 0:11:12.960 --> 0:11:14.800 the foot of the stairs and he's sanging to people 0:11:14.800 --> 0:11:16.720 as they passed by, please help me, Please help me. 0:11:17.080 --> 0:11:20.240 And he lays there for twenty minutes, twenty minutes without 0:11:20.360 --> 0:11:23.640 anybody helping him, which I think in and of itself 0:11:23.720 --> 0:11:26.960 is pretty interesting. But then they have a female actor 0:11:27.280 --> 0:11:29.920 do the same thing. She's dressed in a skirt and 0:11:29.960 --> 0:11:32.480 a jacket, she has a purse on, and she's not 0:11:32.559 --> 0:11:34.480 saying help me, but she actually she kind of looks 0:11:34.480 --> 0:11:37.320 dead actually, but she sprawled out on the stairs and 0:11:37.440 --> 0:11:40.160 thirty four people pass in four minutes and they don't 0:11:40.160 --> 0:11:43.480 help her. And finally there's a woman who is uh. 0:11:43.520 --> 0:11:46.080 You see her behavior, it's very interesting. She starts to 0:11:46.120 --> 0:11:48.880 pass by, and then she starts, she stops, and she 0:11:49.000 --> 0:11:51.040 kind of looks around at other people like, Hey, isn't 0:11:51.080 --> 0:11:54.240 this weird? And then she kind of circles and hangs out, 0:11:54.280 --> 0:11:57.520 but she's not quite going to do anything yet. Out 0:11:57.520 --> 0:12:01.680 of nowhere, this guy comes directly to the woman and says, 0:12:01.679 --> 0:12:03.880 are you okay? And then all of a sudden she's 0:12:03.960 --> 0:12:07.319 right by his side and she's saying, you know, can 0:12:07.360 --> 0:12:09.360 I help you? You know, she needed that guy to 0:12:09.440 --> 0:12:13.640 come to to corroborate her concern. Yeah, And you see 0:12:13.679 --> 0:12:15.160 that happen a lot, a lot. You know, it's like 0:12:15.440 --> 0:12:17.920 the first person to actually come forward and try to 0:12:17.960 --> 0:12:19.880 help somebody. Then suddenly there are a few other people 0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:22.680 as well. Yeah, maybe not all thirty, but suddenly it'll 0:12:22.720 --> 0:12:25.440 go from you know, from nothing to five or six 0:12:25.559 --> 0:12:27.960 just like that. Yeah. Well, and this was the most 0:12:28.040 --> 0:12:31.120 interesting one. This is the the third person in this experiment. 0:12:31.360 --> 0:12:33.280 It was the same actor from the from the first 0:12:33.320 --> 0:12:35.800 that was crumpled on the stairs with his jeans on. 0:12:36.240 --> 0:12:38.920 But um, now he comes back and he's dressed in 0:12:39.040 --> 0:12:42.440 like an impeccable expensive suit and he's crumpled up at 0:12:42.480 --> 0:12:45.000 the bottom of the stairs, and it takes just six 0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:49.120 seconds for one person to help him, which then attracts 0:12:49.120 --> 0:12:52.720 this crowd of people who are now around him saying yeah, yeah, 0:12:52.880 --> 0:12:55.320 can you can I help you? So there is this 0:12:55.360 --> 0:12:57.880 one element where where yeah, we're we're sort of seating 0:12:58.000 --> 0:13:01.360 our decisions to other people. But then it's sort of like, well, 0:13:01.480 --> 0:13:04.520 if you're if you look socially like in in the 0:13:04.559 --> 0:13:07.680 most correct role, then you're probably going to get more help, 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:10.760 right right, because he looked important. All right, we're gonna 0:13:10.760 --> 0:13:12.880 take a quick break and when we come back, we're 0:13:12.880 --> 0:13:17.120 gonna look at some of that hard research that that 0:13:17.280 --> 0:13:23.720 popped up following this, uh, the geneviec case. This podcast 0:13:23.800 --> 0:13:26.600 is brought to you by Intel, the sponsors of Tomorrow 0:13:27.040 --> 0:13:31.400 and the Discovery Channel. At Intel, we believe curiosity is 0:13:31.440 --> 0:13:35.440 the spark which drives innovation. Join us at curiosity dot 0:13:35.480 --> 0:13:41.480 com and explore the answers to life's questions. All right, 0:13:41.480 --> 0:13:44.920 and we're back. So, like we said, the Genovic case, Uh, 0:13:44.960 --> 0:13:48.160 some of the details are kind of contested, were not contested, 0:13:48.200 --> 0:13:50.080 but it is proven today and the version of the 0:13:50.080 --> 0:13:55.439 story that is sometimes um referenced in papers and textbooks, etcetera, 0:13:55.840 --> 0:13:58.320 is is maybe not the true version of what happened. 0:13:58.320 --> 0:14:00.680 It's kind of kind of has become a parable. But 0:14:00.800 --> 0:14:04.040 the research, as we said, is still pretty solid. Like 0:14:04.080 --> 0:14:06.440 people were outraged enough by this they were like, let's 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:09.560 do some studies and uh. And the first big study 0:14:09.800 --> 0:14:13.880 was this one by um Darley and Latine, Right, yeah, 0:14:14.000 --> 0:14:18.040 John Darlie and Biblitaine that this whole Jenevase syndrome or 0:14:18.400 --> 0:14:21.640 by sing or effect really inspired them to to try 0:14:21.680 --> 0:14:25.120 to look at this in multiple models and really ferret 0:14:25.560 --> 0:14:29.840 out what was going on. Um And I think one 0:14:29.840 --> 0:14:31.880 of the ones that I think is most interesting to 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:36.040 me is the lady in distress, and this experiment, subjects 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:39.920 either waited alone with a friend or with a passive 0:14:39.920 --> 0:14:43.800 confederate meaning an actor who was acting passively right, or 0:14:43.840 --> 0:14:45.840 with a stranger in a room. And the room was 0:14:45.880 --> 0:14:49.640 separate from another room by a curtain which they would 0:14:49.680 --> 0:14:52.400 pass on their way to their waiting room, and the 0:14:52.440 --> 0:14:55.320 experiment or who led them there returned to the other 0:14:55.400 --> 0:14:59.040 room and left, turning on a tape recording um of 0:14:59.040 --> 0:15:02.880 of what sounded like someone falling and then moaning in 0:15:03.000 --> 0:15:06.240 that other room. So they couldn't see that person, but 0:15:06.560 --> 0:15:10.120 for hundred and thirty seconds, they could hear this person 0:15:10.200 --> 0:15:13.560 in some sort of distress. And they measured the percent 0:15:13.720 --> 0:15:15.960 of people who took action and how long it took 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:19.440 for them to act. And overall, sixty one percent of 0:15:19.480 --> 0:15:22.440 people pulled back the curtain to check on the experiment or, 0:15:22.520 --> 0:15:24.720 because they assumed it was the experimenter who fell right, 0:15:26.520 --> 0:15:31.200 entered via another door to check on the experiment simply 0:15:31.240 --> 0:15:34.720 called out to say hey, are you okay, But nobody 0:15:34.760 --> 0:15:37.440 went to actually report the accident okay, to say, hey, 0:15:37.480 --> 0:15:40.520 there's someone hurt in the other room. Um. And this 0:15:40.560 --> 0:15:44.000 is where the data gets really interesting. Sevent of alone 0:15:44.040 --> 0:15:49.200 subjects reacted, but only seven percent of those with another 0:15:49.280 --> 0:15:51.920 person in the in the room the passive confederate, the 0:15:51.960 --> 0:15:55.080 actor who just sat there and pretending like everything was okay, 0:15:55.280 --> 0:15:59.160 only seven percent of them reacted. So it means if 0:15:59.160 --> 0:16:01.800 you're if you're by yourself, you're probably going to be 0:16:01.840 --> 0:16:04.760 a lot more responsible, right, But if someone else is 0:16:04.760 --> 0:16:07.840 in the room, they don't seem concerned. Boom, it doesn't matter. 0:16:09.040 --> 0:16:13.480 The subjects with confederates became confused and they frequently looked 0:16:13.520 --> 0:16:16.600 over at the person. And when they were paired with 0:16:16.640 --> 0:16:21.680 a stranger, only um of those people in the room 0:16:21.680 --> 0:16:25.040 with a stranger actually acted out or said hey, are 0:16:25.040 --> 0:16:27.880 you okay? So when they had their friends in the room, 0:16:28.080 --> 0:16:32.240 seventy of the time they helped um, which shows you 0:16:32.280 --> 0:16:36.320 know that they felt responsibility with someone that they knew okay. 0:16:36.440 --> 0:16:39.200 But what's interesting about that is that that's the same 0:16:39.320 --> 0:16:42.120 percent as if they were alone. So you would think, 0:16:42.160 --> 0:16:44.200 and this is this is what the researchers say, that 0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:47.000 you would think that if they were alone, like of 0:16:47.080 --> 0:16:49.960 the time, they would have reacted. So based on the 0:16:49.960 --> 0:16:53.360 findings of that study, if I am also say I'm 0:16:53.360 --> 0:16:55.720 feeling like like, let's say I've been stabbed. No, no, 0:16:55.800 --> 0:16:58.520 that's what it's said. Let me let's say I have, 0:16:58.840 --> 0:17:02.920 UM I'm feeling really sick, and I'm I'm about to puke, 0:17:03.440 --> 0:17:05.760 and I'm I'm on the market train taking the train 0:17:05.800 --> 0:17:09.040 to work, and I get to choose which car I'm 0:17:09.080 --> 0:17:12.199 going to throw up in. Um, and and after I 0:17:12.240 --> 0:17:14.320 throw up, I'm really going to hope somebody helps me 0:17:14.359 --> 0:17:17.200 and gets me to a hospital. What is the appropriate 0:17:17.280 --> 0:17:20.639 number of people on the train? Oh my goodness, is 0:17:20.680 --> 0:17:23.119 this like a test? Yeah, this is the test? Or 0:17:23.240 --> 0:17:25.880 you know, just asking your learning opinion? Oh my goodness, 0:17:25.880 --> 0:17:28.640 Oh yeah, even even better. I'm just gonna say that 0:17:28.680 --> 0:17:30.960 maybe one or two other people in the train with 0:17:31.000 --> 0:17:34.400 you is greatly going to increase your chances of getting aid. 0:17:34.560 --> 0:17:37.920 But not one, it's just one person. If it's one, 0:17:38.200 --> 0:17:41.800 even better. That's my opinion, right, just from what we've 0:17:41.840 --> 0:17:45.680 seen that the lower the amount of people around you, 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:48.320 the more app they are to help you. Correct. But 0:17:48.359 --> 0:17:50.040 if you're if you're about to puke all over the 0:17:50.080 --> 0:17:51.920 place and thirty people are in the train with you, 0:17:52.080 --> 0:17:54.680 they're all going to back away. Yeah, or I've already 0:17:54.760 --> 0:17:59.040 changed cars. What's it's it? Definitely provides a lot of 0:17:59.040 --> 0:18:01.639 insight into how crowds think. I mean, there's more to 0:18:01.760 --> 0:18:03.800 health crowds think. We have believe we've covered some of 0:18:03.800 --> 0:18:06.480 this in the past, talking about the group think and 0:18:06.960 --> 0:18:10.000 and how crowds are respond h on a on a 0:18:10.040 --> 0:18:13.040 mental level. In in our very very recent episode, we 0:18:13.160 --> 0:18:16.400 discussed uh sort of the physics of crowds and how 0:18:16.880 --> 0:18:19.720 a large number of people can can quickly spiral out 0:18:19.720 --> 0:18:22.080 of control and then become this like the movement, the 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:24.480 physical movement of the crowd becomes something that cannot be 0:18:24.560 --> 0:18:27.880 predicted or control well. In the psychology is so interesting 0:18:27.920 --> 0:18:32.280 because going back to the Lady in distress um experiments 0:18:32.359 --> 0:18:36.280 that Lobott did UM, is that the interveners, the people 0:18:36.320 --> 0:18:38.800 who did something, they claimed that they acted that way 0:18:38.840 --> 0:18:41.080 because the fall seems serious and it was the right 0:18:41.119 --> 0:18:44.679 thing to do. But the non interveners who were with 0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:48.040 the other people said that they were unsure what happened, UM, 0:18:48.280 --> 0:18:50.720 and they decided it wasn't serious, and some felt that 0:18:50.760 --> 0:18:53.919 they didn't want to embarrass the researcher, which was that 0:18:53.960 --> 0:18:58.119 whole judgment part right, UM. So they were really influenced 0:18:58.119 --> 0:18:59.640 by the people that were in the room with them, 0:18:59.640 --> 0:19:02.120 and you don't think that when when you're you're making 0:19:02.200 --> 0:19:05.399 individual decisions, you don't even realize that on that level, 0:19:05.520 --> 0:19:08.760 you're sitting there calculating whether or not the person next 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:12.879 to you is unless you're highly self aware, right right, 0:19:13.480 --> 0:19:15.800 usually don't realize that that person is having an effect 0:19:15.800 --> 0:19:18.639 on your decision making processes, which again brings into the 0:19:18.640 --> 0:19:20.600 whole question of free will about whether or not it 0:19:20.640 --> 0:19:24.000 really exists. And this the study is especially interesting given 0:19:24.440 --> 0:19:28.760 the way our lives have been affected by social media 0:19:29.000 --> 0:19:32.199 and the internet, because you you everyone has seen stories 0:19:32.240 --> 0:19:35.320 in the past year or two where somebody, um, you know, 0:19:35.520 --> 0:19:38.560 basically put out a cry for help on Facebook on 0:19:38.600 --> 0:19:41.320 their Facebook profile and then in and in some of 0:19:41.359 --> 0:19:44.359 these cases, nobody really did anything and then the person 0:19:44.440 --> 0:19:47.240 dies or you know, it ends up trying to take 0:19:47.240 --> 0:19:49.960 their own life or something to this effect. And uh, 0:19:50.040 --> 0:19:52.160 and people are like, why didn't we do anything? Why 0:19:52.160 --> 0:19:54.920 did we just sit there and just scan over there? 0:19:55.440 --> 0:19:59.080 They're they're depressing Facebook status update or why did we 0:19:59.400 --> 0:20:03.360 even maybe us ignore you know, why didn't we do something? Yeah, 0:20:03.400 --> 0:20:05.359 I was thinking about that too, that that when we 0:20:05.400 --> 0:20:08.400 talk about crowds these days, we really need to probably 0:20:08.440 --> 0:20:11.280 redefine what a crowd is because it's not doesn't have 0:20:11.320 --> 0:20:14.360 to be a bunch of people in a physical room together. 0:20:14.560 --> 0:20:18.480 I mean, we have a crowd action via the internet 0:20:18.520 --> 0:20:21.840 these days with just as many community ties. Yeah, I saw. 0:20:22.160 --> 0:20:24.959 I was looking at a paper earlier UM from Georgian 0:20:25.000 --> 0:20:27.800 Student of Technology Georgia Tech here in town, and they 0:20:27.840 --> 0:20:30.959