Bystander Effect Of Conformity
What is Conformity?
People follow the crowd in all kinds of ways. Experiments are conducted to see how far a person will conform and why we conform under certain circumstances. Classical Psychology experiments try to put people together in awkward situations or have individuals separated from their peers acting strangely and out of the norm in order to see if individuals will conform. In essence, it means that in order to break from the accepted norm, it would mean to slow things down. If you find yourself walking down a crowded street and suddenly everyone drops down, almost certainly your first impulse is to drop down along with them although with a delayed response. The cost for a person to drop down with the crowd unexpectedly certainly …show more content…
Unfortunately, given the situation, only 1/3 of the participants stayed independent in Asch’s experiments and showed the other 2/3 to conform and stay with the crowd.
Informational Cascade One of the most disappointing and petrifying aspects of human nature is our desire to not stand out. This human tendency can be amplified by the bystander effect. This bystander effect represents the way in which people being less likely to help victims if other people are present (Myers & DeWall, 2014). One of the most well-known example of the bystander effect is the murder case of Kitty Genovese.
The Bystander Effect: The Murder of Kitty Genovese
Kitty Genovese was a 28 year old on her way home in New York City. As she neared her apartment, she was chased by a man and stabbed twice in the back. As she was being stabbed and raped, up to 5 witnesses were recorded and testified in the trial as to hearing the altercation (Manning, R., Levine, M., & Collins, A. 2007). However, other neighbors said to have heard her as well but did nothing. The theory was that each and every neighbor assumed that someone else would call the police, so they did nothing. This theory claims that up to 38 people witnessed the attack, but the police were never called. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Samuel Hoffman reportedly called the police but was put on hold for 3-4 minutes before finally reaching a police dispatcher (Getlen, 2014). In this case, conformity is not limited to the witnesses or the bystander affect, but more so the informational cascade that erupted in the media
People follow the crowd in all kinds of ways. Experiments are conducted to see how far a person will conform and why we conform under certain circumstances. Classical Psychology experiments try to put people together in awkward situations or have individuals separated from their peers acting strangely and out of the norm in order to see if individuals will conform. In essence, it means that in order to break from the accepted norm, it would mean to slow things down. If you find yourself walking down a crowded street and suddenly everyone drops down, almost certainly your first impulse is to drop down along with them although with a delayed response. The cost for a person to drop down with the crowd unexpectedly certainly …show more content…
Unfortunately, given the situation, only 1/3 of the participants stayed independent in Asch’s experiments and showed the other 2/3 to conform and stay with the crowd.
Informational Cascade One of the most disappointing and petrifying aspects of human nature is our desire to not stand out. This human tendency can be amplified by the bystander effect. This bystander effect represents the way in which people being less likely to help victims if other people are present (Myers & DeWall, 2014). One of the most well-known example of the bystander effect is the murder case of Kitty Genovese.
The Bystander Effect: The Murder of Kitty Genovese
Kitty Genovese was a 28 year old on her way home in New York City. As she neared her apartment, she was chased by a man and stabbed twice in the back. As she was being stabbed and raped, up to 5 witnesses were recorded and testified in the trial as to hearing the altercation (Manning, R., Levine, M., & Collins, A. 2007). However, other neighbors said to have heard her as well but did nothing. The theory was that each and every neighbor assumed that someone else would call the police, so they did nothing. This theory claims that up to 38 people witnessed the attack, but the police were never called. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Samuel Hoffman reportedly called the police but was put on hold for 3-4 minutes before finally reaching a police dispatcher (Getlen, 2014). In this case, conformity is not limited to the witnesses or the bystander affect, but more so the informational cascade that erupted in the media