Darley And Latane's Experiment Summary

Darley and Latané’s Training Manual—A Five-Stage Approach The purpose of Darley and Latané’s experiment was to look into the behaviour of witnesses. They wanted to look into what it takes for people, who witness something that requires their assistance, to ignore one’s call for help. They decided to focus on what happens when there is no authority in a group crisis. To find out answers, they decided to call for volunteer students from New York University. They told the students they were a part of a study involving student adaptation in New York.
The students were placed in separate rooms alone with a microphone and a speaker. Each participant would have two minutes to talk about their challenges which would be heard by the whole group.
It is also significant because Darley and Latané showed, through this experiment, that people value social etiquette and would not cause a disruption in fear that there was nothing wrong even if the situation involved life-and-death. This experiment is important because it shows that people should take responsibility and not rely on other people who they believe are also involved. This experiment has been applied in the murder of Catherine Genovese, where thirty-eight witnesses did not respond. Her murder lasted over thirty-five minutes and involved three separate attacks. Even though Genovese called for help there was no response from the witnesses. Darley’s and Latané’s findings can be applied in this preventable murder because there was large group of witnesses and each individual knew they were in a large group, leaving them thinking that they had minimal responsibility and that someone else would most likely
The members of the cult got defensive because became uncomfortable when the situation did not occur. The significance of Festinger’s experiment where he gave people money in order to lie is because he showed the weakness in behaviourism. It is important because it shows that when a person has a good enough justification they are willing to go back on what they said before. A person without a good enough justification is willing to convince them self into thinking that the lie they told was actually true. This experiment has been applied as an explanation to why the American POWs responded as they did during the Korean War. The Chinese would offer the American soldiers a small amount of rice if they wrote an anti-America essay. The Americans accepted the small reward and later when asked about the essay they agreed with their writing rather than admitting to the trade that was made. By doing this the Chinese were able to convert many Americans to