Page 67 - The Social Animal

Conformity 49

serious emergency situations, like those faced by Kitty Genovese and
Eleanor Bradley, is unclear.
More convincing explanations have been suggested by a series
of ingenious experiments conducted by John Darley, Bibb Latane,
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and their colleagues. These investigators hypothesized that the
large number of people witnessing the tragedies militated against
anyone’s helping—that is, a victim is less likely to get help if a large
number of people are watching his or her distress. Thus, noninter-
vention can be viewed as an act of conformity. In this case it appears
that, for each individual, the other people were defining the reason-
ableness and appropriateness of helping or not helping. As we have
seen, it is often reasonable to take one’s cue from others. Occasion-
ally, however, it can be misleading, and it tends to be particularly
misleading in critical situations. In our society, it is considered “un-
cool” to reveal strong emotions in public. When we are with others,
most of us try to appear less fearful, less worried, less anxious, or less
sexually aroused than we really are. For example, from the blasé
looks on the faces of the patrons of topless nightclubs, one would
never guess that they were turned on or even interested. Similarly,
the proverbial visitor from Mars would never suspect the anxiety of
the patients in a dentist’s waiting room by observing the impassive
looks on their faces.
With these things in mind, let us consider the case of the woman
who fell and broke her leg on Fifth Avenue. Suppose you arrived at
the scene 10 minutes after she fell. You see a woman lying on the
ground in apparent discomfort. What else do you see? You see scores
of people walking past the woman, glancing at her, and continuing
on their way. How will you define the situation? You may conclude
that it’s inappropriate for you to intervene. Perhaps it’s not serious;
perhaps she’s intoxicated; perhaps she is playacting; perhaps the
whole thing is staged for “Candid Camera,” and you will make a fool
of yourself on national television if you intervene. “After all,” you ask
yourself, “if it’s so damn important, why are none of these other peo-
ple doing anything about it?” Thus, the fact that there are a lot of
other people around, rather than increasing the likelihood that some-
one will help, actually decreases the likelihood that any one of them
will help. 50
This is an interesting conjecture, but is it true? To find out, Bibb
Latane and Judith Rodin conducted an experiment constructed
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