Hopefully i can reach out to you people reading this.

Catherine Genovese, the young woman who was stabbed to death in the parking lot in front of her building while reportedly 38 onlookers/witnesses did nothing to help - either thinking it was a lover’s quarrel, a drunken scuffle, prank by kids, etc, even though she screamed, “Oh my God! He stabbed me! Help me!” One phone call was made, but never acted on by the police in time - the severity of the situation failed to be reported by the caller, who thought the young woman was just beaten up, not stabbed. -1964

the evidence of what society as become. not the degeneration of the moral of the individual. but the lack thereof as a group.

People call it urban depersonalisation or megalopolitian societal behavior, but it basically boils down to one thing: the dangers of social proof.


2 reasons:

the perhaps someone has done it reasoning:

with the presence of all that potential passerbys, the personal responsibility of each indiviual is reduced. so since everyone thinks someone would have already helped, no one does.

the pluralistic ignorance effect:

this one is basically the main source this kinda shit. imagine a hypothetical solution. Is the man lying in the alley a heart-attack victim or a drunk sleeping one off? The commotion next door, an assault or just another loud marital spat? don't know. natural tendency is to look around.. thats where the problem lies. everyone is doing exactly the same thing. so since we all prefer to appear poised and unflustered among others, we are likely to search for that evidence placidly.. and since everyone else is gonna act the same way. result? stationary morons bounded by the principle of social proof.

and hence the : old person on train, no one acts. = people will give seat la, i wont need to stand up..

yada yada.

so yea, see anything out of ordinary, Act. embarassment is of the last priority if something like the human life is of concern...

i know some of you may be thinking, it's none of my business anyway... so why bother knowing it?

well what happens if it's You in the scenario..

right, if that happens to you basically, do NOT appeal in the general direction for help. chances are, you'll just get another group of passerbys literally serving their function: passing by.

while calling HELP may draw attention. most probably it stops there. so yea.

call out and isolate any individual for help. by doing so, you dispell any uncertainty on the part of that stranger and bring out that innate individual concern from that veneer of societal apathy.

the effect. one person steps up to help. more will follow. social effect again. but used to Your advantage.
..

okay i dunno why i'm suddenly saying this on the blog.. but i guess reading bout it really made me feel as if something ought to be done.. at least more people know about such a thing as social proof and its dastardly effects and how it can be used to help yourselves..

and let's hope that no more would a Catherine Genovese incident happen in our country.

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hell i love reading such books.. social science= awesome :)

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hmm good friday so far has been pretty gd...

went to airport to send mum off to hongkong, half way thru psychology of persuasion, doing up thermo tutorial and the organic mcq later, went thru abit of othello in the morning.. maybe i'll do some maths at night :)

fruitful.