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...an choice: Individuation, reason, and order versus deindividuation, impulse, and chaos’. In recent years there have been critiques of this classic approach to deindividuation phenomena (Deiner, 1980; =-=Postmes & Spears, 1998-=-). However, these critiques have focused on the question of rationality – or more specifically whether the violence that sometimes emerges under deindividuation conditions can be explained not in term...

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...able importance and requires correction or at least qualification (e.g. Harris, 1979). Despite the fact that the ‘bystander effect’ has become one of the most robust and reproduced in the discipline (=-=Latané & Nida, 1981-=-; Dovidio, 1984), it has been noted that research on helping behavior lacks utility (Latané & Nida, 1981). A clear illustration of this is the failure of helping research to merit inclusion in Zimbard...

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... terms of universal aspects of human nature. The features of accounts from this period have become a familiar intellectual backdrop to psychological work on crowds and collective behavior in general (=-=Herman, 1995-=-). Inthis tradition, crowds are a dangerous threat to social stability; crowds and people in crowds lack rationality; the irrationality of crowds is contagious; crowds are suggestible and credulous; ...

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...vasive. As an illustration, we took ten of the most popular textbooks aimed at the undergraduate market (Aronson, 1988; Aronson, Wilson & Akert, 2005; Baron & Byrne, 2003; Brehm, Kassim & Fein, 2002; =-=Brown, 1986-=-; Franzoi, 2003; Hogg and Vaughan, 2005; Moghaddam, 1998; Myers, 2005; Sabini, 1995). The Kitty Genovese story appears in all of them. In seven books it is accorded its own text box, subsection or pic...

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...heories of group behavior. For example, classic deindividuation theory incorporates several of the assumptions about dangers of violence and instability that might result from immersion in the group (=-=Reicher, 1987-=-). It comes as no surprise therefore that Zimbardo’s (1970) seminal work on classical deindividuation theory is entitled ‘The human choice: Individuation, reason, and order versus deindividuation, imp...

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...ir way into both introductory and other social psychology texts. But when they do they are often stories of individuals who act in a pro-social way in spite of the presence of others (see for example =-=Oliner & Oliner, 1988-=-). There are very few attempts to explore the potential contributions that groups and group processes can bring to promoting collective intervention in emergencies. There are, of course, elements of t...

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...equires correction or at least qualification (e.g. Harris, 1979). Despite the fact that the ‘bystander effect’ has become one of the most robust and reproduced in the discipline (Latané & Nida, 1981; =-=Dovidio, 1984-=-), it has been noted that research on helping behavior lacks utility (Latané & Nida, 1981). A clear illustration of this is the failure of helping research to merit inclusion in Zimbardo’s catalogue o...

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... and content of the story as it is typically presented in social psychology texts. We argue that this story has been of considerable importance and requires correction or at least qualification (e.g. =-=Harris, 1979-=-). Despite the fact that the ‘bystander effect’ has become one of the most robust and reproduced in the discipline (Latané & Nida, 1981; Dovidio, 1984), it has been noted that research on helping beha...

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...rocess is not designed to defraud the public. It emerges as “a byproduct of pedagogy: as a means to elucidate the concepts of scientific specialty, to establish atradition, and to attract students” (=-=Samelson, 1974-=-, p. 233). This tradition is also highlighted by Lubek and colleagues (Lubek, 1993; Stam, Lubek & Radtke, 1998) who suggest that social psychology textbooks “serve a knowledge-conserving function for ...

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...e to thrive inside social psychology? We suggest that the continued presence of the 38 witnesses story in introductory textbooks is particularly problematic. As a number of scholars have pointed out (=-=Morawski, 1992-=-; Smyth, 2001a, 2001b), textbooks (in general) are important because they present the content and parameters of a discipline to potential new members of that discipline. In addition, they are one of t...

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...escribed as crowds, have been portrayed as dangerous entities. It was at the end of the nineteenth century that crowds and crowd behavior became a particular focus of interest in the social sciences (=-=Nye, 1975-=-, van Ginneken, 1992). Most commonly, these were attempts to explain crowd behavior in terms of universal aspects of human nature. The features of accounts from this period have become a familiar inte...

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...alled after the woman was dead. (Gansberg, 1964, p. 1) Later in 1964 the story was developed into a short book, ‘Thirty Eight Witnesses’, by the then Metropolitan Editor of the paper A. M. Rosenthal (=-=Rosenthal, 1964-=-). Just as the original 38 witnesses story provoked Latané and Darley’s landmark research program, reports of the incident in social psychology (commonly found alongside the work of Latané and Darley)...

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... incident in social psychology (commonly found alongside the work of Latané and Darley) are pervasive. As an illustration, we took ten of the most popular textbooks aimed at the undergraduate market (=-=Aronson, 1988-=-; Aronson, Wilson & Akert, 2005; Baron & Byrne, 2003; Brehm, Kassim & Fein, 2002; Brown, 1986; Franzoi, 2003; Hogg and Vaughan, 2005; Moghaddam, 1998; Myers, 2005; Sabini, 1995). The Kitty Genovese st...

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... story itself and the research tradition that emerged in response to it. The story of the 38 witnesses undoubtedly prompted Latané and Darley to begin the work that demonstrated the bystander effect (=-=Evans, 1980-=-). These laboratory studies were elegant, inventive and extremely persuasive. By focusing on real life behavior inemergencies – but varying the number of people believed to be present – Latané and Da...

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... as a means to elucidate the concepts of scientific specialty, to establish atradition, and to attract students” (Samelson, 1974, p. 233). This tradition is also highlighted by Lubek and colleagues (=-=Lubek, 1993-=-; Stam, Lubek & Radtke, 1998) who suggest that social psychology textbooks “serve a knowledge-conserving function for the discipline…there is a great deal of temporal consistency, a shared core of mat...

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...h sentence. (Instead, it appears to have gained currency in the second half of the twentieth century starting with its mistaken inclusion in the edition of Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations of 1968, see =-=Boller and George, 1989-=- 2 ). By challenging the story of the 38 witnesses, we begin to uncover alternative formulations of the potential of the group in the context of helping behavior. Of course, there is important researc...

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...ttacker for the full 30 minutes becausethey were only visible to them for a few moments; there were two separate attacks not three (a point which was corrected in later New York Times articles, e.g. =-=Dowd, 1984-=-); the second attack occurred inside part of a building where only a small number of potential witnesses could have seen it; Kitty was still alive when the police arrived at the scene. Each of these p...

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... has ‘given away’ to the public at large and the story has appeared in a variety of popular cultural forms including a graphic novel (Moore & Gibbons, 1995) and a motion picture, The Boondock Saints (=-=Duffy, 1999-=-). We will suggest that, almost from its inception, the story of the 38 witnesses became a kind of modern parable– the antonym of the parable of the ‘Good Samaritan’. Where the ‘Good Samaritan’ parab...

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... residents. For example, a cluster of newspaper reports accompanying Moseley’s unsuccessful application for a retrial in 1995 report Kew Gardens’ residents’ claims that calls were made to the police (=-=Fried, 1995-=-, Sexton, 1995; Taylor 1995). These reports also make the point that calls were made despite the difficulties of contacting the police at the time. There was no 911 system in place in 1964 and calls t...

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...rrupted him and frightened him off. Each time he returned, sought her out and stabbed her again. Not one person telephoned the police during the assault; one witness called after the woman was dead. (=-=Gansberg, 1964-=-, p. 1) Later in 1964 the story was developed into a short book, ‘Thirty Eight Witnesses’, by the then Metropolitan Editor of the paper A. M. Rosenthal (Rosenthal, 1964). Just as the original 38 witne...

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...we took ten of the most popular textbooks aimed at the undergraduate market (Aronson, 1988; Aronson, Wilson & Akert, 2005; Baron & Byrne, 2003; Brehm, Kassim & Fein, 2002; Brown, 1986; Franzoi, 2003; =-=Hogg and Vaughan, 2005-=-; Moghaddam, 1998; Myers, 2005; Sabini, 1995). The Kitty Genovese story appears in all of them. In seven books it is accorded its own text box, subsection or picture. In two, the story is used both as...

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...hat night’, and makes the claim that a journalist sent to investigate the original story came back and told his editor not to run the story because the witnesses did not exist in the numbers claimed (=-=Melia, 1984-=-). However, although alternative and apparently more accurate accounts of the incident are becoming more readily available (see for example Rasenberger, 2004, 2006; Takooshian et al, 2005), most recen...

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....), suggests a rather different picture of the events on that night. De May Jr’s meticulous analysis has taken place over the last several years and it has deservedly begun to attract attention (e.g. =-=Rasenberger, 2004-=-, Takooshian et al, 2005), though the implication of our argument is that it deserves still more. De May Jr has identified errors of fact and misleading wording in the original report by Gansberg. For...

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... undergraduate market (Aronson, 1988; Aronson, Wilson & Akert, 2005; Baron & Byrne, 2003; Brehm, Kassim & Fein, 2002; Brown, 1986; Franzoi, 2003; Hogg and Vaughan, 2005; Moghaddam, 1998; Myers, 2005; =-=Sabini, 1995-=-). The Kitty Genovese story appears in all of them. In seven books it is accorded its own text box, subsection or picture. In two, the story is used both as an exemplar of helping behavior and as a gu...

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...cluster of newspaper reports accompanying Moseley’s unsuccessful application for a retrial in 1995 report Kew Gardens’ residents’ claims that calls were made to the police (Fried, 1995, Sexton, 1995; =-=Taylor 1995-=-). These reports also make the point that calls were made despite the difficulties of contacting the police at the time. There was no 911 system in place in 1964 and calls to the local police station ...