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The Kitty Genovese Murder and the Social Psychology of Helping the Parable of the 38 Witnesses

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The Kitty Genovese Murder and the Social Psychology of Helping the Parable of the 38 Witnesses The Kitty Genovese Murder and the Social Psychology of Helping The Parable of the 38 Witnesses Rachel Manning University of the West of England, Bristol Mark Levine and Alan Collins Lancaster University This article argues that an iconic event in the history of persistent account of that effect, the idea that bystanders do helping research—the story of the 38 witnesses who re- not intervene because of a diffusion of responsibility and mained inactive during the murder of Kitty Genovese—is that their perceptions of and reactions to potential interven- not supported by the available evidence. Using archive tion situations can be negatively affected by the presence material, the authors show that there is no evidence for the (imagined or real) of others. presence of 38 witnesses, or that witnesses observed the Yet, as we show with extracts from transcripts of the murder, or that witnesses remained inactive. Drawing a trial of Winston Mosley for the murder of Kitty Genovese distinction between the robust bystander research tradition (and other legal documents associated with the case), the and the story of the 38 witnesses, the authors explore the story of the 38 witnesses is not supported by the available consequences of the story for the discipline of psychology. evidence. Moreover, despite this absence of evidence, the They argue that the story itself plays a key role in psychol- story continues to inhabit introductory social psychology ogy textbooks. They also suggest that the story marks a new textbooks (and thus the minds of future social psycholo- way of conceptualizing the dangers of immersion in social gists). It remains one of the key ideas that social psychol- groups. Finally, they suggest that the story itself has be- ogy has given away to the public at large, and the story has come a modern parable, the telling of which has served to appeared in a variety of popular cultural forms including a limit the scope of inquiry into emergency helping. graphic novel (Moore & Gibbons, 1986) and a motion picture, The Boondock Saints (Duffy, 1999). We suggest Keywords: Kitty Genovese, bystander intervention, para- that, almost from its inception, the story of the 38 witnesses ble, groups, helping became a kind of modern parable—the antonym of the parable of the good Samaritan. Whereas the good Samar- everal past presidents of the American Psycholog- itan parable venerates the individual who helps while oth- ical Association (APA) have used the pages of the ers walk by, the story of the 38 witnesses in psychology SAmerican Psychologist to extol the virtues of giv- tells of the malign influence of others to overwhelm the will ing psychology away to the general public. George Miller’s of the individual. The power of the story comes from the (1969) presidential address to the APA was the first to moral lesson about the dangers of the group and how the argue for a socially engaged discipline that envisioned presence of others can undermine the bonds of neighborly psychology “as a means of promoting human welfare” (p. concern. We argue that the repeated telling of the parable 1064). This was echoed over three decades later in Philip of the 38 witnesses has served to curtail the imaginative Zimbardo’s APA presidential address in which he reflected space of helping research in social psychology. Moreover, on the capacity of social psychological knowledge to offer although we are keen to argue that the Kitty Genovese a more positive contribution to social welfare and social incident has been repeatedly misrepresented, our major life (Zimbardo, 2004). concern is not so much with revisionist history as with the It is with these clarion calls in mind that we revisit one functions of the story as a parable. We argue that these of the most powerful and influential moments in the history functions are particularly dependent on the form and con- of social psychology. The story of the 38 witnesses who watched from their apartments (and then failed to inter- vene) while Kitty Genovese was murdered on the street Rachel Manning, School of Psychology, University of the West of En- gland, Bristol, England; Mark Levine and Alan Collins, Department of below has an iconic place in social psychology. The events Psychology, Lancaster University, Lancaster, England. of that night in New York in 1964 paved the way for the We acknowledge the support and assistance of Joseph De May Jr. development of one of the most robust phenomena in social and John Hogan in providing both materials and helpful comments in the psychology—Latane´ and Darley’s (1970) bystander effect course of the development of this article. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to (the finding that individuals are more likely to help when Rachel Manning, School of Psychology, University of the West of En- alone than when in the company of others). These events gland, Coldharbour Lane, Bristol, BS16 1QY, United Kingdom. E-mail: also led to the development of the most influential and [email protected] September 2007 ● American Psychologist 555 Copyright 2007 by the American Psychological Association 0003-066X/07/$12.00 Vol. 62, No. 6, 555–562 DOI: 10.1037/0003-066X.62.6.555 others inhibits helping. It does not matter to the bystander effect that the story of the 38 witnesses may be miscon- ceived. As Merton and Barber (2006) pointed out, there are plenty of important discoveries in the history of the human sciences that have emerged from such serendipitous cir- cumstances. We are not, therefore, claiming that challenges to the story of the 38 witnesses invalidate the tradition of work on bystander intervention, nor are we saying that bystanders fail to intervene in serious incidents when it would appear that they both could and should. Moreover, we do not here explore in detail why this particular murder at this particular time and place led to such a major research effort and why it appears to have so captured the imagination of psychologists, police, and the public. However, just as certain crimes become signal crimes (Innes, 2004)—that is, incidents constructed as warning signals about the distribution of risks across social space—so too the 38 witnesses story that envelops the Kitty Genovese murder seemed to signal something about the wider culture. Rachel Finally, we want also to avoid perpetuating the unre- Manning flexive collapsing of the sexual assault and murder of Kitty Genovese with the story of the 38 witnesses. As Cherry (1995) pointed out, these events have been folded together within the discipline of psychology with particular conse- tent of the story as it is typically presented in social quences. Outside psychology, the focus has been on other psychology texts. We also argue that this story has been of things. For example, Brownmiller (1975) explored the fate considerable importance and requires correction or at least of Kitty Genovese as a way of examining forms of male qualification (e.g., Harris, 1979). violence in a patriarchal society. The story of Kitty Although the bystander effect has become one of the Genovese is much more than the story of the 38 witnesses. most robust and reproduced in the discipline (Dovidio, However, what matters for the present purposes is the 1984; Latane´ & Nida, 1981), it has been noted that research perseverance of the story of the 38 witnesses and the way on helping behavior lacks utility (Latane´ & Nida, 1981). A it has populated and dominated the imagination of those clear illustration of this is the failure of helping research to who think about helping behavior in emergencies. merit inclusion in Zimbardo’s (2004) catalogue of the positive contributions that psychology has made to social The Murder of Kitty Genovese life. We suggest that the story of the 38 witnesses, and its Kitty Genovese was murdered and sexually assaulted early message that groups have a negative effect on helping, has in the morning of March 13, 1964, in the Kew Gardens caused psychologists to be slow to look for the ways in district of Queens, New York. Although a report of the which the power of groups can be harnessed to promote killing appeared the same day in the Long Island Press intervention. By looking at the generation, perseverance, (“Woman, 28, Knifed to Death,” 1964), the story of the 38 and consequences of the story of the 38 witnesses, we witnesses was developed by two journalists, Martin Gans- reflect on how new, more positively orientated strands of berg and A. M. Rosenthal. Gansberg (1964) wrote the first helping research can be generated to sit alongside the article on the 38 witnesses for the New York Times two canonical work in this tradition. weeks after the Genovese murder. Gansberg’s now famous article, published on March 27th on page 1 of the New York The Parable of the 38 Witnesses Times, opened under the headline “37 Who Saw Murder We begin with some important clarifications. First, in seek- Didn’t Call the Police. Apathy at Stabbing of Queens ing to challenge the story of the 38 witnesses, this article Woman Shocks Inspector”: draws a clear distinction between the story itself and the For more than half an hour thirty-eight respectable, law-abiding research tradition that emerged in response to it. The story citizens in Queens watched a killer stalk and stab a woman in of the 38 witnesses undoubtedly prompted Latane´ and three separate attacks in Kew Gardens. Twice, the sound of their Darley (1968, 1970) to begin the work that demonstrated voices and the sudden glow of their bedroom lights interrupted the bystander effect (Evans, 1980). These laboratory stud- him and frightened him off.
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