Why don't people help others?

This is part 1 of 4 on this topic, so stay tuned for follow up posts on this topic. In this post I want to introduce concepts relating to why people don't help others in need. The 2nd part will expand on this post with similar ideas and concepts. The 3rd part will explain that it is not just a New York City problem, as this post might make people think. The last part will go into factors that increase or decrease the likelihood someone will help another person.

In a previous post I mentioned a homeless man in New York City that was stabbed. This news story made international headlines because the homeless man was trying to help a woman out when he was stabbed, and as he was dying, people ignored him. People were disgusted by it and wanted to find someone or something to blame. Some blamed New York City, some blamed the political parties. It is easy to see why people were outraged and disgusted.

When I first heard about this, I was disappointed and saddened by it, but I was not surprised about it. I did not go demanding answers or try to find someone to blame for it. The reason why is because we already know the answers for this behavior. This is part of why I want to share research and ideas from Psychology. This is behavior that I believe people were made aware of it, then it might not happen quite so much. It is behavior that with understanding, it can be stopped.

Quite often it is negative events that researchers get ideas from. In this case, we need to go back to a horrible murder (also in New York City) that happened on March 13th, 1964. It was the horrendous murder of Kitty Genovese that got a lot of attention. She was stabbed twice near her home, the perpetrator was scared off by the noise she made. He came back and stabbed her some more, and stole some money from her. This caused a huge uproar because her neighbors heard it happening, but almost none of them did anything. In fact, the story of Kitty Genovese played an important role in the movie Boondock Saints. Please note that in the clip, they changed the actual events a little, such as it says it happened in broad daylight, when it actually happened in the middle of the night. It is still a great clip and can possibly thought of as inspiring.



This inspired two social psychologists, John Darley and Bibb Latané to research this behavior. In their first experiment, they had a participant communicating with a confederate (someone whose actions were scripted by the researchers, but participants aren't aware of that) through an intercom. The confederate would have a fake seizure and call for help. Darley and Latané measured the response times of the participants. What they found is that the more participants in the room, the less likely they were to help the confederate. They termed this the Bystander Effect, which is the idea that the more people who are present, the less likely we are to help someone in an emergency. This is also connected to the diffusion of responsibility, which says that the more people that are around, the more we expect that someone else will help. We feel less responsible for helping someone. Obviously, if there is no one else around, there is no diffusion of responsibility, because we cannot pass it on the anyone else.

Stay tuned for part 2 on this topic, where we continue to explore this form of human behavior.

The Angel and Devil on your Shoulder

There is a good chance that you have watched some television show or a movie where they referenced Sigmund Freud (pronounced froid). Most likely, when they referenced Freud, they made some comment dealing with sex and someone's mother. These comments are referring to Freud's Psychosexual Stages, which is a theory of human development. I will not be talking to you about that today, despite it being important in the history of psychology, I do not support this theory.

Freud came up with plenty of theories, and there is one that almost everyone (at least in more western societies) is already aware of, they just don't know it yet. I would like to talk about Freud's theory about the id (if you say the word stupid, the end is how you pronounce id), the ego, and the super-ego. Even if those terms are unfamiliar, I would bet that you are already familiar with the concepts. Here is a hint:




The concept of an angel and a devil on your shoulder is basically Freud's theory dealing with the id, the ego, and the super-ego.

The id is the imaginary devil that appears on the shoulder. The id is a pleasure-seeking part of the mind, it ignores the possible consequences, and focuses on the possible pleasure that can come from a behavior. It lacks morals, and is self-serving. Freud described it as a “striving to bring about the satisfaction of the instinctual needs...”

While the imaginary angel on the shoulder is the super-ego. It is also known as someone's conscious. It represents our ideals, our sense of right and wrong. It is trying to keep the id under control so that we can act in socially accepted ways.

The last piece is the ego, which is represented by our head stuck between the angel and the devil on our shoulder. The ego is basically the judge, it mediates between the id and the super-ego, in order to come up with the proper action to take. It pretty much weighs the pros and cons between what the id and the super-ego want.

A problem with this theory is that there is no way to support it. We cannot prove the existence of an id or a super-ego. All we are aware of is that when we have to make a decision, there is an inner conflict that we listen to.

So the next time you see a movie or a television show where someone listens to an angel and a devil on their shoulder, remember where it came from.

The Purpose of this Blog

It seems like much of human life is spent searching for answers to questions. Where would we be if people did not actively do this? Someone had to look at a bird and want to know how birds can accomplish that. This occurs everyday, people face a situation and want an explanation for it. What many people may not know is that a lot of questions may have been asked by others, who actively searched for answers. A few months ago, a homeless man was stabbed in New York City while he was actually trying to help someone out. Sadly, people ignored the man and he died. This made national news and left many people wondering why it happened. When I heard about this story, I was saddened by it, but I already knew the answers to the questions people were asking.

I feel that there is a large disconnect from the public and all the scientific research that is being done. Having read my share of research articles, it is easy to understand why this happens. As I continue to more involved in the field of Psychology, there are times when I can feel this disconnect happening. Recently, I have tried to explain to people how a certain academic test is considered “highly reliable” but I forget that most people are not exactly sure what it means when I say that. I have tried to explain aspects of psychology to my parents and they just give me a blank look. My hope is that with this blog I help create a way for people who don't have degrees in Psychology to learn, ask questions, and to help myself be able to explain why I am passionate about Psychology to anyone.

It is important to note that Psychology is a complicated field for several reasons. The first being that everything is subject to individual interpretation. People can see the same behavior and have very different explanations for why it happened. Naturally, this blog will deal with my interpretations of anything I talk about. Other people may disagree with my interpretation, but the purpose is to at least introduce concepts for people to think about. The second reason is that it is an always evolving field. Theories and explanations change all the time as new research gets done. Lastly, Psychology is a field dealing with probabilities. It helps to say this is what will most likely happen when someone is placed in a certain situation and environment, but it is never a guarantee that it will happen that way. There is always people who defy the odds and behave different than expected.

It is because of the variability in Psychology that I have so much passion for it. With all the different explanations and viewpoints, it invites discussion and debate. It invites people to keep thinking and using their brains. I love the flexibility because it allows the field to evolve and grow in a proper way. The more opinions and ideas that are researched, the more likely we are to find the real answer. This is why I strongly encourage people to share their opinions if they disagree, that is part of the spirit of Psychology.

I have hopes that this blog will be education for both whoever reads it and myself.

- Jeff