Book Author: Lauren Slater CHAPTER 4: In the Unlikely Event of a Water Landing
Summary
Lauren Slater relates the 1964 New York crime in which a woman was stabbed and raped by a man at 3 o'clock in the morning, while witnesses did not intervene. She goes on to explain Darley and Latane's experiments conducted at New York University, to attempt to figure out why nobody intervened to the woman's aid even though they had plenty of time to do so. In their first experiment, Darley and Latane put a student in a room who thought other students had been placed in other rooms. One by one, they were talking about issues they had (The student was actually hearing a tape recording), and at some point you could hear from the tape a student faking a seizure. The goal was to find out whether the student would want to take action and interrupt the experiment. Darley and Latane's experiment confirmed Millgram's experiments, but most importantly showed inaction due to numbers. When in a large group, we are less likely to take immediate action to help someone. The second experiment consisted in putting two students in a room, and while they were filling up a questionnaire, some non lethal gas would be released in the room. When the student who was aiding in setting up the experiment did not react, the other student would not panick and continue filling his questionnaire. This revealed we preferred cues, eventhough we felt like acting otherwise.
Lauren Slater relates the 1964 New York crime in which a woman was stabbed and raped by a man at 3 o'clock in the morning, while witnesses did not intervene. She goes on to explain Darley and Latane's experiments conducted at New York University, to attempt to figure out why nobody intervened to the woman's aid even though they had plenty of time to do so. In their first experiment, Darley and Latane put a student in a room who thought other students had been placed in other rooms. One by one, they were talking about issues they had (The student was actually hearing a tape recording), and at some point you could hear from the tape a student faking a seizure. The goal was to find out whether the student would want to take action and interrupt the experiment. Darley and Latane's experiment confirmed Millgram's experiments, but most importantly showed inaction due to numbers. When in a large group, we are less likely to take immediate action to help someone. The second experiment consisted in putting two students in a room, and while they were filling up a questionnaire, some non lethal gas would be released in the room. When the student who was aiding in setting up the experiment did not react, the other student would not panick and continue filling his questionnaire. This revealed we preferred cues, eventhough we felt like acting otherwise.
Slater finally enumerates the five stages of helping behavior, and explained how people who learned about Darley and Latane's experiments were more likely to help others in the future.
Discussion
The murder Slater relates is quite gruesome, and shocking, but more shocking is the revelation that there were nearly 38 bystanders who did not intervene. Darley and Latane's important experiments gives us some explanation to this inexplicable action, and enlightens us on how we react due to the presence of others.
The murder Slater relates is quite gruesome, and shocking, but more shocking is the revelation that there were nearly 38 bystanders who did not intervene. Darley and Latane's important experiments gives us some explanation to this inexplicable action, and enlightens us on how we react due to the presence of others.
I think you swapped the Discussion and Summary Section. Just change the name of it in the Book Readings.
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