Would You Help A Stranger ?

I was reading an article the other day about a psychological phenomenon called the bystander effect. It refers to cases where individuals witnessing someone in an emergency situation do not offer any means of help to the victim when other people are present.

The effect was first demonstrated, in the laboratory, by social psychologists John Darley and Bibb Latané, in 1968, after they became interested in the topic of bystander apathy following the murder of Kitty Genovese in 1964.

Kitty Genovese

The case of Kitty Genovese is often cited as the archetypal example of the bystander effect.  For those who don't know the details, Genovese, 28 years old, was stabbed to death on March 13, 1964. She was on her way back from work, to her apartment in Queens, New York, in the early hours of the morning when she was attacked by a serial rapist and murderer. According to contemporary newspaper accounts, the attack lasted for at least a half an hour, during which time Genovese screamed and pleaded for help. The attacker eventually fled the scene after attracting the attention of a neighbor, only to return ten minutes later and finish the assault. Newspaper reports after Genovese's death claimed that 38 witnesses watched the stabbings and failed to intervene or even contact the police until after the attacker fled and Genovese had died.
The case, understandably, became something of a cause célèbre and although the facts, as reported by the press, have since been disputed, the story's power as an example of the callousness of the denizens of large cities, and perhaps more generally that of all modern humanity, makes it suitable as a telling parable on the attitudes prevalent in contemporary life. The strength of the story lies too in its ability to make the hearer think on how they would respond in the same circumstances; although it's unlikely that many of us really answer truthfully. So, how do we explain how this sort of thing can happen?

Explanations

There are, in fact, many reasons why bystanders in groups fail to act in emergency situations, but social psychologists have focused most of their attention on two major factors. According to a basic principle of social influence, bystanders monitor the reactions of other people in an emergency situation to see if others think that it is necessary to intervene. Since everyone is doing exactly the same thing (nothing), they all conclude from the inaction of others that help is not needed. This is an example of pluralistic ignorance or social proof. The other major obstacle to intervention is known as diffusion of responsibility. This occurs when observers all assume that someone else is going to intervene and so each individual feels less responsible and refrains from doing anything.

Whatever the explanation, Kitty's tragic story resonated through the public conscience. This led to widespread public attention, and many hand-wringing editorials.

Predictably,  the story, grisly and dramatic as it is,  also provided material for artists and the sad tale of Kitty Genovese began to permeate through modern culture. It's one of the most thoughtful and succesful of these that I'd like to bring to your attention today.

Phil Ochs

Folk singer Phil Ochs was inspired by Kitty Genovese's murder to write the 1967 song "Outside of a Small Circle of Friends". This song relates five different situations that, ostensibly, should demand action on the part of the narrator, but in each case the narrator is left to conclude that "I'm sure it wouldn't interest anybody outside of a small circle of friends"

Outside A Small Circle of Friends

Look outside the window, there's a woman being grabbed
They've dragged her to the bushes and now she's being stabbed
Maybe we should call the cops and try to stop the pain
But Monopoly is so much fun, I'd hate to blow the game
And I'm sure it wouldn't interest anybody
Outside of a small circle of friends.

Riding down the highway, yes, my back is getting stiff
Thirteen cars are piled up, they're hanging on a cliff.
Maybe we should pull them back with our towing chain
But we gotta move and we might get sued and it looks like it's gonna rain
And I'm sure it wouldn't interest anybody
Outside of a small circle of friends.

Sweating in the ghetto with the colored and the poor
The rats have joined the babies who are sleeping on the floor
Now wouldn't it be a riot if they really blew their tops?
But they got too much already and besides we got the cops
And I'm sure it wouldn't interest anybody
Outside of a small circle of friends.

Oh there's a dirty paper using sex to make a sale
The Supreme Court was so upset, they sent him off to jail.
Maybe we should help the fiend and take away his fine.
But we're busy reading Playboy and the Sunday New York Times
And I'm sure it wouldn't interest anybody
Outside of a small circle of friends

Smoking marihuana is more fun than drinking beer,
But a friend of ours was captured and they gave him thirty years
Maybe we should raise our voices, ask somebody why
But demonstrations are a drag, besides we're much too high
And I'm sure it wouldn't interest anybody
Outside of a small circle of friends

Oh look outside the window, there's a woman being grabbed
They've dragged her to the bushes and now she's being stabbed
Maybe we should call the cops and try to stop the pain
But Monopoly is so much fun, I'd hate to blow the game
And I'm sure it wouldn't interest anybody
Outside of a small circle of friends

[ Additional verse, 1974]

Down in Santiago where they took away our mines
We cut off all their money so they robbed the storehouse blind
Now maybe we should ask some questions, maybe shed a tear
But I bet you a copper penny, it cannot happen here
And I'm sure it wouldn't interest anybody
Outside of a small circle of friends

Ochs was an American protest singer (or, as he preferred, a topical singer) and songwriter. He is as well-known now, however, for his prolific social activism and his unfortunate sad decline and early death. His song writing is notable for its mixture of sharp wit, sardonic humor and earnest humanism. He wrote literally hundreds of songs in the 1960s and released eight albums in his lifetime. He eventually took his own life in 1976, aged just 35.

Phil, sadly, may no longer be with us, but as I read about the bystander effect and the story of Kitty Genovese, and I thought about Phil's response to it, and his response to many of life's injustices, it made me realise how little things have changed since then. We still have crushing poverty in developing countries and crushing inequalities of wealth in developed countries. We still have institutionalised racism. We still have armed robbery masquerading as foreign policy. We still have the press spreading misinformation to divide the workers and keep them weak. 

We could stand up for our brothers and sisters in Greece and Spain. We could stand up for the brutalised and oppressed Palestinian people. We could stand up and say 'No More War!'
We could fight every day with every fibre in our bodies for the disposessed, the wrongly-imprisoned, the humble, the old, the poor, the ill, the weak and the vulnerable. 

As Phil might say, "Someone must, and if not us, then who else?"


Ray

Gordon adds:
Phil Ochs is one of my favourite singer-songwriters of all time, for me, even better than Dylan. My favourite song of his is 'Changes' from his 1966 Live LP. The version on there (which is the last song of the concert) is so emotional that his voice cracks on the final verse and literally catches the breath. It's a song that could be about America and the fact that the youth are starting to have their say, or it could also be about Phil looking back at his own youth and feeling melancholy about its passing. That makes the song even more moving, given what we now know about Phil's Bipolar disorder and his early death.
Unfortunately, that particular version isn't on Youtube, but this equally emotive version is: