Timothy Milne Blog Post 1

1) Darley and Latane's "Diffusion of Responsibility effect" is something that many people experience even though they may not realize it. They explain this effect using the Kitty Genovese case. In this case, more than 30 people stood around and watched a women get attacked repeatedly without making any attempt to intervene. the "diffusion of responsibility effect" describes these actions by saying that a person is less likely to try and intervene in a situation if there are other bystanders, because they have the mentality that someone else will.

This phenomena is observed in a recent event in a subway station. As a group of teens attack another teen, all of the people around them just stand and observe rather than try to stop the fighting. some of these bystanders even included subway officials. the bystanders didn't intervene in the situation because they most likely thought the officials would handle it, however nobody did.

2) I do not agree with the claim that the united states has become a nation of strangers who are alienated or withdrawn from others. in many cases, a bystander helps a situation, and this is seen in many stories reported by news stations. For example one recent story consisted of a 7 year old boy saving his whole family from robbers. He and his sister hid in a bathroom to call the police. the robbers ran off after they found the boy, who told them that he had called. In a personal situation, i intervened when a couple of other teens decided to get into a fight. Also, a few of my friends helped in the same situation.

Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/10/ap/national/main6284118.shtml?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+CBSNewsVideoISP+(ISP:+CBSNews.com)