Embedded within his post is a pretty reasonable question that might come up in class: how is the Wal-Mart trampling similar and different from the classic Latane and Darley studies of bystander apathy.
The incident appears to me to be a rather direct example of their one study in which they changed the time pressure on the participants (seminary students). In one condition they were lead to believe they were running late for a studio recording of the sermon they had just memorized on the Good Samaritan parable. In the other condition they were lead to believe they had plenty of time to get to the studio for the same recording. Those under time pressure were less likely to stop to help a person who appeared to be in need. Those rushing into the Wal-Mart doubtless felt they were under time pressure to get to the bargains that had them set the alarm for a wee hour and wait in line in the cold. Of course, the flowchart that Latane and Darley described had several opportunities for people to fail to help in the Wal-Mart situation. Doubtless, many of the on-rushers did not even notice that someone was being trampled. The entrance to large Wal-marts is usually wide enough that something happening on the far side of that entrance might not be noticed by people on the other side. Some who noticed a person down might not necessarily fully process what they were seeing and interpret it as an emergency that required intervention. But even if they did interpret it as an emergency, they knew there were other security folks and other people near the man who would be reasonably thought as more responsible. Even if they stumbled right across the fallen man, they probably wouldn¹t know what they could do to help him in the onrush, I mean, I know I wouldn¹t know what to do without putting myself at similar risk. With all that said, according to news reports, people were trying to get the man out of the rush after he was down, but to no avail. So, some folks who thought maybe they could help also saw people helping and possibly failing and getting injured. Still, I think it may be a good example to bring up in my Social class next semester. Oh, and I see no reason to think that the Olds studies as you describe them have a single thing to do with what happened at the Wal-Mart. The people were not crossing a space in which they were suffering an injury. How can you be sure that you are the only divergent thinking on Tips, by the way? Doesn¹t that depend greatly on the operational definition of divergent? -- Paul Bernhardt Frostburg State University Frostburg, MD, USA On 11/30/08 5:47 PM, "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > > > > Do you remember the classic experiments done by Olds that demonstrated that > rats will cross an electrified grid to press a bar in order to get a > pleasurable stimulation to their brains because it felt so good? > As the only divergent thinker on Tips,I am beginning to speculate that those > shoppers who trampled to death a WAlMart worker were probably under a similar > motivational paradigm.The anticipation of possession of a flat -screen TV > could be construed as a powerful goal that overrides the need to help someone > from dying. > And while on this topic,compare and contrast this incidence with Kitty > Genovese and is there a need > to hypothesize a Black Friday syndrome?Apparently,this type of mob behavior > occurs throughout the U.S(I am not sure about Canada). > Could this also be compared to that of British soccer fans rushing the gates? > And how about Stephen Black and Marie doing a "Queue" study at Wal Mart's 2009 > Black Friday? > > Michael Sylvester,PhD > Daytona Beach,Florida > > > --- > To make changes to your subscription contact: > > Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) > --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
