Why didnt 38 witnesses do anything to try to help Kitty Genovese when they saw her being murdered?

Answer 1

In short, the answer can be summed up as "diffusion of responsibility", which in social psychological terms, translates to the number of persons in the group, dictates how fast a response to emergencies will be given. In other words, the more people to a group, the less likely it is for any individual group member to act "individually" and seek out help. This is so because it is hypothesized that an individual will think to themselves "someone else will call for help", which if all 38 people are thinking this, then who is calling for help? There is also the shock & awe value of a traumatic situation, meaning a shocking event more often than not, can cause delay in a group setting. Think of a fight in a public setting, more often than not, individuals of the "group" gather around first to see whats going on before any type of preventative action is taken to stop the fight. I wish I could remember the exact terminology for these phenomena, but these are the general ideas of those terms. Maybe someone else can fill in any blanks that I may have missed.

Answer 2

because of the Bystander effect which it is a social psychological phenomenon in which the individual do not offer help to a victim in an emergency situation when other people are present and because of the diffusion responsibility, in which everyone assumed that the other have already called the police or helped her.

Answer 3

The phenomenon observed in the Kitty Genovese case is known as the "bystander effect," where individuals are less likely to help in a group setting. Factors like diffusion of responsibility and fear of social consequences may have contributed to the witnesses' inaction. Additionally, some witnesses may have been unaware of the severity of the situation or assumed that others would intervene.