The first studies of bystander intervention conducted by Latané and Darley in 1968 were laboratory experiments (where the victim was only heard and only other participants were seen). Piliavin et al. (1969) wanted to take the research out of the laboratory and into the real world in order to enhance mundane realism and ecological validity.
Both teams were at least in part prompted by the the murder of Kitty Genovese in 1964. Reports in the New York Times left little doubt that the 38 witnesses knew a serious crime was being committed. The fact that the victim was stabbed on three separate occasions and cried out for help each time must have conveyed to any witnesses that no-one else had got help, making it difficult to use diffusion of responsibility as a justification for not intervening themselves. The reasons given by the witnesses for not intervening suggest that bystander apathy (Latané and Darley 1970) is a simplistic explanation of their (non-)behaviour.
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