Hey there

One of the most cited stories in psychology is the brutal murder of a young woman named Catherine "Kitty" Genovese.

On Friday, March 13, 1964, 28-year-old Genovese was returning home from work.

As she was about to walk into her apartment, she was attacked and stabbed by a man, and murdered.

Tragic for Kitty and her family.

But the part of the story that has implications for us is far more messed up.

And unfortunately it's also the part that gets ignored the most

#sigh

You see..

There were at least 10 people that saw this whole thing happen in real time.

NONE...

NONE of them called the police in spite of her screams for help 30 whole mins whilst she was being brutally molested and stabbed to death.

The attack first began at 3:20 AM...

But it was not until 3:50 AM that someone first contacted the police.

It should be obvious but I'll say it here anyway:

If that one person hadn't contacted the police it may have been much longer before someone else did.

What does this have to do with your practice?

Everything.

In a series of classic studies, researchers Bibb Latane and John Darley found that "the amount of time it takes the participant to take action and seek help varies depending on how many other observers are in the room."

In one example, subjects were placed in one of three controlled conditions:

1. alone in a room,
2. with two other participants, or
3. with two confederates who pretended to be normal participants.

As the participants sat filling out questionnaires, smoke began to fill the room.

When participants were alone, 75% reported the smoke to the experimenters.

In contrast, just 38% of participants in a room with two other people reported the smoke.

In the final group, the two confederates in the experiment noted the smoke and then ignored it, which resulted in only 10% of the participants reporting the smoke.

Additional experiments by Latané and Rodin, in 1969, found that "70% of people would help a woman in distress when they were the only witness. But only about 40% offered assistance when other people were also present."

This is called the "Bystander Effect" and I want you to think about the implications of this for a moment.

I'll tell you what it means for you shortly.

There are two major factors that contribute to the bystander effect.

First, the presence of other people creates a diffusion of responsibility. Because there are other observers, individuals do not feel as much pressure to take action.

The responsibility to act is thought to be shared among all of those present, and if someone else takes action, nobody else really has to. 

It's easy to see a crash on the side of the road and assume "well, like 100 people saw that, I'm sure someone else will call it in" and keep on driving, abdicating the responsibility to someone else we think probably saw the same thing we did.

Secondly, humans have a strong need to behave in correct and socially acceptable ways.

When other observers fail to react, individuals often take this as a signal that a response is not needed or not appropriate.

If one observer does react, the others are likely to react the same way in response, even it's not the appropriate thing to act on.

The final contributor to the lack of productive action was that the observers were not clear exactly what was going on or what they were supposed to do.

Was this just a domestic dispute?

What actions should be taken?

Who is supposed to do what?

Where is the line between overreactive and negligent?

Of course, looking around they see that nobody else is taking action and the cycle of responsibility diffusion and nonactions continues.

Now back to you and your practice.

Remember yesterday's TDM issue titled: Prophets are not supposed to lie?

Where we unpacked the meaning of developing a reputation for always being right?

Well...

One thing that could seriously mess that up for you is the Bystander Effect.

Abdicating responsibility for the results we produce in our lives is a fundamental human flaw - that you have to consistently deal with.

So when working with your people, you've got to be aware of who else occupies space in their heads and act accordingly.

The scrutiny and expectation of our loved ones has done more to limit our potential than pretty much anything else.

So the big question is:

How to you get your clients to act in their own best interest in spite of the scrutiny and expectations of the people closest to them.

I do that through a lill thing I call Nanostepping and I'll unpack that for you tomorrow.

Till then...

Get out of your own way.

CTM

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