Latane & Darley

Essential understanding

Seeing other people remain passive in an ambiguous situation decreases the likelihood of intervening because participants do not interpret the situation as dangerous (pluralistic ignorance).

Dependent Variable

The dependent variable was the time it took the participant to leave the room to report the smoke. The experiment was terminated if the participant did not report the smoke within six minutes. Throughout the experiment participants were observed through a one-way mirror.

Method

The participant was seated in a small waiting room to fill out a preliminary questionnaire. After some time smoke began to enter the room through a wall vent. Some participants were in the waiting room alone. Some were in the room with two confederates acting as naive participants. Confederates were instructed to act indifferently and to pay little attention to the smoke, just carry on with the questionnaire. - Some were in the room with two other real participants.

Independent Variable

There were three groups of participants

Aim

To investigate if participants will report an ostensibly dangerous situation when other witnesses remain passive.

Conclusion

When faced with an ambiguous event, a bystander is likely to look at the reactions of other people and be influenced by these reactions. This can lead to interpreting the situation as not dangerous and therefore not intervening. This phenomenon may be called "pluralistic ignorance".

Latane an Darley

pluralistic ignorance (smoke-filled room study)

Results

In the alone condition 75% of participants reported the smoke; it took them two minutes on average. - In the condition with two passive confederates only 10% reported the smoke. The others coughed, rubbed their eyes and waved the smoke away from their faces, but continued to work on the questionnaire. - In the condition with three naive bystanders, only 38% of the group reported the smoke. - In post-experimental interviews participants reported that they thought the smoke looked "strange" and that they were not sure it was dangerous. They thought it could be steam or air-conditioning vapour, smog or even a "truth gas" ltered into the room to make them answer the questionnaire honestly.