The last unit in my A level Psychology course was on Social Psyc, one of my favorite subjects to teach. In the A level Cambridge program, they must learn four previously conducted experiments, so in this unit we reviewed Milgram's shocking study on obedience, and Zimbardo's famous Stanford Prison Experiment. I filled them in our own cultural revolution of the 1960's, and some the uglier parts of our country's past (and the far too recent past, as of late) like racial segregation, discrimination, civil disobedience, marches and sit-ins, and violations of civil liberties. An event in Queens, NYC in March of 1964 caught the attention of social psychologists, which lead to further lab and field experiments on helping behavior and the bystander effect.
A 28 year old white woman, Kitty Genovese, was brutally murdered late at night as she returned from work. Her assailant was a black man, and while Kitty fought for her life and screamed for help, no less than 40 witnesses heard her cries, peered out from the safety of their apartment windows, but still refused to call the police and come to her rescue. Her attacker left for a time, and she stumbled and crawled to the doorway of an apartment building, still crying for help. Mosley, her black attacker, came back several minutes later, again repeatedly stabbing her, and she subsequently died in the stairwell. It sent an outcry throughout the media. How could Americans have become so callous and cold? Could the racial tensions of that era, have been the cause of their seeming indifference to her cries for help?
This lead to several lab experiments to study the 'helping behavior' of participants. The results, however, were questionable. Did they offer a solid explanation of what might happen in a 'real life' situation? The result was the famous Subway Samaritan field experiment by Pilivian in 1969, conducted as a field experiment on New York City's subway system. My students were required to learn the ins and outs of this experiment To see the original study, follow the link and click on read the full text here: Subway Samaritans
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| A few weeks ago, I received permission from the headmistress of BNDS to take my kids off campus and to board Beijing's subway system to conduct our own Subway Samaritan project. (I also got to sneak in the biblical story of the Good Samaritan from Luke 10:25-37 in class. I claim, "teachable moment" as 'Samaritan' was not making the translation. They were fascinated by my Bible. :) |
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| The kids were having a great time on our 'field trip' simply riding the train. In the foreground is Tao, who has her PhD in experimental psychology- she researched primates. She was along for linguistic support- this trip, anyhow. |
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| We actually had work to do- working out the interior design of the train car, deciding upon a location for our 'victim' and such. |
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| This kids took interior pics of the car to later sketch... |
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| And lots of pics of each other, of course ;) |
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| With a rough sketch in mind, we set to work out the other details, like passing out from low blood sugar. |
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| After their CIE's were done, we geared up for the first trial. Miss L. was in her teacher's clothes, posing as a 'twenty something' business woman :) |
We decided upon several hypothesis to be tested. Unlike the original study, we did not examine if race was a factor, or the 'drunk' vs. 'injured' victim. I was already pushing my American luck to the max without having my kids pretend to be drunk! We hypothesized that female victims would receive assistance (or sooner assistance) over male victims. We hypothesized that the afternoon train passengers would offer more assistance as opposed to the early morning commuters (due to the busy-ness of business people on their way too work). Lastly, we hypothesized that the Chinese, being of a collectivist culture, would have higher rates of helping than Americans, who are from an individualistic culture.
We also had to take into account the changing world of technology since the 1969 experiment. The overwhelming majority of passengers in China have some sort of hand-held technology while commuting, and most of those wear headphones- it's the Chinese way to travel these days. A simple auditory cure like moaning and groaning would not suffice. We needed both an auditory and a visual cue if we were to attract their attention from their video games, Chinese soap operas, and phone calls.
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| So our 'victims' held their head in their hands, swayed a bit in their seat, then rolled to the floor. Mr. H. looks dead- YIKES! |
In the five trials we conducted, and this was on the afternoon route, our victim was helped within a matter of seconds....until the fifth 'helper' knocked on the conductor's door for assistance....Oops. In spite of the kids reciting their debriefing speech once a helper came to their rescue, at the next stop we were temporarily shut down while an unusual incident report was filed...
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| ...we were escorted to a room, where the police entered. For about 2.7 seconds I thought, "Oh crap, we're all going to a red jail, I'm going to lose my job, and none of this is good..." |
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| The kids didn't have the good sense to be the least bit concerned! |
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| Look, Mom! You'll never believe what happened at school today! |
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| Thank God Tao was with us. as she clearly explained that we were NOT with the media staging fake events to discredit the Beijing Rail System. We were just kids, repeating an experiment that has been done all over the world; London, New York, and others. In fact, unlike Americans, the Chinese all stepped forward to offer assistance to our victims. With that, they took Tao and my faculty cards and snapped photos of them; it's also the Chinese Way. They then left the room and the kids wanted a group selfie before we were all hauled off to the pokey. Not really! They were more than cool about it, but suggested that we contact the AUTHORITIES before we conduct the experiment during morning rush hour. Just that word in China scares me a bit. |
The kids still want to pursue it; I am understandably reluctant at this point. I've taken enough chances this week! I assured them I will revisit the idea with our own school personnel, before we proceed with contacting the AUTHORITIES.
However, if the media were to become involved, with our present results, things are looking good for China- 100% victim assistance :) They just may want to pick up the story afterall, since the harrowing incident that occurred on the 5 line this past November: woman dies trapped in subway doors.
As for me, I've engaged in enough risk taking for awhile.
At least for this week, anyhow.
G'nite, y'all!
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