The DOI matches its Crossref record; 50 of the 50 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Ten years of research on group size and helping.
Abstract
In the decade following Latane and Darley's publication of the discovery that the presence of other people inhibits an individual from intervening in an emergency, numerous researchers have attempted to replicate this finding, extend its range of applicability, and determine what boundary conditions limit it. In the present article, we review both published and unpublished research, with special attention to the nature of the precipitating incident, the ambiguity of the helping situation, laboratory versus field settings, characteristics of the subjects, of the victim, and of other bystanders, and the amount and kinds of communication among bystanders. We conclude that, despite the great diversity of styles, settings, and techniques among the studies, the social inhibition of helping is a remarkably consistent phenomenon; but we identify some conditions under which the effect can be weakened or eliminated. Finally, we explore the implications of these findings for assessing and increasing a victim's likelihood of receiving help. Some 10 years have passed since Latane and Darley (1970) published their monograph reporting the results of a program of research on bystander intervention in emergencies. This research provided strong support for the general proposition that "the presence of other people serves to inhibit the impulse to help " (p. 38), Their work elicited a good deal of interest, and it has stimulated a large amount of subsequent research in this area. We see at leas…
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“The collected data shows a robust tendency, namely that the chance of help being offered diminishes as the number of witnesses increases.”
From Pluralistic ignorance in the bystander effect: informational dynamics of unresponsive witnesses in situations calling for intervention (2014) · cites this paper as Latané and Nida (1981)
In the citing paper
“Summarizing 33 studies with face-to-face interaction, the effective individual probability of helping was 50%, with an effective individual response rate in groups only 22%.”
From Pluralistic ignorance in the bystander effect: informational dynamics of unresponsive witnesses in situations calling for intervention (2014) · cites this paper as Latané and Nida, 1981
In the citing paper
“Most of these studies involved groups of 2.”
From Pluralistic ignorance in the bystander effect: informational dynamics of unresponsive witnesses in situations calling for intervention (2014) · cites this paper as Latané and Nida, 1981
In the citing paper
“The meta-study (Latané and Nida, 1981) strongly indicates that determining social influence occurs in groups of size 2.”
From Pluralistic ignorance in the bystander effect: informational dynamics of unresponsive witnesses in situations calling for intervention (2014) · cites this paper as Latané and Nida, 1981
Citations
Cites
A theory of social comparison processes
Festinger, L. (1954) · Human Relations · doi:10.1177/001872675400700202 · Cited by 20,926
The Handbook of Social Psychology
Gravatt, A. E., Lindzey, G. E., & Aronson, F. (1969) · The Family Coordinator · doi:10.2307/582242 · Cited by 12,518
The file drawer problem and tolerance for null results.
Rosenthal, R. (1979) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.86.3.638 · Cited by 9,068
Bystander intervention in emergencies: Diffusion of responsibility.
Darley, J. M., & Latane, B. (1968) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/h0025589 · Cited by 3,083 · cited 3×
“In the initial study of this type (Darley & Latane, 1968), participants in a group discussion heard (via an intercom) a fellow participant suffer a seizure.”
BackgroundSelf-citation(1970) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 2,372
Self-citationThe Experience of Living in Cities
Milgram, S. (1970) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.167.3924.1461 · Cited by 1,275
Group inhibition of bystander intervention in emergencies.
Latane, B., & Darley, J. M. (1968) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/h0026570 · Cited by 1,252
Self-citationGood Samaritanism: An underground phenomenon?
Piliavin, I. M., Rodin, J., & Piliavin, J. A. (1969) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/h0028433 · Cited by 516
The yin and yang of progress in social psychology: Seven koan.
McGuire, W. J. (1973) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/h0034345 · Cited by 490
A lady in distress: Inhibiting effects of friends and strangers on bystander intervention
Latané, B., & Rodin, J. (1969) · Journal of Experimental Social Psychology · doi:10.1016/0022-1031(69)90046-8 · Cited by 408
Self-citation
Cited by
Sorted by citations
The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation.
Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037//0033-2909.117.3.497 · Cited by 23,245
The psychology of social impact
Latané, B. (1981) · American Psychologist · doi:10.1037/0003-066x.36.4.343 · Cited by 2,864
Self-citationProsocial Behavior: Multilevel Perspectives
Penner., L. A., Dovidio., J. F., Piliavin., J. A., & Schroeder., D. A. (2005) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.56.091103.070141 · Cited by 2,308
“For example, just as the presence of others inhibits bystander intervention in emergencies (Latané & Nida 1981), anonymity increases the incidence of free riding—that is, attempting to benefit from the group’s actions without personally contributing to the public good (Kerr & MacCoun 1985).”
BackgroundNormative social influence is underdetected
Nolan, J. M., Schultz, P. W., Cialdini, R. B., Goldstein, N. J., & Griskevicius, V. (2008) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/0146167208316691 · Cited by 1,772
Exploiting moral wiggle room: experiments demonstrating an illusory preference for fairness
Dana, J., Weber, R. A., & Kuang, J. X. (2007) · Economic Theory · doi:10.1007/s00199-006-0153-z · Cited by 1,445
Metadata
- Authors
- Latané, B., & Nida, S.
- Affiliations
- The Ohio State University (US)
- Venue
- Psychological Bulletin
- Published
- 1981-03
- Volume
- 89
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 308-324
- ISSN
- 0033-2909 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1455
- OpenAlex
- W2163256700
- Cited by
- 749
- References
- 50
- Citations by year
- 2026: 21 · 2025: 19 · 2024: 31 · 2023: 48 · 2022: 26 · 2021: 36 · 2020: 21 · 2019: 34 · 2018: 35 · 2017: 36 · 2016: 34 · 2015: 45 · 2014: 31 · 2013: 62 · 2012: 26
- FWCI
- 26.90
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Psychological Bulletin (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Psychology of Social Influence
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Emergency Medicine › Cardiac Arrest and Resuscitation
- Keywords
- bystander intervention, group size, diffusion of responsibility, emergency situations, helping behavior, victim characteristics, boundary conditions, replication
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
