When in a situation when one has to act to help someone, individuals think of many reasons why not to. What if it’s a false alarm? What if someone is playing a joke? What if someone called already and calling again will only cause an inconvenience? Someone else must have called already. These are just a few things that might have gone through someone’s head when they were faced with the decision of calling 911 or helping someone. When man knows that other people are around, it takes the pressure off of them and they place it on someone else. It is not that these individuals don’t want to help or that it is an inconvenience, it’s that they rather not be wrong. Most people who know they are the only one who will be able to help and are the only ones around to call for help will do so without even thinking twice. Today’s society is so used to relying on other people and social proof. They have begun to lose their individuality.
Christine Silk, the writer of “Why did Kitty Genovese die?” brings up the idea of social proof, to understand why incidents such as Kitty Genovese’s occur. It is a very good explanation to why thirty-eight witnesses did not call for help while Kitty Genovese was being murdered outside their apartments. It is something that all human beings think when in situations. Social proof can be defined as, people being in situations that they are unable to determine the appropriate mode of behavior. They look for the behavior of others, or they let others take all control. Individuals wait to see what others will do. People rely on others so they do not have to take responsibility. But is that a reason to call these humans evil? Did they really mean to let this innocent woman die because they were too lazy to call for help?
While it is very shocking and horrifying to believe that someone was murdered because of the indifference of man, no one has the right to call these people evil. It is easier to judge the witnesses that did nothing for Kitty...