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I do not think the criticisms undermine the validity of "Genovese" as a good illustration of social proof; however, I agree that it was a bad example to use sim
by zackattack 16y ago
I do not think the criticisms undermine the validity of "Genovese" as a good illustration of social proof; however, I agree that it was a bad example to use simply because it introduced all of this skepticism. You're right. I edited the article to remove the reference.
- btilly 16y agoI would say that Genovese was an important incident that helped develop theories about social proof. Certainly the popular presentation of the story makes a great parable about social proof. But I don't see how the actual events are evidence for social proof. Generally the neighbors either did act, or else had no reason to believe that anything more was going on than a minor drunken argument. Neither suggests that people think it is OK to not act when they see others not acting. A much better example would be something to do with crowd psychology. Like the bandwagon effect, or groupthink. (The Bay of Pigs fiasco may be a good example.)