The New York Times has just reviewed the newly released documentary The Witness. The film traces the efforts of Bill Genovese – younger brother of Kitty Genovese – to get to the bottom of the infamous death of his sister in 1964. As the Times reports within the documentary A “Rashomon” emerges: questionable reporting, widely disseminated, … Continue reading The Witness: A Kitty Genovese Documentary
As The New York Times reports, Winston Mosesley has died in prison at the age of 81. Mosesley infamously raped and murdered Kitty Genovese in New York City in 1964. The story that 38 bystanders stood by and did nothing as Genovese pled for help during the attack inspired the development of the “bystander effect” within psychology, which … Continue reading Kitty Genovese’s Killer Has Died in Prison
The New York Times reports that a film, titled ’37’, on the infamous Kitty Genovese murder is in the works. The Genovese case is often credited with providing the impetus for research into the bystander effect, whereby bystanders fail to intervene in an emergency situation as a result of a diffusion of responsibility. The notion that bystanders failed to intervene in … Continue reading ’37’- A Forthcoming Film on the Kitty Genovese Case
NPR has posted a brief interview with Kevin Cook on his new book Kitty Genovese: The Murder, the Bystanders, the Crime That Changed America. (For more on the Kitty Genovese case and its often repeated errors see our previous posts here.) Audio of the interview, as well as a transcript are available online. As NPR … Continue reading NPR: What Really Happened The Night Kitty Genovese Was Murdered?
For your Friday viewing pleasure, we present The Detached Americans a 1964 TV documentary on the Kitty Genovese case (see previous AHP posts on Genovese here). In 1964 Genovese was murdered and it was widely reported that numerous witnesses to the murder – as many as 38 – failed to intervene. The case is often cited as the … Continue reading Kitty Genovese Documentary: The Detached Americans (1964)
The September 2012 issue of gradPSYCH magazine, published by the American Psychological Association, features an article entitled Psychology’s Tall Tales. The article describes two of the most persistent myths in psychology; those of Phineas Gage and Kitty Genovese (right). The true stories of what happened to Gage and Genovese have been discussed on AHP previously … Continue reading The Everlasting Myths of Gage & Genovese
Open Culture recently posted a video clip of the 1980s comic, Watchmen (above). The clip, Watchmen: Origins 13 – ‘Kitty Genovese’, features the case of Kitty Genovese as part of a character’s backstory. The character’s name? Rorschach. The Genovese case is traditionally presented as the failure 38 neighbours to act while a young woman was … Continue reading Kitty Genovese & Watchmen
On this day, 46 years ago (March 13, 1964), Kitty Genovese was murdered in New York City. The killing, and the publicity that followed from it, kicked off a new area of social psychology focused on the intervention (or not) of bystanders to emergency situations. Initial reports were that dozens (most typically, 38) people had … Continue reading Kitty Genovese
The latest issue of American Psychologist, 62(6), includes an article questioning the fundamental assumption of an exemplary case in the history of social psychology. This article argues that an iconic event in the history of helping research–the story of the 38 witnesses who remained inactive during the murder of Kitty Genovese–is not supported by the available … Continue reading Kitty Genovese and the history of helping
A quick roundup of new articles for your summer reading pleasure: Behavioral Scientist “Psychologists Go to War,” by John Greenwood. No abstract. Discusses psychologists’ involvement in WWI and the broader effects of this work. “All the (Pseudo)Science That’s Fit to Print,” by Evan Nesterak. No abstract. Discusses the popular psychology magazine collection held at the Cummings Center … Continue reading New Article Roundup: Big Data on Asylums, Stratification Theory, Pop Psych, & More!