Cialdini raamat
ing of the pluralistic ignorance phenomenon helps explain a regular occurrence in
our country that has been termed both a riddle and a national disgrace: the failure
of entire groups of bystanders to aid victims in agonizing need of help.
The classic example of such bystander inaction and the one that has produced
the most debate in journalistic, political, and scientific circles began as an ordinary
homicide case in New York City's borough of Queens. A woman in her late twen-
ties, Catherine Genovese, was killed in a late-night attack on her street as she re-
turned from work. Murder is never an act to be passed off lightly, but in a city the
size and tenor of New York, the Genovese incident warranted no more space than
a fraction of a column in the New York Times. Catherine Genovese's story would
have died with her on that day in March 1964 if it hadn't been for a mistake.
The metropolitan editor of the Times, A. M. Rosenthal, happened to be having
annaabi.ee 
