Two weeks later, the New York Times ran an article claiming that 37 people saw the incident and did not call the police. That number was later adjusted to 38. The notion that someone could be attacked brutally while people stood by without intervening sparked significant concern among social psychologists, prompting them to begin researching this phenomenon.
One of the most pivotal studies in this area was conducted by John Darley and Bibb Latané in 1968. In a laboratory setting, participants were put in a room with headphones and asked to listen to others.