Presenters

Zachary Ross Suchita Patel Stefanie Tom

Moriam Kosoko Vycheslav Leontiev

The Power of ContextChapter 4, Part 1Bernhard Goetz

On 12/22/84, Bernhard Goetz boarded the #2 downtown express subway train on the New York IRT.

Goetz sat next to 4 African-American youths, and was approached by one, who demanded $5.

Goetz refused, pulled out a gun, and shot all 4.

It was later discovered that all 4 had criminal records.

“Subway Vigilante”

Goetz becomes a symbol of vigilance in a time when New York’s crime problem had reached epidemic proportions.

During this period, and most of the 1980’s, New York City averaged well over 2000 murders, and 600,000 serious felonies a year.

Subway stations, in particular were described as chaotic. There were always hoodlums, graffiti, filthiness, and utter disgust everywhere.

In 1990, the epidemic tipped and the murders dropped by two-thirds. Subway felonies: -75%.

Crime & the “Power of Context”

Crime: Is not a single, discrete thing, but rather a word used to describe an almost impossibly varied and complicated set of behaviors. The answer to crime lies in the third of the principles of the epidemic transmission.

“Power of Context” is no less than the 1st two aforementioned. Epidemics are sensitive to the conditions and circumstances of the time and place in which the occur.

Epidemic theory of crime: It is said that time is contagious, just like a fashion trend, it can start with a broken window & spread to an entire community.

Broken Windows Theory & David Gunn

If a window is left broken and not repaired, then everyone that walks by thinks that nobody cares. Soon more windows will be broken and left unrepaired.

In a city, minor problems like graffiti, public disorder, are equivalent of broken windows.

David Gunn was hired by the city of NY to overtake a multibillion rebuilding of the subway system.

Gunn was set on winning the battle against graffiti.

Conti…

Gunn set up cleaning stations that cleaned the subway cars at the end of the line.

Gunn figured out that it was a 3-day process for the vandals to draw graffiti.

By doing this, Gunn sent a message to the vandals that he is not giving up.

At that point, the Transit Authority hires William Bratton to head the transit police.

The second stage of reclamation of the subway system was to crack down on fare beating.

Bratton’s system

Bratton developed a system that cut down on processing time for the arrested fare-beaters.

Bratton discovered that a lot of people who were getting arrested carried weapons, or had warrants.

These two initiatives were the “Tipping Points” for the crime in NY.

Bratton was later appointed as the head of NYPD and he applied the same strategy on the streets.

Background of Bernhard Goetz

Goetz father was a strict disciplinarian with a harsh temper & Goetz was often teased by classmates.

Goetz was a lonely child, who was normally picked last for school games, which would leave him in tears.

He lived in an on 14th and Manhattan, near 6th avenue, which was an area plagued with homelessness and drug dealings.

Prison Experiment

In the early 1970’s, a group of social scientists at Stanford University decided to create a mock prison.

The purpose of the experiment was to try to find out why prisons are such nasty places.

The psychologists picked 21 volunteers that appeared the most normal and healthy. Half of this group were prisoners and the other half were guards.

As the experiment progressed, guards became very abusive.

Conti…

The experiment had to be cut short because the volunteers started to lose it (went crazy).

The scientist’s concluded that there are specific situations so powerful that they can overwhelm out inherent predispositions.

Psychological development

Studies have shown that people who were stunted by psychological development don’t understand how to conduct heavy relationships.

People with genetic predisposition to violence fly of the handle often while normal people tend to keep their cool in stressful situations.

People who are not taught the distinction between right and wrong early on are oblivious to what is appropriate behavior and what is not.

Conti…

People who grow up poor, fatherless, and buffeted by racism, don’t have the same commitment to social norms as those from healthy, middle class homes

The power of context is an environmental argument. It says behavior is a function of social context.

Good Samaritan Experiment

Two Princeton University Psychologists, John Darley & Daniel Batson, decided to conduct a study inspire by the biblical study of the “Good Samaritan.”

The story was about a traveler that was robbed and beaten and left for dead by the side of the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. Both a priest and a Levite-worthy, pious man, came upon the beaten man but did not stop to help.

The only man to stop was a Samaritan; the member of a despised minority

Conti…

Darley and Batson met with a group of seminarians, individually, and asked each one to prepare a short talk on a biblical theme, then walk over to a nearby building to present it.

Along the way to the presentation, each student ran into a man slumped in an alley, coughing and groaning.

Some students were told that they were running late and some were told that they have some time before the presentation.

Conti…

Out of all of the students that were in a rush, 10% stopped to help.

Out of all of the students who had some time to spare, only 63% stopped to help.

What the study is suggesting is that the conviction of your heart and the actual contents of your thoughts are less important, in the end, in guiding your actions than the immediate context of your behavior.

The Power of Context: Chapter 5, Part II

“Diving Secrets of the Ya-Ya sisterhood.

In 1996, Rebecca Wells, an actress and playwright, published a book entitled “Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya sisterhood.

A year later, when the paperbacks were released, 18,000 copies of the 1st editions sold out in the first few weeks, exceeding expectations.

During book signings, Wells would sometime sign be asked by groups of women to sign 3-10 books at a time.

Ya-Ya Epidemic

Why did the book turn out to be an epidemic?

The book is heartwarming, beautifully written, and has a compelling story of friendship that spoke to people.

The success of Ya-Ya is a tribute to the power of one specific aspect of context, which is a critical role that group play in social epidemics.

Channel Capacity

Concepts of cognitive psychology called “Channel Capacity,” refers to the amount of space in our brain for certain kinds of information.

As human beings, we can only handle so much information at once. Once we pass a certain boundary, we become overwhelmed, described as intellectual capacity; our ability to process raw information.

Humans have the largest brains, along with monkeys, chimps, and baboons, but humans are the only primates whose brains are large enough to handle complex tasks.

Daniel Wegner & “transactive memory”

Daniel Wegner, a university of Virginia psychologist, who is an expert on memory, argues that when people know each other, they create an implicit joint memory system: a “transactive memory system.”

This system is based on understanding about who is best suited to remember certain kinds of things.

“Relationship developments is often understood as a process as one of interpersonal revelation and acceptance, it can also be appreciated as a necessary precursor to transactive memory.”

Conti…

Wegner also argues that loss of this kind of joint memory that helps make divorces so painful.

“Divorced people who suffer from depression and complain of cognitive dysfunction may be expressing the loss of their external memory system.

In families, most of us remember at one time, only a fraction of day to day details and history of our family, but everyone goes out and tries to find out answers to the questions we pose.

Women & Al Gore

Women tend to be the “experts” in child care, even modern, dual career families.

Their initial greater involvement in raising a baby leads them to be relied on more than the man in storing child care information.

“It’s not just do you know somebody.” said Al Gore, but how well enough you know their skills, abilities, and passions. That’s what you like, what you do, what you want to do, what you are truly good at.