newspapers called the 38 witnesses selfish and uncaring, but social psychologists john darley and bibb latane had a different theory. they believedthat a lage number of witnesses actually decreased the chances that any individual would help. if only one person witnesses a murder,he or she will feet fully responible for calling the police. if there are two witnesses' each person might feel only half responsible. now imagine there are many withesses, as in the genovese case. darleyand latane pointed out that each person feit only a small amount of responsibility, so each did nothing. the reason they didn't help was not that the were uncaring or selfish people. there were just too many of them.