The average number of people in the train carriage was 430, and the average number of people in the critical area where the incident was staged was 85.

Piliavin et al. developed a model to explain their results called the Cost – Reward Model

Diffusion of responsibility is the idea that people are less likely to offer to help someone if there are others present, because they perceive responsibility as being shared between all present, and therefore see themselves as being less personally responsible.

On each trial, a team of four students, (two males and two females), boarded the train using the same doors.

Diffusion of responsibility was not found in this study

The observers noted the total number of passengers who came to the victim’s assistance, plus their race, sex and location.

Helping behaviour was high but lower than earlier laboratory studies.

The critical area - late condition occurred when the model would stand in the critical area and wait until passing the fourth station before he helped the victim (approximately 70 seconds after the collapse).

There were more cane than drunk trials

A problem with field experiments is that they are more difficult to control than laboratory experiments.