Summary The “flat tire” paradigm (1) was extended in an attempt to determine whether the number-of-people-present effect, often demonstrated in the emergency situation, generalized to a nonemergency case. A coed and a car with a flat tire were placed on a superhighway (high traffic density) and also on a country road (low traffic density). A significantly greater proportion of people rendered aid in the country road condition; however, the average time between attempts to aid was less on the superhighway. Possible differences between emergency and nonemergency situations were discussed.
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Hurley et al. (1974) studied this question.