To avoid hijacking another thread thought I’d ask this. This fact is pretty much ubiquitous, I’ve heard it both as a real life advice and heard it movies.
The idea (as its usually relayed) that in a crime-ridden big city no one is going to rush to help someone in trouble yelling “help!” or “rape!”, but a fire threatens them directly so they will come running if you yell “fire!”
Is there any actual evidence this is true? Where did this “fact” come from? I realize there may be some less jaded interpretations (that “help” is pretty ambiguous and any group of kids messing around will often yell something like that without anyone being in any trouble), but the “city dwellers are jaded and awful” is usually a bit of sub-text.
I mean I can’t imagine there’s been a double-blind study on it, but it has always struck me as something some self appointed expert (like a cop or self defence guru) said one time that has been taken as fact every since.
I can’t find it, but IIRC there was something about the nature of sleep on NPR.
In the old, pre-Industrial Revolution days, we didn’t have electric light. In winter, maybe the sun set at 5 PM in northern areas. People would sleep from 7-midnight maybe, then get up and do chores or have sex or meditate or read or whatever. Then maybe they’d go back to sleep at 3 AM.
Due to the lack of light, and the fact that many towns had no police, they created neighborhood watch types of organizations. If they found someone had been murdered (for instance) they would yell “Fire.” They reasoned that if someone heard “murder” they would stay inside to stay out of harm’s way. But fire…that could spread and burn down their own homes, so they would come out and help.
Sorry, haven’t been able to locate the source. It’s a little pet subject of interest to me, so maybe I read some bits elsewhere.
The link below suggests that such advice was offered by a newspaper editor in the aftermath of the 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese. I can’t find anything that corroborates that part, but the article goes into some depth about why such advice is flawed. Most compelling is that the last thing you want to yell if someone is holding you at gunpoint is “Fire!”.
Pretty funny if true, that this actually predates (and in fact only makes sense) prior to the industrial revolution. As whenever I’ve encountered this “fact” the subtext has been how awful, jaded and crime ridden “modern” (as in later 20th/early 21st century) cities are.
I’ve done it.
Two Cops were looking for some guy, who had given my address as his, falsely.
They tried to bully me into letting them do an illegal search of my condo.
I yelled FIRE!
And all my neighbors came out.
I explained about the cops, and four of them got reeeal interested in the proceedings.
Is that what people typically did or do, though? I’ve seen any number of 19th- and 20th-century descriptions of fires breaking out in a community (and not just communities without official police or firefighters, either) where all the neighbors get super excited and rush out to see the conflagration.
I get how it might be different if somebody’s yelling “Fire!” in the building you currently happen to be in, though.
Yelling help does not so clearly indicate the nature of the situation. So people that might respond are left with the possibility that they may come into a situation where there is more direct possibility of being in danger themselves. Such as trying to help someone being mugged or assaulted. You may come under attack.
Fire is a thing that many people may feel more comfortable with at least going to assess the situation. Fire will not generally chase you down and try and kill you. Will not remember your face to later take revenge. You will not have to testify against fire in court. Where fire will also remember your name.
And fire is awesome. Violent criminals, not so much in real life.
When I heard about segmented sleep, it made sense to me. If you think back to our more primitive days, you probably didn’t dare sleep 8 hours straight for fear of becoming another animal’s dinner. I notice my dogs will sleep several hours but slight noises will have them alert and barking. Of course many soldiers in battle are the same way.
I’m still searching but here’s some confirmation, I think.
Preindustrial sleep was nothing to romanticize. Death stalked our slumber for centuries. Late-night crime was rampant, and the home itself was a death trap, as slapdash construction left houses vulnerable to fire, leaking roofs, terrible heat or cold, and what Ekirch calls “the trifecta of early modern entomology: fleas, lice, and bedbugs.”
Wasn’t that neighborhood watch thing also in effect, where someone cried out “Two o’clock and all’s well…”? My WAG is that it would remind any would be criminals that others are watching as well as reassuring people in their homes.
