Comparing Dubner's Unbelievable Stories About Apathy And Altruism
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In chapter 3 of Superfreakonomics, the authors Steven D.Levitt and Stephen J.Dubner use “Unbelievable Stories about Apathy and Altruism” as its title. The background of this chapter is two true stories, one is the death of Kitty Genovese, and another one is John’ list career path in economics. The key components of the first story are people acting apathetic about what happen to their community and they do not have the spirit of altruism. Use a third person to see what happened on the case of Genovese, her death is truly a tragedy. Story taken place in Queens, New York City, Genovese drove home as usual. However, after she parked beside the block, a chaser whose name is Winston Moseley, almost immediately stabbed in the back of Genovese after…show more content… Many neighbors were able to hear Genovese’s screaming, but none of them acted even a little bit curious about it. They thought the creaming was made by lovers or too tired to see what happened to the street. This reflect to one of the key words of the title name, apathy. It does not bother a lot for a person who heard a terrible screaming in his/her community. For common sense, most people would go out to see what happen or make a phone call to the local police to ensure his/her community is safe from the crime. The neighbors of Genovese were not able to do so, they acted apathetic about a crime that happened in their community. Another key word of this title is altruism. I think this word could also apply to this story. Though it does not take a lot time for people to call the police or go out to see what is going on, people would still not will to do so because they cannot not earn anything from it. Some people may consider about the safety of the community, but most people do not think the crime would happen to them, they will not care too much about it. If Genovese neighbors have the spirit of altruism, they would do the phone call, or even help her to get out of the terrible