Sadie Dingfelder, author of Do I Know You?: A Faceblind Reporter’s Journey into the Science of Sight, Memory, and Imagination drops by The Gist every few week to answer scientific queries in a segemnt called Is That Bullshit. This is our latest discussion.
Picture this: You’re strolling down the street, minding your own business, when suddenly—BAM!—you find yourself in dire need of assistance. Do you yell, "Help!" and hope a Good Samaritan materializes? Or do you bellow, "Fire!" in an attempt to summon a stampede of well-meaning arsonphobes?
Ah, the "yell fire instead of help" trope—it’s like a folk remedy for personal safety. But does it hold water? Or is it all smoke and mirrors?
A Hot Tip from 1912
The earliest reference I could find (shoutout to Reddit sleuth Chris Halpern) dates back to a 1912 self-defense guide by one Georges Dubois. Who was Dubois? A boxer, a security chief at the Paris Opera, and, most impressively, a man who managed to lose an MMA-style fight to a jiu-jitsu master in six seconds.
Here’s the translated passage from Dubois’s book, “Defend Yourself!”:
There are some who will say: why “FIRE”? Perhaps it draws a smile from some. But if you recall, in the first chapter of this book I wrote something to the effect of: all of these “tricks” will often seem humorous, and it is perhaps because they are humorous that you will remember them.
But The Hat Stays on The Head!
So here’s a bit of an explanation. If you shout thief in the middle of the night, only the police will take an interest, and they may not be around. If you shout murder! it is even worse, and everyone will try to save themselves from the danger. But when you shout fire! it is a matter of every man for himself, and every nearby window opens as if by magic.
“Where? Where?” they shout in horror as they think of all of their furniture being destroyed. Some will even come running from other streets, and our doughty policemen first and foremost, as they are slaves to their sense of public duty.
The attackers who are naturally horrified by the presence of decent folk, will flee. As they are the only ones running away from the spectacle, it is easy for the police to catch them. Now the worn-out coppers won’t like your practical joke at first, but given your serious motives, they will be the first to congratulate you. This is why you should always shout FIRE!
Science Douses the Flames
Is shouting “fire” still good advice today? I found a 1980 study that addressed that exact question. After participating in what they thought was an eye-hand coordination study, Penn State students witnessed a disturbing scene: They saw a large man drag a small woman across a hallway into a room, and then heard sounds of a struggle.
Depending on the experimental condition, the students also heard the woman yell, “Help, rape!”, “Fire,” or the sound of a whistle.
How did the students respond? Well, as is typical for these kinds of studies, about 40% helped. (In another great study, 60% of Princeton seminary students, en route to give a lecture on the parable of the Good Samaritan, literally stepped over a moaning guy along the way.)
Unfortunately, our Penn State scientists didn’t find statistically significant differences in the effectiveness of different cries for help. However, they shared data from a pilot study that did. In that study, yelling “Help, rape!” spurred 50% of the participants to action; blowing the whistle garnered a 36% helping rate, and yelling “fire” was the least effective tactic, galvanizing just 22% of the participants.
Overall, what you choose to yell probably doesn’t matter all that much. But the old advice to yell “fire” doesn’t seem to hold water.
Screaming Simplified
Yelling “fire” instead of “help” might have been a genius move in pre-WWI Paris, back when people actually opened their windows and entire city blocks could go up in flames faster than you could say sacrebleu! But times have changed. These days, city dwellers are sealed inside soundproofed, air-conditioned fortresses, barely aware of the world outside. If someone starts screaming in the street, our first instinct isn’t to investigate—it’s to turn up the volume on CSI.
So, what should you do if you need bystander assistance? After reading a 2011 meta analysis of helping behavior research, I have two suggestions.
People are less likely to intervene if the situation is ambiguous. Therefore, you do not want to create confusion by yelling “fire,” unless there is, in fact, a fire. Instead, you want to clarify the situation for the bystanders. In the case of a random sexual assault, you might want to try something like, “I don’t know this man!” If you’re mugged, try, “That guy grabbed my purse!”
When a lot of people are milling about, you may encounter the so-called diffusion of responsibility effect. That’s where everyone is waiting for someone else to take action first. You can break the spell by singling out someone and telling them what to do. “Hey you, in the green shirt, call 911.”
Thus, dear reader, let us retire such antiquated stratagems to the dustbin of history. In our modern age, where people are more likely to livestream an emergency than assist in one, clarity and directness are your best allies.
Paris, 1912: Where even self-defense is conducted with elegance and indifference. From “Defend Yourself!” by George Dubois.
