Bystander Effect Essay

The bystander effect is a social psychological scenario where a person who is in an urgent situation is not given any help by the people around due to the discourage from the presence of others (whatispsychology.biz, 2017). Social psychologists, John Darley and Bibb Latane, introduced the bystander effect in the 1960s after the murder of Kitty Genovese, a young woman who was stabbed to death outside her home in New York City. It took her attacker more than half an hour to kill her, and during that time, thirty-eight people saw her being murdered, and they did nothing to help her. “The responsibility for helping was diffused among the observers” (Darley & Latane, 1968).

There are many theories on the bystander effect, with most involving the story of Kitty Genovese. Her ‘friend’ and neighbor,

In the early morning hours of March 13, 1964, twenty-eight year old barmaid Catherine "Kitty" Genovese was murdered and raped on the street in Kew Gardens, New York. The incident did not initially receive much attention until Martin Gansberg's infamous article, "Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder, Didn't Call the Police", was published in the New York Times two weeks later. In reality, only twelve people witnessed the event yet each did nothing to significantly help Genovese until it was too late. The Genovese murder has become the definitive example of the "bystander effect", the social phenomenon in which individuals are less likely to help someone in distress if there are other people present. The bystander effect occurs wherever there is

If you saw someone being attacked on the street, would you help? Many of us would quickly say yes we would help because to state the opposite would say that we are evil human beings. Much research has been done on why people choose to help and why others choose not to. The bystander effect states that the more bystanders present, the less likely it is for someone to help. Sometimes a bystander will assume that because no one else seems concerned, they shouldn't be (Senghas, 2007). Much of the research that has been done supports this definition of the bystander effect. There have also been recent situations where this

1. After the 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese, John Darley and Bibb Latane were in shock as the rest of the city/world that a 28 year old lady could be stabbed in a neighborhood with about 38 by standers or more and say or do nothing. Why didn’t anyone try and help her? How could people stand by and watch this go on? People speculated that the failure of people to get involved might be due more to the influence (socially) that bystanders have on each other. To test this theory, Darley and Latane, two psychologists, decided to conduct a study. “Diffusion of Responsibility” Everyone hopes that someone else will be the first to step up

The study by Darley and Latane leaves society with the knowledge that everyone who is witnessing an emergency is most likely thinking the same thing “someone else will call for help or has already” so “Always act as if you are the only person there” (Darely & Latane, 1968). The concept of situationism is the driving force behind bystander effect. Situationism is “social behavior is, to a larger extent than people commonly realize, a response to people’s social context, not a function of individual personality” (Fiske, 2010, p. 7). Individuals first have to decide if they are witnessing an emergency. Then they need to decide if they have a responsibility to act which is when situationism comes in. If there are hundreds of witnesses each individual see the situation from a different perspective and responsibility to act is diffused among the crowd. On the other hand if one individual sees an emergency and believes there is no one else to help the responsibility rests on him or her. The context of the situation will determine how an individual will react, but people should consider the reality of everyone believing someone else will react and no one reacting. Kitty Genovese would still be alive if even one person would have called the cops when the first attack started.

In the article Gansberg said there were three attacked but there were two and in fact two people called the police. Once the ambulance arrived, Kitty was in the arms of a neighbor and friend Sophia Farrar. Farrar left her apartment to be with Kitty’s side with no idea whether it was safe or not. Lemman’s article did not serve to just criticize Gansberg but also added key details of the murder and witnesses like Joseph Fink and Karl Ross. Fink who worked in the apartment building across from Kitty saw the first attack and after watching Moseley flee, took a nap. Ross who was a friend and neighbor of Kitty’s was drunk that night. He heard the first attack did not help but opened his door a crack during the second attack and saw Moseley stab Kitty. Ross than made a few phone calls one to a friend who told him to stay out of it and then crawled across the roof into a friend’s apartment where he later called the police. The Kitty Genovese case helped to push the creation of 911, in 1964 to call the police in New York you had to use a specific number of each precinct, and your call was not always answered. Kitty’s case also sparked psychologist Bibb Latane and John Darley to create a new realm of research called the bystander

Whether it’s through sexual assault, stalking, physical or psychological means, maltreatment in relationships among college students has become a serious problem on college and university campuses. Most of these assaults have been either committed by someone the victim knew or an intimate partner. In the past, student victims who have attempt to deal with the effects of intimate partner violence (IPV) such as depression, low self-esteem, anxiety disorders, physical injuries or the assault itself, are often times faced with the unique challenges of finding resources or programs that might be able to assist them. However, in recent years, college and university campuses have implemented several sexual assault programs and procedures aimed at

In the year of 1964, a woman named Kitty Genovese was murdered in plain sight of her on-looking New York City neighbors, however, none of them attempted to help or notify the authorities. This event gave rise to the term “Genovese Effect” otherwise known as the “Bystander Effect”. The name refers to the phenomenon that occurs when large groups of people don't take the responsibility of helping in a dire situation. Unsurprisingly, when reading the book “Night”, by Elie Wiesel, many readers see a direct correlation between the story and the bystander effect. Towards the beginning of "Night", we see the first instance of the bystander effect shown when nobody living in Sighet does anything to heed Moishe's warnings.

In the experiment they tested the responsiveness of individuals and how they reacted under stress when first, alone, and then second within a crowd. Each time the people that were under pressure and alone reacted in a higher rate than those in the crowds. Researchers have justified people’s non responsiveness within a crowd, with diffusion of responsibility, in which people are less likely to take action within a crowd, because they feel someone else will take responsibility. On March 14 1964, Kitty Genovese was the ultimate test subject for the Bystander Syndrome, having been stabbed twice in public and left to die on her apartment stairs, but the question that remains unanswered, under matters of a life, is the silence of the crowd truly due to diffusion of responsibility? Or lack of interest and

For example, in the Kitty Genovese case, referenced by both reading sources, there were multiple witness who saw the murder, but did not help. This is because of what the textbook refers to as the bystander effect. There are two main rationales that were discussed concerning the bystander effect.

A haunting story that will always stay stagnant through time is the case of Kitty Genovese, a young woman living in New York. In March of 1964 she was walking home in the early morning from work. A man under the name of Winston Moseley followed her with his car, eventually got out, chased after her, and stabbed her multiple times. She cried for help to any and all neighbors living in her apartment complex, one man even yelling at Winston to leave her alone. None of them, for that matter, called the police. As he continued to stab her, he raped her. Then he laid her body on the side of the road, and left. This was the first case to coin the term ‘bystander effect’. Thirty-eight witnesses watched and heard her cries for help, none of them deciding

They depict an experiment where a woman leaves the room and goes into an area where she can not be seen, but she can be heard. She then feigns an injury to provoke a response. [The experiments results were twenty-six individuals waited alone reacted to an accident seventy percent of the time.] Then they reenacted the same accident with individuals in a group, and only twenty-percent offered the person in distress their assistance (Darley and Latane 770). After the experiment, the individuals that did not respond said that they did not want to embarrass her because they thought that it was just a minor injury.

Today a lot of individuals are praised for their bravery and their heroism. A lot of

According to Aronson, Wilson, and Akert (2013) prosocial behavior is defined as an act performed for the benefit of another person. Altruism is referred to as the want to help another individual even if it means no benefits, or possibly a cost, for the helper (Aronson, Wilson, & Akert, 2013). One particular factor, the bystander effect, has a profound impact on whether or not people help others. The bystander effect states that as the number of people who witness an emergency increases, the likelihood that any of those people will help decreases (Aronson et al., 2013). Processes associated with the bystander effect such as pluralistic ignorance, diffusion of responsibility, and victim effect all impact the likelihood of prosocial