Bystander Nonintervention Essay

The Bystander Effect was first demonstrated by psychologists Bibb Latané and John Darley in 1968, four years after the brutal murder (encompassing thirty or more witnesses) of Kitty Genovese. It is a social phenomenon in which observers believe that someone else in a group will intervene and offer help to a victim in need (1). According to these psychologists, there are two important factors attributed to this phenomenon, social influence and a perceived diffusion of responsibility. Social

People have a tendency, known as social proof, to believe that others' interpretation of the ambiguous situation is more accurate than their own. Hence, a lack of response by others leads them to conclude that the situation is not an emergency and that response is not warranted. Finally, empirical evidence has shown that the bystander effect is negated when the situation is clearly recognized as an emergency. In a 1976 study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Lance Shotland and Margaret Straw illustrated that when people witnessed a fight between a man and a woman that they believed to be strangers to each other, they intervened 65 percent of the time. Thus, people often do not respond appropriately to an emergency situation because the situation is unclear to them and as a result, they have misinterpreted it as a non-emergency based on their own past experience or social cues taken from others.

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

Social psychology first examined the phenomena later termed “bystander effect” in response to a 1964 murder. The murder of a young woman with as many as 38 witnesses and none who helped until it was too late. The bystander effect is individuals seeing an emergency situation but not helping. There are many reasons why individuals do not respond: diffusion of responsibility, not noticing or unsure if it is an emergency, and not wanting to be liable if the person still dies are a few.

The general statement made by the author, Anna Quindlen, in her work Getting Involved, is that it is vital for human beings to be apathetic, and care for one another. More specifically, the author argues that isolating oneself from local conflict will not resolve any issues. She writes, “Neighbors heard screams and shouts and the unmistakable sound of something hitting a human being…But nothing was really done until…[the] little girl was taken to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead.” In this passage, the author is suggesting that being a bystander is detrimental and can lead to severe, preventable outcomes. In conclusion, the author’s belief is a topic that need to be spoken upon more often, the society is in desperate need of compassion

In the Chapter “In the Unlikely Event of a Water Landing,” from the book Opening Skinner’s Box, by Lauren Slater. Slater describes a crime scene in which the witnesses didn’t do anything to help a woman that was being stabbed, she also tells us about a few experiments that were conducted in regards to how people would react when help is needed in certain situations, will they report the situation to anyone or just go about their business like nothing is going on. Calling for help or assisting someone in a time of need isn’t always something that people do as an immediate reaction, especially when there’s a crowd of people present.

First ‘The Bystander Effect’, states ‘that individuals are less likely to intervene in emergency situations when other people are present’. Latne & Darley, (1970) cited in Byford J.( 2014 pp 232). Simply put, where emergency situations arise, if more than one person is present the likelihood of someone in distress being helped reduces. This is the ‘diffusion of responsibility’ effect were each bystander feels less obliged to help because the responsibility seems to be divided with others present’. (Byford J., 2014 pp233) An example of Bystander Apathy shown within a video (The Open University 2016).

In 2010, Alfred Tate-Yax, a 31 year old homeless man, in Queens, New York bled to death as more than 20 people ignored him for nearly an hour before emergency services arrived. Alfred was brutally stabbed several times after saving a woman, who fled the scene before he collapsed, from being mugged. One man even rolled him over to see his bleeding wound but walked away and acted as if he didn’t see anything. Although he ultimately risked and sacrificed his life to save a stranger his kindness wasn’t returned by any of the approximately 20 indifferent bystanders who passed or even made contact with him. Surely, if someone would’ve called the police sooner this heroic man might still be alive. How was it really that difficult

In the 2007 article “the bystander effect” the author Dorothy Barkin’s was talking about the reasons why most people decide not to get involved in complex situations. Many think that the reasons maybe very obvious such as the fear of possible danger to one’s self or having to go through long legal proceedings. However, the author talks about two main reasons for such actions. The first being ambiguity, the fact the most people do not know how to evaluate different situations and there lays most for the decision making. As knowing what the problem that you are facing in that moment, that alone creates a high-pressure environment that most people would not like to be involved in. Not to mention, being able to help effectively

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

General Project Information Principal Investigator Jeannette Dorado Project Title:The Bystander Effect: Personal Distress and Empathy Emotions Abstract: Briefly describe the purpose, research design, and site of the proposed research activity. The purpose of this experiment is to understand if emotions such as personal distress and empathy interfere with our actions during a situation.

Would one help some random person on the street in need? What if they were out in the frigid cold with no home or warm clothes? How about if the person was a woman getting physically harassed by her boyfriend? Most people would say “yes” to these questions, but would they actually help if any of these situations occurred in their lives? “The bystander effect is a social psychological phenomenon that refers to cases in which individuals do not offer any means of help to a victim when other people are present.” (Bystander Effect). Why is it that people do not help those in need? Isn’t that our duty as good citizens to help those in need? “The reason why people do not help those in need is because they believe somebody else will do something first.” (Heroic Imagination Project). This paper will cover the freezing child exercise, the New York City stabbing incident, and the physical abuse between a guy to a girl observation. All three different experiments will display the bystander effect in action with real people. These procedure will present the true faces of our society and expose the real heroes who would actually help those in need. The Bystander Effect causes people to stand by a misbehavior or a person in need presented by the procedure of the experiments, the results of the incident, and the reasoning for their actions.

"In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends" (King, n.d.). King's (n.d.) statement demonstrates the major internal impact bystanders can have on others. As a matter of fact, most people do not think about the possible long-term effects of not standing up for someone or something. Although it may not seem like a big deal to one person, it could be life changing to another. Many just consider a bystander to be someone who is present at an incident and doesn't take action, but there is actually much more to it. The term 'bystander' can be defined as someone who is present during corruption, doesn't speak up, and seems not to care about others.

The by stander effect is a term that came to fruition when Kitty Genovese was brutally raped and murdered in front of her apartment, and 38 individuals witnessed the entire tragedy and turned a blind eye. Researchers were interested in this phenomenon and set out to research the bystander effect further. The bystander effect occurs when an individual’s likeliness of helping decreases when in the presence of others in an emergency situation (Fischer, Krueger, Greitmeyer, Vogrincic, Kastenmuller, & Frey, 2011). The purpose of this study is to measure the level of helpfulness among college age students with emphasis on the bystander effect. The model that this study follows is the Bystander Intervention Model by Latane and Darley. A series of five steps must be followed while intervening in the case of an emergency, the stages are again as follows: (1) noticing the event, (2) interpreting the event as an emergency, (3) making the choice to intervene, (4) knowing how to provide help, and (5) applying the behavior (Jenkins & Nickerson, 2016). As a group, we set out to analyze the bystander effect among college age students, while focusing on how gender impacts the given scenario.

When we are trying to decide if we should assist someone in a crisis we may tend to focus on the legal ramifications of doing so. In 1965 Time Magazine ran an article discussing the laws involved with helping in a crisis. They attest that “...U.S. law does oblige some people to help others--for example, parents must help their children, husbands their wives, ship captains their passengers and crew members. But those not legally responsible become legally liable if they volunteer. Indeed, the rescuer who accidentally causes injury may be sued for negligence or even prosecuted for assault...” (Time, par. 3). The article goes on to tell us about a man who simply “... fired a shotgun in the air to prevent 20 thugs from attacking two girls and a boy