Bystander Research Paper

Also known as ‘bystander apathy’, the bystander effect is the idea that a victim is more likely to receive help if there is just one bystander to witness the situation, rather than if there was a group of bystanders.

Some may say that bystanders are terrible and have no sense of morality and yes, that may true for some bystanders. The case of Kitty Genovese truly shows how cruel and unthoughtful bystanders can be, but when we ask the question of why people would ignore someone in a crisis such as that, we automatically make up rationalizations such as diffusion of responsibility but in reality that's not the case. The idea of this new law is fantastic, absolutely. In reality, this law is unrealistic in what its asking of us. Bystanders don't stand by and watch someone in a crisis because of diffusion of responsibility, they stand by because they see people walk by someone in a crisis and think it’d be weird of him to go out of his way to help someone since

For example at the 9/11 attack there was bystanders those in need and got them out of the way of the building and debris that was falling from the buildings. Another example would be the Las Vegas shooting that had recently happened, there was a lot of bystanders who were moving people to safety and out of the shooters way so they won't get hit. People are even bystanders on social media; just by seeing somebody being bullied on the media is being a bystander. Some more examples are the Sandy Hook shooting when the teacher hide all her students in the bathroom to keep the shooter from killing them, but eventually the shooter had found them. There are many examples. For example one of the most famous case occurred in 1964 with a rape and murder of Kitty Genovese. While a man attacked, raped, and killed this young women, over 38 men and women witnessed the assault and did nothing but be a

Fischer and Greitemeyer (2013) took an applied approach by examining bystander intervention with other bystanders present or absent, in situations of varying

Bystander-a person present but not involved; chance spectator; onlooker. Victim-a person harmed, injured, or killed as a result of a crime, accident, or other event or action. Perpetrator-a person who perpetrates, or commits, an illegal, criminal, or evil act. What Does This Quote Mean?

In 1964 a woman known as Kitty Genovese was murdered and although she was heard begging for help from 38 neighbors for more than a half an hour, no one decided to help by calling the authorities. The notion of deciding to help those in need is known as ‘bystander intervention’, which raise high awareness after Kitty’s murder (Baumeister & Bushman, 2011). Darley and Latane (1968) decided to further investigate bystander intervention and it was concluded that higher assistance is provided when only one bystander is present within the ongoing situation in contrast to when several bystanders are observing, which is known as the ‘bystander effect’. This becomes evident because several bystanders are less likely to feel responsible for intervening leading to ‘diffusion of responsibility’, which was present in Kitty’s case where bystanders thought that someone else would intervene eventually and thus did not feel accountable to take any action. Diffusion of responsibility was shown in a study by Darley and Latane (1968) in which 72 university students heard other people’s problems. While they heard each person sharing their problems there was also a man who as he informed, was suffering from seizures. At some point the recorded man appeared to experience a seizure and what was observed was that 85% of the participants who believed were alone provided help in contrast to a 31% of those who thought other participants were present. Thus, what can be understood is that people are more likely to help when alone rather than in

“Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder But Didn’t Call the Police” is unfortunately a true story about citizens who witnessed their neighbor being assaulted and didn’t take action. The neighbor’s negligence perturbed me, and I had to look into it. The Samuel Merritt University refers to it as “The Bystander Effect” and explains it as “a diffusion of responsibility . . . the more people there are to witness an event, the less each individual feels personally responsible for doing something” (Samuel Merritt University, “Bystander Intervention & Prevention”). This article about Kitty Genovese and her selfish neighbors reminded me of a dispute I once saw between a small group and an individual. It wasn’t the fight that startled me, but the group of apprehensive

“A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho; and he fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him… But a certain Samaritan… came upon him; and when he saw him… bandaged up his wounds, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him”. (Source B) This is an example of someone who went against the bystander effect. This Samaritan saw someone that was in dire need of help, and instead of carrying on with their life as if they never saw him, the Samaritan did something about it, fixing up this poor man, and taking him to an inn for shelter. Sometimes people break the Bystander Effect, and are able to assist those in need. In the story On the Sidewalk Bleeding, there are 2 rival gangs, the Royals, and the Guardians. In the story, a Royal named Andy gets stabbed by a group of Guardians, fatally, and is left to die. There were 2 groups of people who could have saved Andy, but did not. A drunk man, and a girl and boy, who were dating. The drunk man did not know that Andy was stabbed and dying, as he thought that Andy was drunk, and the drunk man was obviously to drunk to realize what happened. The boy and girl, however, considered helping him, but “We help him, and the Guardians’ll be down on our necks”. (Source A) They didn’t help him simply out of fear for another gang. If they did decide to help him, if they broke through the Bystander Effect, Andy would have survived in the story. When people break through this effect, lives can be

“Research known as the bystander effect project, discovered that there are complicated set of factors that determine who will assist in life-threating or dangerous situation (p.107)” In short the bystander apathy can be explained simply as bystanders who witness a crime occurring yet do nothing to assist or help. Most people who are put in this situation do not want to get in involved, especially in life-threating situations for fear of putting their own life at risk. However many people are not physically or mentally prepared to see an actual violent or criminal event take place. Studies have found that the more bystanders there are the less likely it is for some one to volunteer to help. In the case of Catherine Genovese there were a total

As shown in Fischer et al.(2011) bystanders will more likely to provide help, when they are with the people familiar with rather that strangers, because the partners can give supportive to each other in order to reduce the negative consequences, regulate negative emotions and also can communicate to increase the decision-making in order cooperate to help the victim. This is applicable for our respondents because almost all of them provide help with the partners accompany them. However, researcher mentioned when bystanders having the conversation among them, there may have bystander effect

According to psychologytoday.com, the Bystander effect is a phenomenon in which states the greater the number of people present, the less likely people are to help a person in distress. Originally applied to when violent crimes are ignored, the Bystander

There’s a lot bad situations that shouldn’t happen and could of been prevented, and people question how is that in their control. Half of any horrible situation could've been prevented with a phone call to authorities or saving someone when they’re hurt and contacting an ambulance. When someone is in need of assistance physically and can’t get help the most common sensed idea is to help them which in humanity should be an instinct. Yet the more bystanders there is the less likely it is that any one of them help.

2) A simpler definition of bystander effect is to break down the word actually- a person who stands by with no effect. An example of the bystander effect is always seen with correlation to bullying or fights because you never see a very bold person run quickly to diffuse the situation. There is a bold person every so often but it is not common enough. I have personally seen the bystander effect with a previous friend of mine. The girls name is Gwendolyn, she was a smart young lady but everyone thought she was weird because Gwen was outgoing and crazily fun. I was always around Gwen because we were basically the same type of fun but others would always bother her for no reason. One day a group of girls began to yell and argue with Gwendolyn

The bystander effect is a concept that concludes that when the number of bystanders is increased in an emergency situation, the less likely any of the bystanders will assist the victim. Kitty Genovese was murdered in front of her New York apartment and about 38 residents witnessed yet decided not to assist by calling police, or trying to stop her attacker. Kitty’s death, sparked a concern for many people and got social psychologists to question if it is in the human nature to not help those in need, it also led to the findings of other elements that are related to the reasons why the bystander effect occurs in large groups compared to when someone witnesses an accident by themselves. One of the main reasons why the bystander effect occurs

"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.