The Bystander Apathy And Effect

When there is an emergency, why is taking out our phones to take a picture or video the very first thing we want to do? Why do we casually walk by a person who is in trouble, and go about our business as if we did not anyone? Why do we not help or act when someone is getting, but instead we just stand in a crowd and watch? Why do we bury our moral instincts during emergencies? “We witness a problem, consider positive action, and respond by doing nothing. Why do we not help in these situations and put our moral instincts in shackles” (Keltner & Marsh, 2017). We as people are bystanders to the world around us daily, but the question is why? The answer to all the “why” questions is the bystander effect.

“Good Samaritan” doctrine, which imposes a legal duty to help or call for help for imperiled strangers. American bystander rule is there’s no legal duty to rescue or summon help for someone who’s in danger even if the bystander risks nothing by helping. Only a few jurisdictions follow the “Good Samaritan” rule, nearly all follow the approach of the American bystanders rule.

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.

The Bystander effect is a controversial theory given to social phenomenon where the more potential helpers there are, the less likely any individual is to help. A traditional explanation for this Bystander Effect is that responsibility diffuses across the multiple bystanders, diluting the responsibility of each. (Kyle et al.) The Bystander effect, also known as the Genovese Syndrome, was created after the infamous murder of “Kitty” Catherine Genovese in 1964, on the streets of New York in front of thirty-seven witnesses. After studying the Genovese syndrome and doing research on how this phenomenon occurs today, it is clear The Bystander effect is not theory, but actually fact.

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).

different times) act as if they were is a lot of pain or a drunk. The test was to see how long it took

Hi Shlanda- Thank you for your response! Yes, you are correct in any situation that bystanders are more likely to help because they are dealing with just one individual and a medical condition being present, but when more individuals are already present to help out I can agree with you that most individuals at that point would mind their own business and go on with their

After someone interprets the situation they must decide if it is their personal responsibility to help. Sometimes a person will talk himself or herself out of helping because they think someone else will stop and be of assistance. If that person believes they are the only one to have seen the emergency they are more likely to help because they feel no one else will. They believe it is their personal responsibility to act (Darley and Latané 44-48).

The bystander effect is both a social and psychological phenomenon in which an individual’s inclination towards showing helping behaviours are minimised by the influence of other people. Research has found that the more people acting as bystanders in a situation, the less likely it is that helping behaviours will be demonstrated. However in the correct conditions, where conditioned cues increase self-awareness, it is possible to reverse the bystander effect phenomenon. The bystander effect is prevalent in everyday life, and often decorates the news, shocking the world, especially when authority figures such as police men and women succumb to the effect. Diffusion of responsibility, ignorance of others interpretation of an event and self-consciousness are all social processes which appear to lead to social inhibition of helping behaviours and one of the main theories of the bystander effect is provided Latané and Darley (1970) whose cognitive model provides a series of decisions that can lead to social inhibition. The bystander effect is influenced by the conditions an individual is in when an event occurs, for example the bystander effect appears to be most dominant when an individual is in a group of strangers with low group cohesiveness. FINISH

Being a bystander is someone who doesn't take part of an event or incident. While I was gathering information on why bystanders should intervene when there is trouble. I found articles talking about different types of bystanders, what bystander effect is and how people process when people are in trouble. The reason why you should intervene is because your moral standards and you can save someone's life.

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

Everyday we are faced to make decisions. It could be something so simple or difficult. Sometimes it may involve doing something you’ve never done before or may not be comfortable doing. Sometimes you may even ignore the situation overall. In this case it would be called being a bystander. Nobody wants to be the person to step in and stop something from happening. Whether it is at a party or even just on the street.

Many people in society are praised for their bravery and heroism. A lot of people risk their lives to save and help others when those are in need. The group I choose to discuss is would good Samaritans who try to break up crimes in progress and rescue the intended victims but wind up injured or killed themselves. At some point in our life we are faced with situations where we become a bystander in some way. Not everyone feels the need to intervene due to some circumstances such as the consequences. We live in a society where people are accustomed to viewing the misfortunes of others as entertainment. That is why people tend to record tragic incidents and post them on social media accounts such as YouTube and WorldStarHipHop. Although social

The bystander effect theory is a psychological phenomenon were people do not help others in emergency situations when there are others present, the bigger the crowd the less likely chance of someone stepping in to help. In 1964, there was a woman who was brutally murdered and there were approximately 30 witnesses who did not intervene to save her. This case was

Anyone can take action however, are there factors, which can turn one in the right direction to help a victim? The answer is yes! These people who help can be anyone, with the right factors present. Observations made have shown that people are more likely to help if they’re happy, not in a hurry, feeling guilty, and etc. (Myers, 2014, p.494). Thus one could conclude the better the mood or situation one was in that current moment the more likely they would help. For example, an individual just for fired from his job, he is filled with emotions such as anger, sadness, and despair. He see’s another person getting robbed. He also notices the situation and can see that it is a emergency, and that the other person needs help. However, there are others around who are also witnessing the event. He assumes the person is already receiving help and goes on home. However, if the individual had not lost his job and been in a better mood he might have took action. Another influence of whether a person takes the action and does not assume is based on the actions of the people surrounding or the other bystanders. “Just as passive bystanders reinforce a sense that nothing is wrong in a situation, the active bystander can, in fact, get people to focus on a problem and motivate them to take action”(Marsh & Keltner, 2006). Humans not only assess the situation themselves but, read the body language of others to see their point of view in a