The Bystander Effect is a Cognitive Phoenomena

Kitty Genovese was a victim of a crime that consisted of multiple stabbings, numerous eyewitnesses, enormous blood samplings, and a deceased corpse. The individual was murdered over a forty-five minute period that was witnessed by 38 individuals, who did not help or assist in aid to Genovese. By the act of nonchalant witnesses a means of partial, social proof, developed. Social proof is when individuals are uncertain and instead of using a method of action, they ‘think’ that another individual is assisting or they themselves look to others to complete the task. It can also be caused by people losing themselves in the crowd and assuming only a small share of the responsibility (Lathan & Darley, 1970). In today’s society, many individuals feel the need to not get involved due to one common attribute;

Why should students help pick up fellow classmate's books that he or she dropped? Why should people give to the homeless? Why should humans become organ donors? Altruism is defined as a person's ability to go out of their way to enhance the welfare of someone else without anything in return. But it's not the "what" of altruism that is intriguing, it's the "why" that is truly fascinating. Scientist and researches may never pinpoint what makes humans exhibit altruistic behavior, but there is one thing that scientist and researches are sure about. Altruism plays an important role in running society, and the world can use more of it.

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).

“What hurts the victim most is not the cruelty of the oppressor, but the silence of the bystander.” -Elie Wiesel

The bystander effect also arises from a diffusion of responsibility as each bystander can better rationalize his or her lack of action. In some cases, people assume that in a large group, there will be someone else that is more qualified to help and therefore, each person feels less obligated to act. For example, a doctor is far more qualified to provide medical assistance to a victim and likewise, a police officer or stronger-bodied man can better subdue a perpetrator. If the crowd of bystanders is large,

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

This essay will ‘compare and contrast’ two approaches made in investigating the ‘bystander effect’. It will discuss in some depth as to what exactly is meant by the bystander effect, illustrating when this concept was first shown and why. An outline will be made of the different methods used, those being experiments and discourse analysis, explaining each one in turn, within the framework of two cases. The first being the murder of ‘Catherine Genovese,’ 1964.and the second ‘James Bulger’ 1993. The essay will then show examples of the differences and similarities between each method. Concluding with a summary of findings into the two approaches to investigating the Bystander Effect.

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

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”(Weiten). Such reactions usually occur when individuals do not want to risk getting involved in the situation. In Chronicles of a Death Foretold, even though the townspeople do not desire the murder of Santiago Nasar,their unwillingness or lack of courage to take action in preventing this “foretold murder” consequently allows for the murder to happen. The idea of disturbing the status-quo and risk of involvement overshadows the Sucré citizens’ moral values. Even though a scale of individual willingness to avert the crime is presented such as Colonel Lazaro Aponte’s fulfilling his duty ,Clotilde Armenta’s multiple attempts and Father Armando’s total indifference; none of the townspeople want to be directly implicated in the matter.

Kitty Genovese was a woman from New York City who was stabbed to death three separate times outside her apartment building in Kew Gardens. The first two times being outside her apartment, and finally finishing her off the assailant returned stabbing her on the floor at the foot of the stairs. Much controversy arose from the Kitty Genovese murder, due to how public the murder was, and how no one stood up for her, or even alerted the police. After Kitty Genovese’s murder, questions began to arise, why didn't anyone take action, how was the assailant able to stab her three times in public, and why weren't the police or ambulances called sooner? All these questions could be answered by a syndrome, titled after the Kitty Genovese murder, as 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

this brutal murder and not one of them informed the police? The bystander effect states that, in

PART 2 ESSAY This essay will compare and contrast the two approaches to investigating the ‘bystander effect’. It will first discuss in some depth as to what exactly is meant by the bystander effect, giving some examples of this and then go on to illustrate when this concept was first shown and why. An outline will then be made showing the different methods in which social scientists have investigated this explaining the different methods used. The essay will then show examples of the differences and similarities used in both methods.

Article While attending GoodLife Fitness gym, actress and Toronto native Alex Jade saved the life of a fellow gym-goer when he went into cardiac arrest. Jade, who had prior training in cardiopulmonary resuscitation, jumped to action when onlookers and employees did not. After the events, she reported how one employee, unbothered by the events taking place, strolled over to the victim, placed the defibrillator beside the him and stepped away. This prompted Jade to take action. The actress ran over, utilized the defibrillator and CPR methods until emergency responders reached the gym and took the man to the hospital to perform surgery.

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