The Cause And Effects Of The Bystander Effects

“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 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.

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

The bystander effect is defined as the higher the number of people who notice an emergency, the less of a chance that those bystanders will help the victim (as cited in Aronson, Wilson, Akert, & Sommers, 2015). The importance of the bystander effect is unparalleled because it determines whether humans will still help in a situation when there are other people available. Bystanders can deal with situations ranging from the mundane to the dire, but what matters is the number of those who take action.

On March 13, 1964, a woman by the name of Kitty Genovese was walking towards her apartment-complex in New York City, when suddenly she was fatally stabbed on different occasions by a man named Winston Moseley. As she screamed and begged for people to help, her neighbors just stood and idly watched the incident. The neighbors were well aware of her situation due to her screams and some even watched the incident happen. There were 38 witnesses to the event, and no phone calls were made, until after her death. Why do you think no one helped? Why did her neighbors watch? What could have changed the outcome?

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.

Over the entirety of this course one psychological phenomenon has resonated with me more so than any other, this being the principle of Bystander Intervention. My personal connection this psychological principle is engraved into my mind and revolves around a gentleman, whom I have never met, attempting to take his own life. Towards the beginning of March of last year I found myself studying at the Davis Centre working on an essay on the computers. Listening to my music, which as usual was nearly on full audible output, when I began to here loud noises and sounds that seem to pierce my headphones. I turn to see a gentleman, who was not long ago sitting beside me on a near by computer, began to scream uncontrollably and repeatedly strike his

I agree with you on that, it is very sad what happened to Kitty. If someone would have intervened she might have been able to live a further life, but it was a very violent situation so I feel along with the bystander effect there was fear that kept everyone back from helping her because they feared for their own life. It's very interesting how the bystander effect developed, I personally think it was developed over time as the human race grew, the population got bigger so as an effect of that, when someone would get in trouble when there was more people, we would have the bystander effect come in, but thats just what I

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

Bystander awareness is very important to our society. It is meaningful because everyone can get in a trouble and one day everyone need help. What will happen to our society if all people become indifferent to each other? New generations now are hard heated and nobody wants to risk themselves for the sake of strangers. But on the other side, it is a good point, because unreasonable risk can badly affect on you.

As previously described, gap junction channels allow the delivery of signals from one cell to another. These cell signals can be for cell survival or cell death. The effect where neighboring cells are affected through the spread of GJP is known as the bystander effect.

"The Bystander Effect" is a short video on the study how people reacted to others in distress while in a crowd. Most would assume there is safety within numbers, however, the results prove that that may not always be the case. This study seems to bring to attention that while in a larger crowd people may actually be less likely to receive help. This may be due to our human behavior of doing the same as everyone else, or possibly a mental thought of let someone else handle it, do not get involved. These findings could easily bring on a new fear of being in crowded areas.

A bystander, to me, is somebody who can possibly help during a time of need but chooses not to. Even if it is something as simple as someone falling down the stairs, I feel you still need to help. It was sad to hear about the Kitty Genovese story, she could have easily been saved, yet people were too lazy or too tired. It makes me wonder how people managed to live with themselves afterward. All 37 of those people were bystanders, and the bystanders are just as guilty as the offender. Growing up my dad always told me if I saw something taking place that I knew was wrong but did not do anything, I was just as guilty as the person doing it. That has