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Bystander effect in social psychology
The bystander effect concept paper
Bystander effect in social psychology
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One may assume that in an emergency situation the more people present, the more likely a person is to receive help. This has however, been disproven in multiple experiments. This social phenomenon, known as the bystander effect, has been studied since the late 1960’s. The diffusion of responsibility is often used to explain the bystander effect- a social phenomenon in which people become less likely to offer assistance to someone in an emergency when there are other people present (1). Researches Latane and Darley first became interested in the effect of the diffusion of responsibility in the 1960’s, after the death of Kitty Genovese who was murdered outside of her apartment while 38 people made no effort to help her.
The diffusion of responsibility may be affected by many things; however there is a specific process that each person goes through while an event is happening. The model, developed by Latane and Darley (1970), explains the stages bystanders go through when deciding to offer assistance or not;
1. Notice that something is wrong
2. Identify that someone needs help
3. Take responsibility for helping the person
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Even when a person is alone and the sole responsibility for helping a person falls unto them, if they are under time pressure they are far less likely to offer assistance. Darley and Batson (1973) told one group of students that they were late for their appointment in another building, while they told another group that they had plenty of time to make their way over. Those who believed they were needed urgently only stopped to help a man in obvious physical struggle 10 per cent of the time, while those who were not in a hurry stopped two thirds of the time. This suggests that even though a person may believe that they are responsible for helping in an emergency, they are far less likely to offer this assistance if they are under some amount of time
The bystander effect refers to the tendency for an observer of an emergency to withhold aid if the:
The bystander effect is a the phenomenon in which the more people are are around the less likely someone will step-in or help in a given situation. THe most prominent example of this is the tragic death of Kitty Genovese. In march of 1964 Kitty genovese was murdered in the alley outside of her apartment. That night numerous people reported hearing the desperate cries for help made by Kitty Genovese who was stabbed to death. Her screams ripped through the night and yet people walked idly by her murder. No one intervened and not even a measly phone call to the police was made.
A man is running late to work one day when he passes by a homeless person asking for help. This man and many others usually consider this particular man to be generous, but since he is late, he ignores the homeless person and continues on his way. One can assume that if he had the time, he would have helped. Does that matter, though, seeing as in that situation, he did not in fact help? Scenarios like this supports Lee Ross and Richard Nisbett’s idea that it is the situation that influences a person’s behavior, not he or she’s individual conscience. Although a person’s individual conscience could play a part in how one behaves in a given scenario, ultimately, the “situational variable” has more impact on the actions of the person than he or she’s morals.
Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.” We are All Bystanders by Jason Marsh and Dacher Keltner is an article that reflects on the psychological and social phenomenon that refers to cases in which people do not offer any assistance or help to a victim. Studies say that a person's personality can determine how they react to a bystander situation. In a book called, The Heart of Altruism, author Kristen Monroe writes the altruistic perspective. Altruistic people are strongly connected to other humans and have a concern for the well-being of others. Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief exemplifies the bystander theory through Liesel and
De Cremer established the main differences between prosocials and proselfs as being the way that they feel about their role in society therefore influencing their behavior within society. Brent Simpson and Robb Willer use these findings to establish a base for their own study about the relationship between altruism and indirect reciprocity. They use previous data to formulate a hypothesis that aims to explain why people act
Latane and Darley (1968) investigated the phenomenon known as the bystander effect and staged an emergency situation where smoke was pumped into the room participants was in. Results showed that 75% of participants who were alone reported the smoke, whereas only 38% of participants working in groups of three reported (Latane & Darley, 1968). Their findings provide evidence for the negative consequence of the diffusion of responsibility. In line with the social influence principle, bystanders depend on reactions of others to perceive a situation as an emergency and are subsequently less likely to help. Latane and Darley’s findings were also supported in recent research: Garcia and colleagues (2002) found that even priming a social context by asking participants to imagine themselves in a group could decrease helping behaviour. It can be contended that these findings are examples of social proof where individuals believe actions of the group is correct for the situation, or examples of pluralistic ignorance where individuals outwardly conform because they incorrectly assumed that a group had accepted the norm (Baumeister & Bushman,
Marcus, R.F., & Jenny, B. (1977). A Naturalistic Study of the Reciprocity in the Helping
Researchers have studied the bystander affect for many years now and have found out a few reasons why it happens. The bystander affect is important in night because of how people act in groups. Germans watched the Jews go by and didn’t say anything some even threw bread at them (night). Night shows that the more people that are around the less likely people are to help. Kitty was killed in front of 30 some people and no one did anything to help (the death of kitty Genovese.) During her murder people sat and watched out there window thinking someone else had called or helped her. Also, the bystander affect was shown in knight because as the Jews were being mass murdered not one person stood up to try and help until it was too late. Likewise,
Although it may be natural human behavior when stripped from civilization, how the boys' behavior has changed morally based on their situation is the main part of the destruction on the island. One thing is that the boys on the island were not willing to go after and help each other. The bystander effect engaged, they let all these horrible things happen to each other without taking action to stop it and get things under control. This quote shows us an example of how the bystander effect was happening while Jack and his tribe were killing Simon: “Again the blue-white scar jagged above them and the sulphurous explosion beat down. The littluns screamed and blundered about, fleeing from the edge of the forest, and one of them broke the ring of biguns in
Have you ever been in a position where you had to waver your chances of survival, not knowing if you’d make it out alive or not? Countless times people are found in these types of situations on their own accord, or by accident, but who would be to blame?
However, that opposing argument can be found as hypocritical. If a person was getting robbed in an ally and they saw many witnesses taking no action they would likely be upset by the fact of no one is offering any assistance to them. Bystanders should put themselves into the shoes of the person in need and ask themselves how they would expect others to respond if they were the one in need. Often time’s bystanders take no intervention because of the diffusion of responsibility. “When there are four or more people who are bystanders to an emergency situation, the likelihood that at least one of them will help is just 31%” (Gaille). Another statistic shows that 85% of people who were bystanders would intervene if they knew or at least though they were the only person present in the situation. Often the only thing keeping people from intervening in bystander situations are other people. It is important for bystanders to understand the statistics of the people around them in order to create action because often times they do not realize that if they were to intervene other people would likely support them in the situation. Bystanders need to make it a personal responsibility to intervene in situations for the good of other. If people were to always take action the amount of bullying, sexual harassment, crime, and many other significant issues within a society would drastically
The next step in offering assistance in an emergency is assuming responsibility. Often times, diffusion of responsibility takes place instead. Unfortunately, with people around, each ind...
Darley, J. M. & Latané, B. (1968) Bystander intervention in emergencies: Diffusion of responsibility, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 8, 377–383
There is one question that has certainly thought of most Americans in their life, and remains to outbreak the whole country. Should I just walk away or should I help? What I am discussing to be something psychologists have named the Bystander Effect. The bystander effect is well-defined as such: the more people’s desires help, the less likely any of them is to give help....
Paciello, M., Fida, R., Cerniglia, L., Tramontano, C., & Cole, E. (2013). High cost helping scenario: The role of empathy, prosocial reasoning and moral disengagement on helping behavior. Personality & Individual Differences, 55(1), 3-7. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2012.11.004