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The Bystander Effect
Bystander theory strengths and limitations
Cons on the bystander effect
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Recommended: The Bystander Effect
The bystander effect is a phenomenon in our society in which people will most likely not help a victim when there are other people around, making you a bystander. One of the most used examples was the case of Kitty Genovese. The New Yorker reported that she was stabbed to death in New York City, and 38 eyewitnesses did not try to help in any way. If people are informed about this social phenomenon then there is a better chance that more people will break this unwritten rule.
The course would be largely based off studies already published, starting with the 1968 study based on Kitty Genovese’s murder case, Axel Casian, Esmin Green, Hugo Alfred Tale-Yax and other popular cases where individuals just expect someone else is going to help. The bystander effect is an element of social psychology that implies that when the number of bystanders is increased in an emergency situation, the less likely any of the bystanders will aid, or assist in the situation. According to Psychorod.com, The diffusion of responsibility is a phenomenon related to the bystander’s sense of responsibility to aid and decreases when there are more witnesses present. In “The Bystander Effect,” article by psychrod.com it explains that this phenomenon in social psychology happens when the number
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But what this view neglects to take into account is that society has encouraged students to follow the crowed, mind their own business, and put themselves before other people, however, with this course, students will learn, and be inspired to leave their comfort zone and help others as they would expect others to do for them. Another argument could be that the bystander effect occurs when there is a large crowd and you believe someone else is going to help so you better not get in the way; but the people around you are thinking the same
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.
As our textbook describes the bystander effect as the tendency for any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present. To put it into my own words, I think that bystander effect is where people are less likely to help because of the diffusion of responsibility. We are more likely to help: the person appears to need and deserve help, if the person is in some way similar to us, the person is a woman, when we have just observed someone else being helpful, if we are not in a hurry, if we are in a small town or rural areas, when we are feeling guilty, when we are focused on others and not preoccupied, and when we are in a great/good mood (Myers).
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
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,
Bystander effect and obedience to authority are theories that can be compared and contrasted. Bystander effect is, for example, when someone is publicly in need and even though there are many people passing by or in the area, no one stops to help because they’ve seen no one else stop to help. In a video called The Bystander Effect they did an experiment to test the theory by having an actor lay by the steps of a busy area in Liverpool and moan “Help me”. The actor, Peter, was passed by many people who glanced his way, but didn’t stop to help even after 20 minutes of him yelling for help. Next they had a lady lay on the steps and after 4 minutes and 30 seconds a man finally comes over to help and forms what a narrator refers to as a new group with new rules to actually help. After the man comes to her assistance so does another lady and then more people follow. In the next part of the experiment they have Peter come back dressed as business man and it only takes 6 seconds before someone comes to help him. A real life example of bystander effect is the police brutality incident that happened at Spring Valley High School where a 15 year old girl was tackled and assaulted by a police officer for no reason that justified that treatment. In the video her peers and teacher just stood by and watched it happen without stepping in or speaking up. I think even
Relationships are an important focus in the subject of bystander intervention, as interactions with others will influence the decision making of a person in terms of a decision to intervene, in part. The severity of a situation is related to this decision-making, and may lead to a person who will potentially intervene in forming a conclusion of if the event if an emergency. Additionally, both the previous and following studies involve undergraduate students as participants. This is helpful, as an undergraduate student is generally eager to express an honest opinion, which may lead to a more valid
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
In a study done by both Bibb Latane and John Darley, they measured the amount of time it took individuals to respond and act in a given situation based on the number of people present in the room (Bystander). They found that when individuals were in rooms by themselves and smoke filled the room, there was a 75 percent chance of the person reporting the smoke (Bystander). Whereas, when people were placed in rooms which contained other participants there was only a 38 percent chance of the people reporting the incident (Bystander). This unfortunately is not the only study which comes to a similar conclusion. A social experiment done by teenagers at a local high school shows the same thing. The students went around the school and asked their classmates and teachers if they would help a student that was found passed out in the halls (YouTube). All of those who were interviewed said yes they would. When this situation was tested, it proved the students to be liars. Over 70 (if not more) students walked over the body of the passed out girl (YouTube). Some even took pictures and laughed (YouTube). No one helped the girl because they all believed that it was not their job due to the presence of others. Looking at everyday life it is easy to see how the bystander effect can not only be applied to big situations such as the ones listed above, but also, to small ones. Such as, walking down a hall and walking by a piece if trash someone dropped. Most people (if not all) will continue walking and refuse to pick up the trash because it was not their doing. Perhaps this is a contributing factor to the fact that many people go without help in emergency
The bystander effect plays a key role in society today. More and more people ignore a person in distress.
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
Bystander effect (Darley & Latane, 1970) refers to a decrease in response when there are bystanders around relative to no bystanders. Referring to a previous study stating that there are some cases in which group size may promote helping instead of hindering it (Fischer et al., 2011). Researchers then speculated on the possibility of positive influences from bystanders by taking public self-awareness into consideration. Researchers proposed that high public self-awareness would reverse the bystander effect in this study with 2 independent variables: bystander and presence on the forum. They are defined as number of bystanders (absent vs present) and salience of name (salient vs non-salient) respectively.
The bystander effect is a social phenomenon, whereby individuals are less likely to help when others are present. This emerged following the murder of Kitty Genovese, 1964. Manning, Levine and Collins (2007) state, ‘this iconic event focused research attention on the psychology of helping and how groups act as impediments to helping.’ (pp. 555). Theorists argue the more bystanders, the less likely people help. Arguably, one cause of the bystander effect is diffusion of responsibility, this is the idea that when a task is presented before a larger group,
Darley, J. M. & Latané, B. (1968) Bystander intervention in emergencies: Diffusion of responsibility, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 8, 377–383