Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Limitations to the bystander effect
Bystander effect research topics
Limitations to the bystander effect
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Limitations to the bystander effect
It was chilly dawn on March 13th, 1964 that 28-year-old bar manager Catherine Kitty Genovese was walking home. While she was walking towards her house, a 29-year-old machine operator came out and stabbed her twice in the back. Catherine was frightened and desperately screamed for help. There were 38 citizens who watched the killer stabbing the woman, but no one called the police as they did not want to be involved in the situation. As a result, Catherine died while her urgent cries were unanswered by 38 witnesses (Martin Gansberg, 1964). After this tragedy, psychologists named the situation in which people do not offer any help to a victim when other individuals are around them as the Genovese syndrome (Meyers, 2010). The bystander effect, which is another name of the Genovese syndrome, emerged as a hot potato in several fields of study such as psychology, sociology, and ethics since it became much more rampant in modern society with the spread of the egoism. Some bystanders rationalize their decisions according to their comparison between the values of their own safety and others’. However, the bystander effect is an undesirable phenomenon as it degrades the moral level of overall society, destroys the system of social trust, and has negative influences on various social fields.
First of all, the bystander effect corrupts the moral level of the whole society. Moral levels of the society are determined by two main factors, which are moral conscience and moral consciousness. Moral conscience is an inborn faculty that assists in distinguishing right from wrong (May, 1983). This inner voice often makes a person feel guilty when he/she commits actions that go against moral values and leads the person to behave morally. For instance, p...
... middle of paper ...
...rated. Since bystander effect is a complicated problem related to various fields such as psychology, sociology, and ethics, integrated efforts from multilateral aspects are required. While the bystander effect still exists in the society, there is always a certainty for another tragedy of Catherine Kitty Genovese to happen. Without individual and social effort to effectively eradicate the bystander effect, everyone, including you, may fall to be the next victim.
Works Cited
Martin G. (1964, March 27). Thirty-eight who saw murder didn't call the police. New York Times.
Meyers, D. G. (2010). Social psychology (10th Ed). New York: McGraw- Hill.
May, L. (1983). On conscience. American Philosophical Quarterly, 20: 57-67.
Namee, Abigail, and Mia M. School-wide intervention in the childhood bullying triangle. Taylor & Francis Online. (2012, July 25): 370-378. PDF file.
The bystander effect refers to the tendency for an observer of an emergency to withhold aid if the:
... so is sacrificial to one’s rights, it puts them in an undesirable position where they may be harmed as well, and success at being an upstander is not guaranteed. Perpetrators tyrannize those who are unable to stand up for themselves; like how predators seek out the vulnerable preys. Hence, instead of having bystanders to stand up for the victim, the victim should stand up for him/herself. In addition, unlike what Lehrman believes, bystanders are not the most dangerous to the victim; the perpetrator is. Saying that bystanders are the most dangerous is is like saying that if one witnesses something, then he/she is a criminal. Consequently, saying that bystanders should stand up for victims against perpetrators is illogical and naive. Concisely, it is not another’s responsibility to ensure one’s safety and wellness; instead, it is one’s responsibility to do so.
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.
In this story, Allende paints a picture of a little girl who is having what should be a near death experience, but will instead lead to her demise. This change is a result of the fact that even though a passel of reporters and cameramen on the scene, all are insensitive to the suffering of Azucena. The situation is a strong example of the bystander effect. Studies have indicated that in situations such as this one, the members of the group are likely to pass responsibility for saving Azucena to another member of the group. As more news crews report to the scene, each individual feels less compelled to provide aid to this poor girl.
On March 13, 1964, Kitty Genovese was murdered outside a liquor store at 3:20 AM. She screamed for help, but her pleas were mostly ignored as neighbours dismissed it as a drunken brawl between lovers. Her killer stabbed her twice in the back, before a neighbour scared him away by shouting, “Let that girl alone.” Still, no one went to check up on Genovese who, now injured, continued to cry out, “If someone doesn’t help me I’m going to die!” (Pelonero, 2014). Her killer returned 10 minutes later to rape and stab her to death. In the aftermath of her murder, a neighbour admitted to the police that he “didn’t want to get involved.” Genovese’s murder has became a figurehead for the bystander effect, due to the apathy displayed by the reported 38
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
Kitty Genovese case led to the development of the 911 emergency call system and inspired a long line of research led by psychologists Bibb Latané and John Darley around the time of 1970 into what circumstances lead bystanders to help someone in need. They discovered that, the more people available to help, the less likely any individual person would help—a phenomenon they called the “bystander effect.” If you are the only one around when an elderly person stumbles and falls, the responsibility to help is yours alone, but, with more people present, your obligation is less clear. Latané and Darley called this the “diffusion of responsibility” (CSI). A more recent case of the bystander effect was when assault victim Marques Gains laid motionless in the street due to by a hit-and-run; traffic whizzed past along with a few people stopped and seemed to stand over Gaines, who was crumpled near the curb on North State Street. No one tried to lift him from the pavement or block traffic. The lack of action by passers-by cost the hotel cocktail server his life after a cab turned the corner and drove over him. Experts says that a traumatic or odd event occurring in a public setting triggers an array of social and cultural cues and, combined with human nature, often leads to the lack of action by witnesses
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
On March 13, 1964 a woman by the name of Catherine “Kitty” Genovese was coming back to her apartment in Queens, New York at 3:00 a.m. when she was impaled to death by a serial killer. According to the news, the said attack was about 30 minutes long. During the attack, Kitty Genovese screamed for help numerous times. The killer left the scene when the attention of a neighbor was attracted. Ten minutes later, the killer returned to the scene and murdered Genovese. It came to attention that 38 people witnessed the attack and murder, but all thirty-eight failed to report it until after the murder. This ordeal got the attention of many people including scientists and psychologists who wanted to figure out why this occurred. Later, the events that were published by the news were found to be false. It seemed as if the news was experiencing the bystander effect as well, because their information did not contribute to the actual facts. There were not 38 witnesses to the crime, but several had heard the screams and a few calls were made to the police during the attack. But there was still talk about something that affected the minds of people during emergency situations. This phenomenon has become known as the Bystander Effect. There were several cases that are fairly similar to the Genovese one. As well as the Genovese case, these occurrences attracted the attention of many scientists and even the news had something to say about “apathy.” Is the bystander effect real? My hypothesis is that the bystander effect is in fact, a real everyday occurrence that limits the help offered by people. This is due to the number of bystander present during a given situation. The Bystander Effect is the social psychological idea that refers to cases in whi...
Bullying has become a major problem facing the United States today. The American Psychological Association reports that roughly 40% to 80% of children are involved in bullying on some level during their time in school. (APA, 2014) The magnitude of the problem can be observed in the statistics. In the United States, a total of 4,080,879 children between the ages of five and 18 have been the victims of bullying compared to 3,892,199 who have reported that they have engaged in bullying someone else. Additionally, 851,755 said that they have been both the victim and the bully. That's a whopping 8,824,833 people in the United States that have been involved in bullying behavior on one level or another. (High, B., 2000 Census)
From this, he concludes that bystanders should be considered another form of evil as their actions only encourage the existence of evil. Resultantly, Zimbardo further examines the bystander effect, and the reasons why so many individuals choose not to confront evil. Once more in Chapter 13, he states, “The more people present who might help in an emergent situation, the more we assume that someone else will step forward, so we do not have to become energized to take any personal risk” (Zimbardo). According to Zimbardo, the role of the bystander is due to the combination of social normality, a lack of personal interest, and individual selfishness. Individuals are not inclined to take the initiative to stop a harmful action because they believe someone else will step in first. Quite frankly, many hope to not interact with evil because they fear of the possible consequences and risk attributed to confront evil. Consequently, individuals are often unintentionally and even unknowingly placed into the role of the
Fischer & Greitemeyer (2013) studied the how the positive bystander effect was impacted in a field study. There had been a substantial amount of laboratory studies done on the subject, and field studies were lacking. They observed individuals at a subway station in a Germanic city. This field experiment was used to find the interaction of a passive bystander in a set situation of bike theft with no victim on site.
1) In your opinion, what causes people to turn a blind eye when they see others in danger?
One of the strengths is providing a new insight into bystander effect. The study argued that researchers have previously neglected the potential benefit of bystanders and thus, the study provided a new horizon by proving reversed bystander effect through experiment. This allows us to be aware of the fact that someone may be providing help merely due to impression management. This arouses a doubt on whether the one who provides help is genuinely concerned about the needs of the victims, or one is just motivated by upholding his/her reputation when surrounded by a crowd. Besides, carrying out a manipulation check right after this experiment is beneficial to this study as well....
A bystander is a person who is present and overlooks an event but takes no part within it. If someone was to be lying on a sidewalk unconscious and another person walked by and ignores the fact that there is a human being lying passed out in front of them, it makes them a bystander. However, bystanders are present in many different varieties. A possible bystander could be someone who hears a conversation occurring about breaking into a house, if the person decides not to say anything and later the house gets broken into it makes them a bystander. A psychological study done by Bibb Latané and John Darley discovered that “…people are less likely to offer help when they are in a group than when they are alone” (Burkley). This discovery can be