The Bystander Effect In A Subway Tragedy

The Bystander Effect
The Bystander effect can be described as the apathy to help others in distress situations. The higher the number of bystanders facing an emergency situation, the less likely are them to help. This is a demonstration of how others influenced the way we act in different situations. As we learned in class, many factors influenced our apathy to help others in distress situations. “The bystander effect contains different components related to the assistance of the bystanders helping behavior, as well as different social and cultural manifestations and their relevant causes (Rodarte, 2015).” One of the main reasons why the Bystander Effect occurs, it is that sometimes we do not perceived the situation as an emergency. Nowadays,

people are always in a hurry and occasionally do not realized what is happening around them.
According to Bickman, 1972; Korte, 1971, the immediate or imagined presence of others exerts its influence on helping because these others are involved in the situation at hand. In fact, if individuals know that immediate or imagined others cannot possibly help, then bystander apathy will not occur, and individuals will behave as if they were alone. Another reason that explains the Bystander Effect, is the lack of knowledge of how to help the person in need of assistance. Sometimes, we think that if we try to help and we are not qualified for it, it could be worse for the person. Then, we will decide to call the emergency services or look for another bystander that could provide help. Sometimes, bystanders will not help because they are afraid to put themselves in danger if the situation is considered dangerous ((Fischer & Greitmeyer, 2013).
One of the videos that I have found on you tube (The Bystander Effect), the researchers are asking some high school students about if they will be willing to help someone that is lying on the ground. All of the people answered yes; however, in reality students did not help when they saw one of the students, Olivia, lying on the school’s floor. Some of the students did not even noticed Olivia. Others, saw her lying on the floor but they did not offer help. They try to realize if others had perceived the situation as an emergency. Some minutes past until one girl stopped in from of Olivia and tried to offer help. Then, the rest of the students around Olivia also stopped and started asking what they could do to help her. This is a good example of Bystander Effect. The greater the number of bystander, the less likely are people to help someone in need of support. People always think that it is not their responsibility and that others can also help. Moreover, people often do not perceive the situation as an emergency. They always rely on others to decide when it is necessary to help. Moreover, these students may not stopped and offered help to Olivia because they could not know what to do in an emergency situation.
Another good example that I found of Bystander Effect is: Bystander Effect in a Subway Tragedy.

On December 3, in full view of a number of witnesses standing within close proximity, Ki-Suck Han, a 58 year-old male entered into an altercation with Naeem Davis, a 30 year-old homeless male at the Times Square subway station. Han was pushed down into the tracks and then struggled and pleaded for help for what was reported to be a full 22 seconds, as witnesses watched, took pictures, and failed to come to his assistance (Petrecca & Eversley, 2012). The man was then hit by the approaching subway train as it dragged into the station. This is a sad example of the Bystander Effect which demonstrates that people are less likely to come to the assistance of another in an emergency situation when other bystanders are present and also perceived to be responsible and able to help (Schneider, Gruman, and Coutts, 2012). Moreover, we are most of the time influenced by Social Loafing. Social loafing is the diffusion of responsibility among a group of people. When a group of people are perceiving an emergency situation, all of them tend to think that others are available to help. Social influence explains that people always look to others to evaluate a situation as a real emergency. We assume that others may know something that we do not know and we measure their reactions before we decide how we will respond. If we noticed that those around us are acting as if it is an emergency, then we will view the situation in the same way and act accordingly. However, if those around us are acting calm, then we may not realize the immediacy of the situation and therefore fail to respond appropriately. Maybe this is the answer to why people did not help the homeless who was attacked by the 58 year- old man. They failed to see the situation as a real emergency, and as a result they did not act

accordingly.
Empathy as a form of Altruism
Another important concept that would like to write about is Empathy as a form of Altruism.
Empathy is to understand what another person is feeling. The empathy-altruism hypothesis states that psychological altruism does exist and is evoked by the empathic desire to help someone who is suffering.
In one of the examples that I found on YouTube about empathy, “Real Character / Real People Series: Profiles in Empathy (Jimmy Carter)”, Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States, talks about empathy in a beautiful way. According to Jimmy Carter, to make empathy is the ability to put one-self in the position of another different person. He expressed that if you empathize with other people you can understand their feelings and at the same time you anticipate how your actions will affect them. Jimmy Carter explained in this video how the Carter Presidential Center deal with the poverty of people of about 65 different places in the world. This organization works with countries in Africa like Ethiopia where people live with one dollar a day. The president explained that whenever we think that we are making a sacrifice by other people through compassion or empathy, we always discovered that the benefits we obtained are much greater than the effort or resources we have putted to help others.
According to the Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis we have learned in class, “when we feel empathy for a person, we will attempt to help that person purely for altruistic reasons, regardless of what we have to gain.” This is what Jimmy Carter is expressing in this video about empathy. As soon as we learned to understand others situations, we tend to help without waiting for any reward. The reward that we obtained is the joy of been able to help someone in need.
Another empathy example that I found on YouTube, “Brené Brown on Empathy “, clearly explains what empathy is. This video describes that empathy is the ability to make connections and take the prospective of another person. Moreover, empathy is recognizing emotions in other people. According to this video, empathy is feeling with another person. Moreover, this video explains that in order to connect with another person, you first need to connect with something in yourself that knows this feeling. Then, try to make the other person know that you understand what he or she is feeling and try to offer support. This a good example of what we have learned in class about empathy. Empathy is been willing to help another person for altruistic reasons regardless of we have to gain.
Altruism promotes social connections: When we give to others, they feel closer to us, and we also feel closer to them. According to Sonja Lyubomirsky in her book The How of Happiness, being kind and generous leads you to perceive others more positively and more charitably, and this fosters a heightened sense of interdependence and cooperation in your social community.