The Bystander Effect: John Darley And Bibb Latane

A bystander is a person who is present and a witness to a situation occurring and only watches rather than helping. Everyone will come across a point in their life needing help. One would assume that a person in a situation would want a bystander to step in and help them. However, some individuals don't want to get involved in a situation that doesn't concern them. They will either watch and pull out their cellphone to record or walk away and have the situation possibly become severe. Bystanders do have a responsibility to intervene when there is trouble because people play an important role when someone needs help. The act of bystanders intervening is much superior than them only watching a situation unfold. Not only does a bystander have

Darley and Latané conducted several experiments to achieve a goal to explain the psychology behind the bystander effect. The several dozen experiments conducted within 12 years ended with similar results. The experiments involved placing a participant either alone or with other participants and then staging an emergency scenario. Both Darley and Latané took note of the time it took the participants to respond to the emergency situation, and whether or not they took intervention measures. A frequent outcome of all the experiments was the presence of other participants prevented the participants from helping. In one experiment by Darley and Latané, subjects were positioned in three different treatment conditions. Which entailed being alone in the room, being with two other participants, and with two confederates acting as if to be normal participants. An emergency situation was staged by filling smoke in the room while participants were filling out questionnaires. The participants who were alone in the room, 75 percent reported the smoke. On the other hand, only 38 percent of participants in the room with two other individuals reported the emergency. In the case of the final group, the two confederates took notice of the smoke but ignored it, causing only 10 percent of the participants reporting the emergency (Darley

Therefore, no actions are in place even if the bystander is mentally disagreeing with the situation. As shown in the photo above there are steps that can be useful when trouble occurs and provide help to the victim. Recognizing the problematic event can mean witnessing any sexual, physical, verbal harassment or knowing it will happen in the near future. Taking note that event is problematic is definitely an interpretation of it being an emergency. Now the step of developing the feeling of responsibility arises. If there is a crowd around the situation someone shouldn't think "Someone else will take care of it" because this only increases the risk of harm towards the potential victim. To further discuss the steps, the bystander can consciously decide to help and can do so by a thought process. The process involves "The 4 Ds of intervention" which is distract, delegate, delay, and direct. The bystander can distract the perpetrator by changing the subject or mentioning a different activity. An individual can be delegated if someone is uncomfortable with stepping in. Delay- if the situation doesn't seem problematic than one should wait to get information to make sure they can intervene. Lastly, it may be best to just be direct to intervene and fully comprehend the situation (Oklahoma State University para. 15). Various universities give intervention programs. These programs involve training