The Merrier Monologue

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Recommended: Perspectives approaching the bystander effect

The More Not The Merrier “Mama…. Where are you?” I whimpered. No response. As I stared at my feet, tears rolled down my cheeks and onto the floor. I peered around the corner one last time to see if my family was there, waiting for me with welcoming arms. To my dismay, only strangers appeared down the long corridor. Every direction I looked, there was stranger after stranger staring at me. Scared, I hugged my stuffed animals tight. “Everything will be okay. Don’t worry, we will find them again,” I assured them. Trying to be brave for them, I continued the search. I paced down the hall and peered my head into each room, only to be disappointed every time. That was it: I was officially lost. Wailing, I bolted to the flight deck. Unfortunately, …show more content…

I tightened my grip. Are they there? I can’t see them. He moved over and sure enough, my mother was right behind him. A smile spread across my face. I sprinted to her. She knelt down and I jumped into her warm, welcoming arms. “Sarah, where have you been? I have been searching for an hour! I can’t believe it took this long for someone to help you,”she whispered into my ear while hugging me tight, “I was worried sick.” I snuggled into her embrace, never wanting to leave her side again. The USS Midway is an aircraft carrier from WWII which has been since converted into a museum in San Diego. It is the most visited museum in the city with an average attendance of 8,000 visitors per day (Horn). Out of 8,000 people, it took an hour for someone to rescue a helpless eight year-old girl. This traumatic experience highlights the debated phenomena known as the Bystander Effect. Formally, the Bystander Effect, “occurs when the presence of others discourages an individual from intervening in an emergency situation” (Psychology Today). This effect is attributed to the diffusion of responsibility, which means as there are more people in an emergency situation, the less likely someone is to help. Like in the story above, thousands of adults walked passed me but none bothered to help. Everyone simply assumed that someone else would help me, and no one ended up helping me because of it. Even though I was a victim of the Bystander Effect, …show more content…

They wanted to conduct a controlled experiment to test their theorized Bystander Effect and what caused bystanders to be apathetic. They visited a local university and recruited college students, telling them they would be taking part in a discussion about personal problems and stress. Placed into a secluded room, the naive participants believed they were going to be in a discussion with other participants that were also in individual rooms. Everything was done over microphones and speakers so no one could actually see the other participants. Each group size had 2, 3, or 6 participants and every subject was given two minutes to talk about college stress. They were completely unaware that all other “participants” were actually recordings that Latané and Darley had made. In reality, it was simply one person having a discussion with one, two or five recordings. One recording, in particular, stated in the beginning of his first turn that he had epilepsy and was prone to potentially life-threatening seizures. During his second turn the recording said, "I'm... I'm having a fit... I... I think I'm... help me... I... I can't... Oh my God... err... if someone can just help me out here... I... I... can't breathe p-p-properly... I'm feeling... I'm going to d-die if…"(Bystander Apathy Experiment). The subject of study can only hear the “participant” having a seizure, but can not see

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