“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to
me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping’”(qtd. in “The History
of Mister Rogers' Powerful Message”). Mr. Fred Rogers reflected on advice his mother had once
given him; however, this advice contains a few absolutes and may not ring true in today’s
society. A question is raised, scrutinizing the accountability of civilians and whether or not their
civic duty is to help. This is an ethical dilemma everyone could potentially face. When
witnessing a crime or act of bullying, just how responsible is a bystander to act? We don’t have
to put ourselves at danger necessarily, but calling the police or just saying, “Stop that!” could go
a long way.
The choice to act or not to act when crisis strikes lies within a person’s psyche. This
dilemma is a widely known trend called the bystander effect. As authors and psychological
researchers Jason Marsh and Dacher Keltner describe in their article “We Are All Bystanders,”
“When study participants thought there were other witnesses to the emergency, they felt less
personal responsibility to intervene.” The article featured in Changing Minds, an online center
focused on educating people on every side of controversial topics, called “The Bystander Effect”
describes the occurrence as, “[witnesses] assume nothing is wrong because nobody else looks
concerned.” Both of these definitions sound very similar to excuses as to why people don’t take
actions. Onlookers simply stand by when they receive social cues that the norm is to mind one’s
own business. The thought process seems to be, “If I can’t fight off a thief stealing a woman’s
purse, then I shouldn’t d...
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...ese Problem." The Global Times 23 Apr. 2011:
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Fisher, Max. "China's Bystander Problem: Another Death after Crowd Ignores Woman in Peril."
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Harris, Aisha. "The History of Mister Rogers' Powerful Message." Slate. Slate Group, 16 Apr.
2013. Web. 5 May 2014.
Marsh, Jason, and Dacher Keltner. "We Are All Bystanders." Greater Good. Web. 20 Apr. 2014.
Osnos, Evan. "China's Bystander Effect." The New Yorker 18 Oct. 2011: The New Yorker. Web.
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"A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust." Florida Center for Instructional Technology. Ed. Roy
Winkelman. FCIT, 2012. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.
Yiran, Feng. "To Help or Not to Help, a Dilemma in China." The Epoch Times [New York City]
18 Sept. 2011: The Epoch Times. Web. 20 Apr. 2014.
(2)- Marsh, Jason, and Dacher Keltner, Ph.D. "Greater Good." We Are All Bystanders. University of California,
Gittings, John. The Changing Face of China: From Mao to market. Oxford University Press, 2005.
Osborne, Evan. "China's First Liberal." Independent Review 16.4 (2012): 533+. Academic OneFile. Web. 4 Apr. 2014.
China's record of human rights violations is long and mind-boggling. Atrocities such as purging tens of millions of people during the Cultural Revolution, its infamous one-child-per-couple Population Policy, persistent oppression of Tibet and the bloody June 4 massacre at Tienanmen Square in 1989 have given the Chinese government a reputation of having little respect for human life. And yet, despite its tarnished record, China maintains its Most Favoured Nation trade status with the US and is one of Canada's top ten recipients of bilateral trade. As supposed supporters of human rights, Canadian and US governments have developed hypocritical attitudes toward China, compromising ethical values for material gain. Instead, North American nations should restrict aid and trade with China to programs that can be used to encourage social reforms.
“There were a large number of people with nothing to do. Nobody was at fault. Work could not be found for them. But they must be relieved. Their children must be saved; and they cannot save themselves.”
“The day that I found out about my mother, I was at school,” he said, “I remember I was on the playground. Somebody came up and said ‘you’re laughing, huh?’ from behind the gate. ‘Your mother is dead.’ The man said.
The bystander effect plays a key role in society today. More and more people ignore a person in distress.
In the midst of a crisis, many people rely on their human instincts to quickly respond to the situation. Society idolizes these types of hero’s, and, often times, awards them medals for their courageous deeds. George Clemenceau, a French statesman from World War 1, said “A man who waits to believe in action before acting is anything you like, but he is not a man of action… You must act as you breathe.” While Clemenceau applauds immediate action, he fails to recognize that many situations simply become worse because of immediate decisions. When crisis’s strike, one should not act quickly and instinctively, but should evaluate the situation and asses the right course of action.
“The bystander is a modern archetype, from the Holocaust to the genocide in Rwanda to the current environmental crisis,” says Charles Garfield, who is a clinical professor of psychology at the University of California in San Francisco who is currently writing a book on the psychological differences between bystanders and the people who show moral courage. Garfield questioned why some people respond to the crisis around them while others don’t. Researchers have spent decades trying to answer Garfield’s question and their research suggests that we humans fall into either of the two categories: Bystanders vs. the morally courageous people and very subtle de...
... (1968). Bystander intervention in emergencies: Diffusion of responsibility. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 8, 377-383.
Critelli, J. W., Keith, K. W. (2003). The Bystander Effect and the Passive Confederate: On the Interaction between Theory and Method. Journal of Mind and Behavior, 24 (3-4), 255-264.
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
Since the initial warming of U.S.-China relations in the early 1970’s, policymakers have had difficulty balancing conflicting U.S. policy concerns in the People’s Republic of China. In the strange world of diplomacy between the two, nothing is predictable. From Nixon to Clinton, presidents have had to reconcile security and human rights concerns with the corporate desire for expanded economic relations between the two countries. Nixon established ties with Mao Zedong’s brutal regime in 1972. And today Clinton’s administration is trying to influence China’s course from within a close economic and diplomatic relationship.
If life were merely a contest with fate, then should we not think before we act? Though some may argue that the proper time to reflect is before acting, I have learned from experience that, more times than not, this is not the best approach. The ability to act on instinct is crucial to success, in many situations. During an earthquake, for instance, one must quickly respond in whichever way necessary to protect themselves, as well as their loved ones. No matter how prepared, or trained, one may be, there is no way to predict what the essential motions should be taken at the time of an emergency.