Bystander Effect

* The “bystander effect”, also known as “bystander apathy” is generally regarded as a social phenomenon in cases where individuals do not offer help in emergency situations where people are present. The probability of help has in the past been thought to be inversely proportional to the number of bystanders. In other words, the greater the number of bystanders, the less likely it is that any one of them will help.

* Possibly the most famous, yet gruesome story of the bystander effect is that of a woman named Kitty Genovese.

1. In New York, 1964, upon returning home from work, Kitty Genovese was less than 100 feet from her apartment door when she was brutally raped, stabbed, and left for dead.

2. After the publication of the horrific crime, many neighbors, 38 to be exact, reported hearing screams for help, or that they had peered out their windows and visually witnessed the crime taking place. It wasn't until after Kitty Genovese suffered a horrific death that people began to share the stories of what they had witnessed.

3. After this tragic incidence occurred, the psychologists began to research more deeply about this phenomena and named it “bystander effect”, or also called the “Genovese Syndrome”

* Bystanders go through a five-step process, during ‘each’ of which they can decide to do nothing.

1. First, a bystander will notice the event, and take note of the events that are transpiring

2. Second, a bystander will realize that there is an emergency.

3. Third, a bystander will either assume responsibility, or assume that other bystanders will assume responsibility for the situation.

4. Fourth, a bystander will either recognize that they have the knowledge to help the situation, or acknowledge that they do not know enough to be helpful

5. Fifth, a bystander will either act to help the situation, or simply remain an observer

* John Darley and Bibb Latane sat a series of college students in a cubicle amongst a number of other cubicles in which there were tapes of other students playing (the students thought they were real people). One of the voices cries for help and makes sounds of severe choking. When the student thought they were the only person there 85% rushed to help. When they thought there was one other person, this dropped to 65%. And when they