The Bystander Effect

Day 126 / 365

In case of a social emergency, when immediate action needs to be taken, if there are a lot of people around each one would feel more reluctant to act. This is known as the Bystander Effect.

Diffusion of responsibility

Onlookers are less likely to intervene if there are other witnesses who seem likely to do so

This effect has been studied in through experiments in psychology since the 1950s. One such experiment involved a woman pretending to have fallen and gotten hurt. When people encountered here alone, 70% of them offered to help her. When there were other people present around, this number fell to 40.

How we can reverse this effect

The Bystander effect is a scary reality for our society. The fact that our group mentality would prevent us from helping a fellow human in need is a hard pill to swallow. But it’s the truth none the less, and something should be done about it.

Helping others makes us feel good because we are aware that others will see us as noble for doing so. When we are in a crowd, this self-awareness is lost and we can easily hide into anonymity.

One tactic to bring back this self-awareness into someone is to single out a person from the crowd and ask for help. For instance, if you see someone is hurt instead of shouting out into the crowd, pick a person, make eye contact and ask them to help or to call the ambulance. This increases the chance of getting help.

This post is part of my 365 Day Project for 2019. Read about it here

Yesterday’s blog —The procrastination loop