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The Bystander Effect
Two weeks ago, the Police Department Hartford, Conneticut, publicized a surveillance video of a car striking a 78-year-old man and leaving him paralyzed in the busy street. The public was asked to help the police arrest the driver.
Nothing unusual, so far. However, when you watch the video, you will notice that the accident was watched by many pedestrians and motorists. None of them stepped forward to help the victim. The pedestrians simply stood there staring from the sidewalk. Several motorists even passed by the body of the victim lying on the street without braking or stopping - let go intervening. Is police Chief Daryl Roberts right when he says: "We no longer have a moral compass"?
Psychologists will recognize the so-called "bystander effect" (or "Genovese syndrome") when watching the scene. Kitty Genovese was a 28-year-old inhabitant of New York who was stabbed to death by a murderer in the street where she lived in. The incident happened in 1964. Genovese was on her way home when she was attacked by the murderer and hurt by his knife for the first time. She tried to escape and screamed for help, but the man followed her and continued stabbing her. It took him almost half an hour to kill her. Over this time, at least 38 people living in the surrounding houses heard Kitty Genovese cry for help; some of them even watched parts of the attack. At one point, one of the neighbours yelled at the murderer, who interrupted his stabbing and fled for a few minutes - but came back to the already badly hurt victim after the neighbour had closed his window again. When finally one of the neighbours dialed 911, it was too late. Kitty Genovese died in the ambulance car.
You come across the bystander effect many times in daily life: Something bad is happening - a crime is committed, an accident happens, someone collapses in the middle of the street because of a heart attack - and nobody takes action. Everybody just stands and stares. The larger the crowd, the smaller are chances that one person will take the initiative and be proactive. Why that? Studies suggest that probably the following points play a role:
Fear of ridicule:
Nobody is sure whether the situation calls for action - and nobody wants to be disgraced as "hysterical" or "overactive", should the situation shape up as harmless.
Pluralistic ignorance:
There are so many people around, but nobody moves, so I won't either. If something should be done, somebody else would have done it already ...
Diffusion of charge:
There are enough people who could do something - why should I alone take the responsibility and take the first step? I'll better let myself off the hook.
Of course the fear of being hurt or killed can as well keep someone from helping, e. g. when someone is attacked by several people. However, in situations like the above there is no risk for the helper's security - at least dialing 911 can always be done easily and without any danger for ourselves.
Why do I write about this effect here? Because I was deeply shocked when I watched the video (although I should have know what would happen):
Because I believe, that none of the people involved has ever heard about the bystander effect in his life and because I sincerely hope, at least one of them had taken action if he had. Being aware of such psychological mechanisms often helps to overcome them.
Because I hope you will take action, should you ever be involved in such a situation, now that you know about it. Please, remember Kitty Genovese and this poor old man struck by the car then. And please don't let the bystander effect take over. Accept your responsibility.
Nothing unusual, so far. However, when you watch the video, you will notice that the accident was watched by many pedestrians and motorists. None of them stepped forward to help the victim. The pedestrians simply stood there staring from the sidewalk. Several motorists even passed by the body of the victim lying on the street without braking or stopping - let go intervening. Is police Chief Daryl Roberts right when he says: "We no longer have a moral compass"?
Psychologists will recognize the so-called "bystander effect" (or "Genovese syndrome") when watching the scene. Kitty Genovese was a 28-year-old inhabitant of New York who was stabbed to death by a murderer in the street where she lived in. The incident happened in 1964. Genovese was on her way home when she was attacked by the murderer and hurt by his knife for the first time. She tried to escape and screamed for help, but the man followed her and continued stabbing her. It took him almost half an hour to kill her. Over this time, at least 38 people living in the surrounding houses heard Kitty Genovese cry for help; some of them even watched parts of the attack. At one point, one of the neighbours yelled at the murderer, who interrupted his stabbing and fled for a few minutes - but came back to the already badly hurt victim after the neighbour had closed his window again. When finally one of the neighbours dialed 911, it was too late. Kitty Genovese died in the ambulance car.
You come across the bystander effect many times in daily life: Something bad is happening - a crime is committed, an accident happens, someone collapses in the middle of the street because of a heart attack - and nobody takes action. Everybody just stands and stares. The larger the crowd, the smaller are chances that one person will take the initiative and be proactive. Why that? Studies suggest that probably the following points play a role:
Fear of ridicule:
Nobody is sure whether the situation calls for action - and nobody wants to be disgraced as "hysterical" or "overactive", should the situation shape up as harmless.
Pluralistic ignorance:
There are so many people around, but nobody moves, so I won't either. If something should be done, somebody else would have done it already ...
Diffusion of charge:
There are enough people who could do something - why should I alone take the responsibility and take the first step? I'll better let myself off the hook.
Of course the fear of being hurt or killed can as well keep someone from helping, e. g. when someone is attacked by several people. However, in situations like the above there is no risk for the helper's security - at least dialing 911 can always be done easily and without any danger for ourselves.
Why do I write about this effect here? Because I was deeply shocked when I watched the video (although I should have know what would happen):
Because I believe, that none of the people involved has ever heard about the bystander effect in his life and because I sincerely hope, at least one of them had taken action if he had. Being aware of such psychological mechanisms often helps to overcome them.
Because I hope you will take action, should you ever be involved in such a situation, now that you know about it. Please, remember Kitty Genovese and this poor old man struck by the car then. And please don't let the bystander effect take over. Accept your responsibility.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Una on -
This is horrific... I felt sick watching this
A few years ago I was driving along the outside lane on a dual carriageway and saw a cyclist collide with the back of a lorry and fall into the middle of the road....I pulled my car in to try to protect him from the traffic and got out to call an ambulance as he'd split his forehead open.... it was a dark evening in winter in a really bad area of town and no-one stopped to help me, I was really shocked. The lorry driver jumped out of his cab when he felt the collision, but the minute he saw me get out of the car, he got back in and drove off. Eventually after about 20 minutes the ambulance arrived and I went home, but even thinking about it now makes me fell shaky.
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Permalink Reply by Felicitas Heyne on -
And it makes me shake as well - I imagine myself lying there hurt, blooding, fearful in the dark and no one stops to help! What a horrible scenario. Do people think that bad things only happen to others? Wouldn't anybody be glad to be helped and rescued from such a situation?
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Permalink Reply by Sundeep on -
I think such effect happen maybe because normal people are not much experienced to handle or act favorably in such situations. It's all a matter of experience. For example an experienced cop would take immediate action but a trained yet inexperienced my take some time as compared to the former one.
However some may even act in heroic way, sice exceptions are everywhere.
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Permalink Reply by Anthony Hay-Buchanan on -
Most people are unprepared,psychologically & physically for such an event.They are shocked by what they have seen,& paralysed by not knowing what to do.This is why schooling should include training for everyone in 1st aid & accident management.
I was a Boy Scout,our motto was"Be Prepared"& what I learnt in the Scouts has been of much more real value in my life than anything I learnt at school.Practice at any thing diminishes the fear of making a mistake & appearing foolish.If you have mastered the skills needed to respond you will be much more willing to step forward & do something.
I trained further as a medic/rescuer in diving,seamanship & ropework.I have been first resonder in many accidents on the road, at work & in recreational activiries.Once I have taken charge & told people what to do I have always found people willing to help, they just dont know what to do,& are paralysed by indecision.
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Permalink Reply by AK101 on -
I agree with Anthony and Sundeep. Most of us are unprepared to react in such circumstances, leading to a by-stander effect. The by-stander effect happened on me once when someone fainted while standing next to me in a train on my way to work one morning. I failed to hold on to him and literally let him fall flat on the ground. On that, I analysed it be a natural reflex when one notice something tumbling towards her direction. Next, I'm unsure what to do... how to start and when will it end if I'm involved.
All these thoughts flashed through my mind as I looked upon the fainted person. Of course, when someone came to his aid. Guilt started to creep in.
After which, I recalled and thought about what should I do if similar incidents happen. True enough, I encountered a similar situation. Here's what I did... hold on to the person->ask one of the passenger to gave up his/her seat for the fainting person->assist the person to alight at the next station->request a passerby to inform the control room officer to come for assistance->pass the person over to the care of the control room officer->move on to catch the train for my work.
That's pretty simple and neat, right! Having a thought through process and practice does help to mitigate the by-stander effect.
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Permalink Reply by Corrina on -
As a police officer, myself, I have seen this first hand both on and off duty. A number of times I have asked bystanders why they didn't help and here are a few of the replies I've gotten. Maybe this will help give a little more understanding to the situation or maybe it'll just disturb you more, like it has me. I'll list them from most frequent to less frequent.
1. "I don't want to get involved."
2. "I don't want to be sued if something goes wrong."
3. "I don't know what to do to help them. I'm not trained to help people."
4. "I don't have time to deal with this."
That last one really made me sick and angery. I have found, over time, that life has become to easy for people. They have become numb to the nasty parts of life and no longer want to do with them because they no longer know how. Just thoughts from a simple street cop in the USA.
What I recommend, is for people to think of the worst possable situations and then plan what they would do. Something like this, if this happens then I'll do A, B, and C. If this happens then I'll do D, E, and F. By having these plans set in you mind you will be better able to handle high stress situations when your mind panics. Your brain will tell you, "Ok ' I've planned for this and this is what I need to do." It will be second nature to your brain. Police Officers do this everyday to be able to handle the situations we deal with out on the streets. It helps I promise.
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Permalink Reply by Felicitas Heyne on
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Thanks, Corrina, for this very helpful (yet disturbing!) input! Although I can (partly) understand the answer no. three, the first and the last one are really horrible! What a world we live in ...
The idea of having a plan ready for some situations is a very good one and I myself am trying to do so. You certainly cannot anticipate every difficult situation you might run into in the course of your life, but I think it helps to have some emergency plans ready in your head - at least a bit. And I think everyone should take a first aid course, as well as an assertiveness training and refresh his or her knowledge from time to time to have it ready when it's needed.
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Permalink Reply by Corrina on
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Well, Felicitas, a few weeks after my last posting on this strange and sad event I now have a new story to add to this. Last week I was dispatched to a call and when I arrived I found a young woman bleeding stagering down the street screaming at the top of her lungs. The call came out at 5:30 in the morning, in a quiet area of town, so many people were home while this was happening. Felicitas, this is a good upstanding part of town. The people in this area of town a very nice people. The young woman was dressed in a thin pair of jeans and a barely there shirt. You could tell she had been out for a night on the town, It was 29 degrees outside so to say it was cold was putting it mildly and she had no jacket on. I arrive to find people standing in their lawns, at their windows or doors but no body is offering this woman any type of help. They're not even offering her a coat which was the lest of her problems. I get to the woman and pull her out of the street as 2 cars pass by. Neither stopped. EMS shows up and we transport her to the hospital. At the hospital they take the woman away to get treated so I walk down to the little cafe to get a cup of coffee. Not really thinking about the fact that my own jacket is now covered in this woman's blood from where I had carried her out of the street. I pass by a woman and her husband, in the hallway, they made some stupid little comment which made me just stop and look at them for a moment before I moved on. Ok, to their credit, I was very tired and frustrated by this point so the comment may have just struck me wrong. The next day I went back to that "nice area" to get statments from people and they kept asking me if the woman was alright. After about the 4th or 5th person to ask me that I had had it. I asked one of them whom I had seen standing in their yard why they hadn't helped her if they really cared so much he stated that he really didn't know the woman and he didn't want to get her blood on him. I shook my head and walked away remember my blood covered jacket sitting in the dirty cloths basket at the house. I made a mental note to remember that if I was ever blooding and in need of help to go to the "bad area" of town because atleast the people there would have helped this woman.
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Permalink Reply by Felicitas Heyne on
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OMG, what a horrible story!! And this comment of this man - he didn't know her and he didn't want her blood on him! How low can we sink as human beings?? Unbelievable! I really don't envy you, Corinna, must be one hell of a job you're doing out there sometimes ...
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Permalink Reply by Corrina on
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I won't lie, there are days I really do hate everyone and am firmly convinced people are generally stupid but there aren't many of those days and I try my best to understand why people do what they do. I love my job and wouldn't know what else to do but after mornings like that I'm ready to go to bed and toss the day away. I really believe fear as crippled people into inactivity. So often we deal with the "bad" people and sometimes it's hard to remember that there are still good people out there but not a week goes by that a child doesn't wave to me in my police car or someone tells me thank you. That is what makes my job worth it. Not the bad days but the little actions from a child or a elderly person stopping me and saying thank you when I've checked on them. I've found it's the small things that make this job worth it. Not the big ones.
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Permalink Reply by Atila Paton on -
I couldn't agree more, people are not as responsive as they should concerning important issues...
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Permalink Reply by ♥ Sabine ♥ on -
As the article mentioned, it is very helpful if the victim can appeal to one of the witnesses. I think another thing that may help is for people to understand that the bystander effect exists. Being aware of it means that if you do see a crime occurring you should possibly try to help (though this may imperil yourself and you ought to consider what you're up against.) Shouting to other people viewing a crime with you to help you might be a good idea too. Someone armed with fists isn't likely to keep attacking another person if a whole group moved toward that person. If you see a crime occurring, do call the police, and remember no one else may have thought to. I recently had an experience where some kids decided to shoot off guns on a street near my condo. Everybody called, and though it turned out to be fairly innocent (well as innocent as shooting off guns for fun can be), it was good to know that a lot of neighbors reported it. My hubbie did argue with me about calling and was victim to the bystander effect. He did assume that other people would have called already so "why should we?" I never make that assumption anymore and writing this article helped me understand why I never should.
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