Bystander Apathy: Situations that Contribute to Action or Inaction Bystander apathy (a person’s unwillingness to assist in a situation) has found as a general rule that there is a higher degree of unwillingness to assist during emergency situations than non-emergency situations. However, recent studies have shown that if an emergency is considered highly dangerous, degree of participation is also high therefore this paper will explore such factor in addition to three factors for taking action or inaction. To explore these factors, four points will be addressed. The conclusion sums up most significant points. Independent versus group intervention One study that examines bystander apathy well was conducted in 2011 and compiles research of bystander apathy from the 1970s up to present day. “Early research consistently showed that the presence of passive bystanders reduces the likelihood that individuals will intervene and help a victim in a critical situation” (Fischer et al., 2011, p. 518). In carrying over into present day this rule is good but there are specific factors that can affect a person’s decision to intervene. One of these factors ironically is the addition of other bystanders. “Participants…were more likely to help (65%) than participants in the alone condition (55%)” (idem, p. 521). However, this is usually the case only when other bystanders in the group are thought to be competent to the original bystander who is considering intervening in a dangerous situation. In summary, “…a bystander’s decision to help depends on the perceived cost of helping, the benefit of helping to the victim, and the perceived likelihood that other bystanders will help” (idem, p. 521). In addition, there is also an examination into the analysis of emergencies and their degrees with respect to a person’s choice to intervene. Dangerous Emergencies Dangerous emergencies are
The bystander effect refers to the tendency for an observer of an emergency to withhold aid if the:
In Greg’s case, I don’t think he had this and I don’t think that Rosie was strong enough to force Greg, as she feared his reaction. I think that Rosie did everything she could do to try and get help to protect her family when getting intervention orders and making reports to the police. This required braveness and courage. When put into the hands of the police, it makes me question why the police didn’t do anything to stop him or to prevent this from escalating. I originally shared Appelbaum’s (2003) views when he asks a good question, ‘must authorities charged with protecting public safety wait for violence to occur before intervening?’ However Merkel (1993) shaped and challenged my opinion on this. I originally thought that if someone is dangerous and threatening peoples life, why wouldn’t you just put him or her in prison? I never thought about, is this person a risk to society? How high is the risk they pose? Or how long is their sentence going to be? And if they did go to prison why would they be any different when they came out? Understanding the multi-faceted sides to risk assessment has made me step back and question my opinions. I have never been in a criminal situation or even known someone in one and therefore feel as though my initial response is always one that is naïve and
The bystander effect is a the phenomenon in which the more people are are around the less likely someone will step-in or help in a given situation. THe most prominent example of this is the tragic death of Kitty Genovese. In march of 1964 Kitty genovese was murdered in the alley outside of her apartment. That night numerous people reported hearing the desperate cries for help made by Kitty Genovese who was stabbed to death. Her screams ripped through the night and yet people walked idly by her murder. No one intervened and not even a measly phone call to the police was made.
As our textbook describes the bystander effect as the tendency for any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present. To put it into my own words, I think that bystander effect is where people are less likely to help because of the diffusion of responsibility. We are more likely to help: the person appears to need and deserve help, if the person is in some way similar to us, the person is a woman, when we have just observed someone else being helpful, if we are not in a hurry, if we are in a small town or rural areas, when we are feeling guilty, when we are focused on others and not preoccupied, and when we are in a great/good mood (Myers).
Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.” We are All Bystanders by Jason Marsh and Dacher Keltner is an article that reflects on the psychological and social phenomenon that refers to cases in which people do not offer any assistance or help to a victim. Studies say that a person's personality can determine how they react to a bystander situation. In a book called, The Heart of Altruism, author Kristen Monroe writes the altruistic perspective. Altruistic people are strongly connected to other humans and have a concern for the well-being of others. Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief exemplifies the bystander theory through Liesel and
This error goes for both you and the suspect one. When you are confronted with a suspect and are complacent you don’t watching the person like you are supposed to be doing and didn’t see his hands go in his pocket he can then pull out a weapon and kill you. But also you can ignoring the danger signs that you may be complacent and not know. People get so fixed in there routine that it becomes more of a subconscious thing because you are going through the motions every day not even think about what you are doing in till it’s too late and the guy you just asked for his paperwork pulled out a gun and got two rounds of on you. Most people are set on auto pilot, you get up go to work, at work you do the same thing you been doing for 10 years so you don’t even have to think about it you just do it, then you go home and wait till the morning to do it all over again. That routine is deadly in law enforcement because you should always be on your toes and thinking about what dangers are around you so you can at least see it coming and defend yourself from it to go home at the end of your
Latane and Darley (1968) investigated the phenomenon known as the bystander effect and staged an emergency situation where smoke was pumped into the room participants was in. Results showed that 75% of participants who were alone reported the smoke, whereas only 38% of participants working in groups of three reported (Latane & Darley, 1968). Their findings provide evidence for the negative consequence of the diffusion of responsibility. In line with the social influence principle, bystanders depend on reactions of others to perceive a situation as an emergency and are subsequently less likely to help. Latane and Darley’s findings were also supported in recent research: Garcia and colleagues (2002) found that even priming a social context by asking participants to imagine themselves in a group could decrease helping behaviour. It can be contended that these findings are examples of social proof where individuals believe actions of the group is correct for the situation, or examples of pluralistic ignorance where individuals outwardly conform because they incorrectly assumed that a group had accepted the norm (Baumeister & Bushman,
Bystander effect and obedience to authority are theories that can be compared and contrasted. Bystander effect is, for example, when someone is publicly in need and even though there are many people passing by or in the area, no one stops to help because they’ve seen no one else stop to help. In a video called The Bystander Effect they did an experiment to test the theory by having an actor lay by the steps of a busy area in Liverpool and moan “Help me”. The actor, Peter, was passed by many people who glanced his way, but didn’t stop to help even after 20 minutes of him yelling for help. Next they had a lady lay on the steps and after 4 minutes and 30 seconds a man finally comes over to help and forms what a narrator refers to as a new group with new rules to actually help. After the man comes to her assistance so does another lady and then more people follow. In the next part of the experiment they have Peter come back dressed as business man and it only takes 6 seconds before someone comes to help him. A real life example of bystander effect is the police brutality incident that happened at Spring Valley High School where a 15 year old girl was tackled and assaulted by a police officer for no reason that justified that treatment. In the video her peers and teacher just stood by and watched it happen without stepping in or speaking up. I think even
Do you think that indifference is evil? This is the controversy that Elie Wiesel has brought to the world's eyes. Indifference is evil because it can cause harm not only to others, but to them themselves.
All in all, if we do not stand up then we only affirm the perpetrators, and if there are too many that affirm perpetrators instead of standing up for the victim, bystanders can prove to be more dangerous than the perpetrators.
On March 13, 1964 a woman by the name of Catherine “Kitty” Genovese was coming back to her apartment in Queens, New York at 3:00 a.m. when she was impaled to death by a serial killer. According to the news, the said attack was about 30 minutes long. During the attack, Kitty Genovese screamed for help numerous times. The killer left the scene when the attention of a neighbor was attracted. Ten minutes later, the killer returned to the scene and murdered Genovese. It came to attention that 38 people witnessed the attack and murder, but all thirty-eight failed to report it until after the murder. This ordeal got the attention of many people including scientists and psychologists who wanted to figure out why this occurred. Later, the events that were published by the news were found to be false. It seemed as if the news was experiencing the bystander effect as well, because their information did not contribute to the actual facts. There were not 38 witnesses to the crime, but several had heard the screams and a few calls were made to the police during the attack. But there was still talk about something that affected the minds of people during emergency situations. This phenomenon has become known as the Bystander Effect. There were several cases that are fairly similar to the Genovese one. As well as the Genovese case, these occurrences attracted the attention of many scientists and even the news had something to say about “apathy.” Is the bystander effect real? My hypothesis is that the bystander effect is in fact, a real everyday occurrence that limits the help offered by people. This is due to the number of bystander present during a given situation. The Bystander Effect is the social psychological idea that refers to cases in whi...
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
Fischer, P., Krueger, J., Greitemeyer, T., Kastenmüller, A., Vogrincic, C., Frey, D., Heene, M., Wicher, M., & Kainbacher, M. (2011). The bystander-effect: A meta-analytic review on bystander intervention in dangerous and non-dangerous emergencies. Psychological Bulletin, 137, 517-537.
Darley, J.M., Latane, B. (1968). Bystander intervention in emergencies: Diffusion of responsibility. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 8 (4), 377-383.
Darley, J. M. & Latané, B. (1968) Bystander intervention in emergencies: Diffusion of responsibility, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 8, 377–383