Bystander Effect

Everyone once in their life has witnessed a person get into trouble or maybe danger, we like to think we would help the person in need but that ain’t always the case. The social psychological phenomenon that occurs when individuals don’t offer help or intervene in an emergency situation because of the presence of others is called the bystander effect, or bystander apathy. The chances of helping are greatly related 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. Perceived diffusion of responsibility (onlookers are more likely to intervene if there are few or no other witnesses) and social influence (individuals in a group monitor the behavior of those around

At about 3:15 a.m., when she was walking toward the building, she was approached by Winston Moseley. Scared, she began to run across the parking lot. Moseley ran after her, quickly caught up her, and stabbed her twice in the back. She screamed "Oh my God, he stabbed me! Help me!". When one neighbor yelled at the attacker "Leave that girl alone!", Moseley ran away and left Catherine to drag herself slowly toward the entrance of her apartment building where she lay bleeding. Ten minutes later, her attacker decided to return. Cuts on her hands showed she tried to fight back when her attacker started stabbing her again. He stole money from her and left her in the hallway. A few minutes after the final attack, a witness called the police. Genovese was taken away by ambulance at 4:15 a.m. and died on her way to the hospital. Of the 38 witnesses who heard or saw some part of the attack, not one took serious action to help her. Most of them didn’t know it was assault or homicide, they thought what they saw or heard was a lovers’ fight, a drunken fight, or a group of friends leaving the bar when Moseley first approached