In 1964, a woman named Kitty Genovese was brutally murdered outside her apartment. Although many surrounding neighbors had heard her cries and pleas for help, not one of them intervened to save her life. By the time someone called the police it was too late. Why did no one help this poor woman? Out of so many witnesses, how is it possible that it took so long for someone to pick up the phone and call for help?The example above is a famous event illustrating the bystander effect, the idea that “the greater the number of bystanders who witness an emergency, the less likely any of them is to help the victim” (Aronson, Wilson & Akert, 2010, pg. 339). Two major factors influencing why people don’t help victims in an emergency are pluralistic ignorance and the diffusion of responsibility. Pluralistic ignorance is when in an ambiguous situation, people look to others before deciding whether or not to act. Many times, people will assume nothing is wrong because no one else acts, when in fact, something really is wrong; they misinterpret the situation. In the case of Kitty Genovese, for example, people may have figured everything was all right since no one seemed too concerned. The diffusion of responsibility says that as the number of bystanders increases, each bystander’s sense of responsibility to help decreases (Aronson, Wilson & Akert, 2010, pg. 341). Looking at the case of Kitty Genovese, since there were so many neighbors, people most likely had a decreased sense of individual responsibility, thinking that they didn’t need to help when there were so many others around that could help.
I can remember a time where I fell victim to the bystander effect. When you see a bad situation immediately jump into action to help or rescue a person and never wait for someone else to make the first move, a lot of people have lost their lives due to the "Bystander Effect". In a given situation you are a part of bystander effect if you don't make a move. You alone can break the effect by taking an action, always remember that tomorrow you or someone you love could be in that situation.
Overall, people really are influenced by others, especially when they are unsure of how to react to a given situation. When others are around, it affects the ways in which we act, and we usually fall prey to the bystander effect.
“The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything” -Albert Einstein
by Nicole Clifford
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