People Help Less When There Are More Bystanders; Do Not Assume Another Neighbor Will Help!

There have been several well-documented situations over the last 20 years where a crowd of people has stood by and watched someone be beaten up or victimized. How could people just stand by and watch something horrible happen?

Some have suggested that the eyewitnesses' failure to report the incident likely resulted from concern over being labeled a snitch. Social psychological research on the bystander effect suggests a different cause: too many eyewitnesses were present.

The bystander effect refers to people being less likely to offer help in a group than when alone. A real-world account inspired research on this effect.

In 1964, 28-year-old Kitty Genovese was raped and stabbed to death in front of her apartment. The attack lasted over 30 minutes and was witnessed by several dozen people who failed to report the incident. Some said they thought it was a "lover's quarrel," others realized it was a crime but assumed that someone else had already called the police.

To determine why these witnesses failed to help, John Darley and Bibb Latane conducted a series of experiments to examine how the presence of others influences people's helping behavior.

You can find detailed stories outlining these studies online.

But for the purpose of this article, these studies suggest two clear reasons why the eyewitnesses in the Genovese case failed to help.

When we are in an ambiguous situation and unsure if it is an emergency, we often look to others to see how they react. But if those around us act calmly, we may fail to recognize the immediate need to intervene. This tendency is known as “pluralistic ignorance,” which describes a situation where most group members privately believe one thing but assume (incorrectly) that most others believe the opposite.

We see this in a classroom when no students raise their hands to ask questions, but you later discover none of them understood the lesson but did not want to be the one to raise their hand.

One conclusion from the research on pluralistic ignorance is that if you find yourself in an ambiguous situation, resist the urge to look to others and go with your gut instinct.

The other clear reason uncovered by the research of Darley and Latane is known as “diffusion of responsibility.”

This problem relates to the fact that the more bystanders there are, the less responsible each individual feels.

When you are the only eyewitness present, 100 percent of the responsibility for providing help rests on your shoulders. But if there are five eyewitnesses, only 20% of the responsibility is yours. The responsibility becomes defused or dispersed among the group members.

In these situations, people may assume that someone else will help or is better qualified to assist.

This might also help explain why most Americans lack the motivation to connect with their immediate neighbors since they do not observe others doing it! At the same time, I challenge you to refrain from determining your actions as an engaged neighbor based on what you see people around you doing (or not doing)! Be the change you want to see!

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Does this article make you interested in taking the Engaged Neighbor pledge? Five categories and 20 principles to guide you toward becoming an engaged neighbor. Sign the pledge online at http://engagedneighbor.com.

Contact the blog author, David L. Burton at dburton541@yahoo.com.