Diffusion of Responsibility: the Perspective for Bystander Effect from the Chinese Story of Three Monks

Bystander effect is one of the common issues nowadays and it led to tragedies with no one helped in emergencies. According to Darley and Latane (1970), the partial reason of bystander effect is diffusion of responsibility (Schneider, Gruman & Coutts, 2012, p.280). Diffusion of responsibility happens when people do not help because they assume others would help. Why would people think this way? In other words, why people think others would or should stand out to do things firstly instead of themselves? A Chinese story of three Buddhism monks may explain these questions.

Retrieved from https://sites.psu.edu/aspsy/wp-content/uploads/sites/8070/2014/04/bystandereffect.jpg

Retrieved from https://sites.psu.edu/aspsy/wp-content/uploads/sites/8070/2014/04/bystandereffect.jpg

One day a short monk found a small temple on the peak of a mountain. He lived there and went downhill to get water every day happily. After a period of time another tall monk found this temple as well. He drank some water and lived in the temple. Then a problem appeared: who would take the responsibility to go downhill to get water? Both the short monk and the tall monk thought it would be unfair to get only one person to get water. Therefore they went to get water together. However, because they used a shoulder pole to take barrels, the efficiency of two people was not good. When one monk used the pole to get water, he could take two barrels a time, while when there were two monks they had to each take a side of the pole hence could only take one barrel. Later, when a third monk found the temple, he found there was no water and he had to take it by himself. After the third monk took water back he drank the water all. Then the three monks did not go take water anymore because they all assumed it was others’ responsibility.

According to this story it could be seen that diffusion of responsibility is rooted from people’s own benefit. No one wants to lose, so people wait for the reaction of others. However, when everyone thinks this way there would be no one to take an action just like the situation of the three monks. Since all of the monks waited for others to take water, there was no water at all in the temple. Nevertheless, are there any solutions people could get over diffusion of responsibility, or is there any way bystanders could help in emergencies without waiting for others? The rest of the story could offer a hint.

the image is retrieved from http://shanghai.cultural-china.com/html/Arts---Culture/Film/Classic-Film/Classic-Cartoon-Film/200811/12-1333.html

the image is retrieved from http://shanghai.cultural-china.com/html/Arts—Culture/Film/Classic-Film/Classic-Cartoon-Film/200811/12-1333.html

After several days without water, the temple suddenly was on fire. The three monks were anxious. They worked together and cooperated to put out the fire. After this, they finally cooperated with each other and got more water over time. Based on their experience, diffusion of responsibility could be ignored when people recognize the seriousness of emergency and they all felt responsible for dealing with the problem. For real events, if bystanders were educated about the knowledge of bystander effect and the possible tragedy result of emergencies with no one helps, they may not experience diffusion of responsibility. The other solution, based on the three monks story, could be letting the bystanders know the emergency is very serious and acute that if they do not act immediately something bad would happen really soon. Of course, calling for one specific bystander such as ‘the man in blue jacket’ could help as well since it increases the bystander’s personal responsibility rather than diffusion of responsibility.

Here is a video from Youtube of the story of three monks if you are interest (‘Three Monks’, 2012):

References

Schneider, F.W., Gruman J.A.., & Coutts L.M.. (2012). Applied Social Psychology (2nd Edition). Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publication. p.280

ObscureAnimation’s Channel. (2012, January 21). Three Monks (Chinese Animated short). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rolBiHfWokY

The images are retrieved from https://sites.psu.edu/aspsy/wp-content/uploads/sites/8070/2014/04/bystandereffect.jpg and http://shanghai.cultural-china.com/html/Arts—Culture/Film/Classic-Film/Classic-Cartoon-Film/200811/12-1333.html

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