In 1964, at around 2 in the morning, Kitty Genovese was driving home from work at bar, when she was approached by Winston Mosely with a hunting knife in the parking lot of apartment building. She ran towards her front door but was quickly caught and stabbed twice in the back. As she screamed loudly for help, many neighbors woke up, causing Robert Mozar to shout from his window “Leave that girl alone.” This lead the perpetrator to flee the scene. Genovese, badly injured but still alive, tried to make it inside the building but collapsed. Despite this, no one called the police. About 10 minutes later Mosley returned and found Genovese in the hallway where he rapidly stabbed and raped her. Even though many people heard the screams, police were called much later by a friend(Ruhl,2021). This caused many social scientists to investigate what is known as the bystander effect.
The bystander effect occurs when others are present, which discourages others from intervening in an emergency situation. The more people that are present, the less likely someone would help. The bystander becomes unsure of their role in a situation and assume someone should be responsible or someone else has already seek out help. John Darley and Dibb Latane conducted an experiment to study this phenomenon after the death of Kitty Genovese. They found that when a bystander was alone in the present of crisis, they helped or called for help 70% of the time. When more people were present, it surprisingly dropped to 40% (Academy 4SC, 2022) .
Darley and Latane were able to identify two factors that causes the bystander effect. The first is the diffusion of responsibility, which entails the more people present, people would feel less responsible to take action. Another factor is social influence, which is when others watch the behavior of those around them to determine how to proceed (Academy 4SC, 2022). Other factors can influence such as the effect is more likely to occur when the bystander can remain anonymous, there are only a few victims and also the victim is dissimilar to the bystander(Gruman,2017).
How can we become active bystander? Since then, there has been many interventions of bystanders to solve this issue. In order to overcome this effect, its advised that the bystander behaves as if they are the only ones witnessing the event. Not expecting others to act first, would leave the responsibly on you solely. Being the first person to speak up can change the outcome sufficiently. Even though most of the focus relies on bystanders, there are also ways victims can decrease the effects. Certain situations may not be ideal but as a victim, pointing to a person in the crowd and shouting “Call 911”, could assign responsibility to that person causing them to take action(Psychology Today,2021).
References:
Academy 4SC. (2022, August 19). Bystander effect: Someone will help, right? Academy 4SC. Retrieved October 11, 2022, from https://academy4sc.org/video/bystander-effect-someone-will-help-right
Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (2017). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems (3rd ed.). SAGE.
Psychology Today. (2021). Bystander effect. Psychology Today. Retrieved October 13, 2022, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/bystander-effect
Ruhl, C. (2021, April 20). Kitty genovese. Kitty Genovese | Simply Psychology. Retrieved October 13, 2022, from https://www.simplypsychology.org/Kitty-Genovese.
It was an interesting story. I don’t understand some people anymore. How could these people never try to help her? What happened to her was brutal! Neighbors should help each other, not ignore one another. Watching a crime is much worse than committing a crime. These neighbors had a chance to call the police, but instead, they chose to stay quiet, “That’s absurd.”
The bystander effect is a social psychology theory that an individual’s likelihood of helping decreases when passive bystanders are present in an emergency (Udochi, E.) It refers to the tendency for people to be active in high-danger situations because of the presence of other bystanders, and people tend to help more if they are alone instead of being in a group (simplypsychology.org.)
Latane & Darley (1970) implemented a five-stage model to explain why bystanders in emergencies do not help sometimes. They talk about bystanders who must notice something is amiss, define that situation as an emergency, assess how personally responsible they feel, decide how best to help, and act on that decision (Emeghara, U.). In addition, the Bystander effect occurs when the moral obligation to assist does not fall on one person or a whole group witnessing the crime. Blame for not helping can be shared instead of keeping it a secret from everyone. People also tend to believe that another bystander will offer help (Emeghara, U.)
I think some bystanders are afraid to be involved because of fear that maybe they speak or call the police. The suspect will come back, and they will become the next target. The story of Genovese was a lesson to learn for everyone.
Reference
Emeghara, U. (2020, September 24). Bystander effect and diffusion of responsibility. Bystander Effect and Diffusion of Responsibility | Simply Psychology. Retrieved October 17, 2022.
This topic interests me a lot. I never truly understood why so many people could just walk on by or even sit and watch as someone is being hurt or calling for help. I always thought that these people were the neighbors that loved drama. they had to know every detail. They see everything, but do nothing. Could it really be that they just assume someone else is calling for help? Or is it something more than that? Do these people even know what to do in these situations?
My father always said to us growing up, “don’t go looking for trouble or trouble will find you”. What he meant was, do not go running toward a problem, for there may be trouble waiting there for too. So keep yourself safe and stay away. This was in reference to us asking what was going on when we saw flashing lights and heard sirens. My mom on the other hand would say we should pray that everyone is ok and when we see bad things happen, look for the helpers.You will always see helpers. Do not assume that everyone will stand around and do nothing, you will always see the helpers.
This made me want to be more like my mom, and I always strive to make her proud and be a helper. It was never a question for me to not seek help or to help myself. Yes there were times where situations may have been dangerous for me to intervene personally but I would always call for help. I never really understood why anyone wouldn’t until I remembered what my dad would say.
Why are more people not helping? I have found this information which agrees with what you are talking about with the bystander effect. people are much less compassionate and less inclined to offer assistance to others when part of a group in comparison to when alone. The infamous bystander effect accounts for ignoring the pleas of others in a crowd. Individuals help more when the psychological cost of helping is low, and the need of the person needing help is considered to be substantial. We hesitate to help when we believe the person in distress could have prevented the problem through a proactive and decisive action of his or her own. Holding the person accountable for their circumstances often accounts for refusing to give contributions to panhandlers or to people we think “put” themselves in the position of needing assistance.(3 reasons why people refuse to help others)
Unfortunately, willingness to assist others is also a function of many superficial associations between the helper and the person needing help, such as the perceived degree of physical, intellectual, racial, and gender similarities (Mallozzi, McDermott, & Kayson, 1990), as well as perceptions of in-group membership. We tend to help others that we think are like us.
Mallozzi, J., Mcdermott, V., & Kayson, W. A. (1990). Effects of sex, type of dress, and location
on altruistic behavior. Psychological Reports, 67(3), 1103–1106.
Sussex Publishers. (n.d.). 3 reasons why people refuse to help others. Psychology Today. Retrieved October 15, 2022, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/motivate/201710/3-reasons-why-people-refuse-help-others
Wow, this is an incredibly sad story. I’m alive obviously, but have also been a victim to the bystander effect. When I was 19 years old in Italy, I was mugged in broad daylight and everyone watched it happen. No one did anything about it. It was traumatizing.
At the very end of the blog entry you mention a way to solve this issue, which is assign roles. I agree that would be uncomfortable to do (both assign and be the assignee), but it’s much more efficient and action-oriented. I found an article that suggests a few ways to reduce the bystander effect, starting with being cognizant of situations that require intervention. Of course, this assumes that an individual is going out of their way to educate themselves on acting appropriately in dangerous situations. Another technique that can be used is distraction, such as creating noise or interference in a dangerous situation.
It makes me sad to hear that crimes happen because no one’s willing to help. Since this happened to me, whenever I see someone start to harass or get close to someone in a public setting, I can feel adrenaline go through my body, like I’m going to fight. Just in case no one else intervenes, I will. Thankfully, I’ve never had to intervene.
References
What Is the Bystander Effect? How to Avoid Being a Passive Witness. (2022, October 1). Real Simple. Retrieved October 13, 2022, from https://www.realsimple.com/work-life/life-strategies/bystander-effect