Have you ever seen a situation on television and thought “What would I do in this scenario?” In today’s society, there is a lot of chaos and senseless crimes you can witness through social media or news outlets. In fact, there are many bystanders who see some of these crimes being publicized through the media in person. Have you ever seen a crime done in public that is on a news outlet and wondered “Why didn’t anyone help the victim in this situation?” There is an actual psychological theory that can explain this kind of behavior. This theory is called the bystander effect. The bystander effect “States how people are less likely to help in an emergency when other bystanders are present” (Gruman, 2016). Many people have never heard of this theory but it can explain many questions victims families may have or even bystanders who experienced this behavior themselves.
The question of why human behavior is the way it is can never be fully answered. People have different kinds of motives for the things they do but there are social theories that can suggest why certain behaviors may occur. The bystander effect is explained to occur because “The presence of others lowers the individual bystander’s sense of responsibility.” (Gruman, 2016). Furthermore, the presence of other people can alleviate a sense of accountability by creating expectations that someone else may come in to save the day. This effect can suggest that the other people in these situations can eliminate more of a all or nothing outlook on a potentially dangerous situation. To further explain the phrase all or nothing in this context, it would mean that the thought process would be that if someone does not go all in to intervene in a situation, then the worst possible outcome would not happen due to the presence of others there to help.
Can certain factors affect the likelihood of the bystander effect? There are certain factors that can play a role on if a human were to intervene in an emergency situation or not. According to the article, “The bystander-effect: A meta-analytic review on bystander intervention in dangerous and non-dangerous emergencies,”The bystander effect was attenuated when situations were perceived as dangerous (compared with non-dangerous), perpetrators were present (compared with non-present), and the costs of intervention were physical (compared with non-physical). This pattern of findings is consistent with the arousal-cost-reward model.” (Krueger et al., 2011). The reason the arousal-cost-reward model is consistent with the findings of this data is because the situations with a higher level of danger elicited more emotional and unwanted feelings in the bystanders. These feelings then caused an increase in intervention. Other factors that had an effect on intervention was where “Bystanders provide welcome physical support for the potentially intervening individual and thus reduce the bystander effect, such as when the bystanders were exclusively male, when they were naive rather than passive confederates or only virtually present persons, and when the bystanders were not strangers.”(Krueger et al., 2011). The nature of conflict being witnessed, the violence involved, whether or not the bystanders know the victim and more all can have an influence on the involvement of bystanders in an emergency. This suggests that the bystander effect can be more likely or less likely depending on the factors in the situation.
In conclusion, the research is plentiful and there is a large amount of evidence of the bystander effect. (Gruman, 2016). This social psychological theory may explain certain behaviors particularly in emergency situations. The beauty of understanding and learning theories such as this one is it can better help individuals understand human behavior. This can then allow people to be better prepared in an emergency situation. If you are ever in a dangerous situation with people around, call out for help to certain people to try to increase accountability amongst bystanders. Likewise if you are a bystander and think someone is in trouble, be sure to take action even if others are around. This essay can hopefully provide enough evidence that suggests that even if others are around they may not call for help. In the end, it is always best to try to help or call for help if you see others in an emergency regardless if there are other people around.
References
Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (2016). Applied Social Psychology (3rd ed.). SAGE Publications, Inc. (US). https://mbsdirect.vitalsource.com/books/9781506353968
Fischer, P., Krueger, J. I., Greitemeyer, T., Vogrincic, C., Kastenmüller, A., Frey, D., Heene, M., Wicher, M., & Kainbacher, M. (2011). The bystander-effect: A meta-analytic review on bystander intervention in dangerous and non-dangerous emergencies. Psychological Bulletin, 137(4), 517–537. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0023304
I really appreciate your investigation of this phenomena, especially the way that there are situational factors that influence to help or not to help, as you so aptly put it. The take that I would propose is that “helping” might present differently in the current climate. I am thinking of the recordings of atrocious instances of police brutality. Although the definition you offered from Gruman and colleagues (2017) poses a decreased likelihood to intervene in the presence of a group, I wonder if there might be a social evolution away from this definition of the bystander effect. The willingness of folks to grab their phone and record, regardless of how many others are also recording, an incident as an act of possible solidarity might be an option for intervention that was not as readily available when the majority of bystander intervention research was completed.
Hello,
The bystander effect is a very interesting phenomenon that a lot of people have witnessed in their own lives. Even I have seen this effect happen in person. Since I knew about this effect, I was one of the individuals who stepped in to help. There are ways to reduce the occurrence of the bystander effect. Many people believe that they would have nothing to offer by responding to or intervening in an emergency situation. If we become knowledgeable about something that could help, we are more likely to step in and help. For example, if someone needed CPR and you knew the process, you would probably step in. If you didn’t know CPR, then you wouldn’t help because you might feel invaluable to the situation. As you said in your post, individuals are more likely to intervene when they know the person. In relation to knowing someone, we are more likely to step in if we see someone as deserving of help. We see people we know as deserving because of our personal relationship, but by seeing others as valuable, we are more likely to help them out. There are many other factors that influence our motivation to help in an emergency situation, but this is a great starting point.
Cherry, K. (n.d.). How to Overcome the Bystander Effect. Very Well Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/how-to-overcome-the-bystander-effect-2795559