What would you do if you saw someone get bullied or hurt in front of you? The bystander “ states that people are less likely to help in an emergency when other bystanders are present” (Gruman, 289). There are many reasons why a person might not help in a situation and might consider the bystander effect instead. Some reasons are because the person doesn’t want all the pressure on him or herself, as well as not having any relationship with the person. On the other hand, there are positive aspects to ignoring the bystander effect like not having a guilty feeling and feeling good about yourself. Considering a close person to you is in a difficult incident, how would you want others to react?
What if someone got into a fight right in front of your eyes would you go to help or would you act like you didn’t see it and move on? Well, there are many reasons why someone might not help if there was a situation happening in front of him or her. One reason someone might ignore the situation is because they do not want the pressure and attention to fall onto them. For example, if someone gets into a minor car accident then they might not help because they see other people around the victim. They would also say something like “why would I help, there are other people here.” They don’t want the pressure of having to tell the police what happened as well as making sure the person in the car is safe and not injured. Another reason why someone might not help is because of the relationship between the bystander and the victim. They might not be related to that person and feel the need to stay away from the situation and not get involved. There are many dangers within the bystander effect that we do not realize. One danger is that if you witness a crime or accident of death, and not speak about being a witness about what happened, that can result in you going to jail for two years. You can become guilty of not stating what you have seen in the accident. If I were in a difficult situation like this I don’t know what I would do, but I would most likely call the police or someone nearby that would be able to help in the situation.
Although many won’t help in a situation and rather stay within the bystander effect, what are some ways that can be solved. What if you actually take action, how can that help? If a person decides not to be a bystander and help in the situation instead, then that would give the person more confidence. How can we drop the bystander effect? One way is to take action when a situation happens. For example, if a person is in an accident then stepping in the situation would help the person survive. First you would check if the scene is safe to go near, then make sure the people in the car are safe, and finally call for help from others. This situation would help a person feel good about themselves afterwards in which the idea of saving someone’s life is a big deal. Another reason why someone should step in is to not have a guilty feeling. If something bad happened to a person while you were watching that would make you feel guilty and think to yourself “if I helped him or her would that have changed anything?” That is one major reason to help save someone and ignore the bystander effect. Another reason why to ignore the bystander effect is, what if the person in the accident is a relative to you, would you want people to ignore the situation and act like they don’t see it?
The bystander effect relates to the “Diffusion of responsibility (Darley & Latane, 1968) [that] reflect the notion that as the number of people present in a situation increases, each individual feels less compelled or responsible to help” (Gordon, 843). The diffusion of responsibility connects to the bystander effect because the more people there are in the situation, the less the responsibility is on a specific person. We assume that if there are a lot of people in the situation, then they are helping out in the situation. We can make a person have more responsibility by decreasing the group number and increasing accountability. This way the situation can be helped instead of just being looked at.
The bystander effect is a social phenomenon in which a person doesn’t offer any help to a situation when others are present. Individuals might use the bystander effect because of the fear of being overwhelmed as well as believing that they don’t have any relationship with the situation and there is no need to help. Others that might ignore the bystander effect would help a person feel good about themselves and not have an after feeling of being guilty. The diffusion of responsibility relates to the bystander effect in which the help is assumed to not be needed with the increased number of people around. This can be solved through the same way as the bystander effect. What would you do if an incident happened in front of you, would you help immediately or would you stay as a bystander?
References:
Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (2017). Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. SAGE.
Moskowitz, G. (n.d.). Crowded minds: The implicit bystander effect. Retrieved October 13, 2021, from https://www.academia.edu/11870091/Crowded_Minds_The_Implicit_Bystander_Effect?from=cover_page
Tags: #AppliedSocialPsychology, bystander effect, Community, diffusion of responsibility, psych 424, social change, Take action