If you were at a party full of people and saw a girl that was too drunk would you try to help her? Would you help a homeless man in a park if he looked like he was in distress? It is natural for a person to assume if they were confronted with an emergency situation that they would step up and be a hero, but often that is not the case. Luckily, most people never have to make the decision because according to a psychological phenomenon a person will avoid assisting some one in distress when there are a lot of other people around. This phenomenon is known as the bystander effect. The bystander according to Psychology Today is a social psychological phenomenon “when the presence of others discourages an individual from intervening in an emergency situation.” It is hypothesized that when people are in a large crowd they do not feel personally responsible for other people, and therefore will avoid getting involved.

There are three main reasons or mechanisms on why the bystander effect happens. One is the diffusion of responsibility that is prevalent when in a crowded, public space. The diffusion of responsibility is the lack of a sense that an individual should intervene when there are many other people around that could also step up. The next mechanism behind the bystander effect is social referencing. Social referencing is the tendency for a person to look towards the behaviors of other people to determine their own reaction. Even infants exhibit this psychological phenomenon when they look to their mother or father to form their own response. Finally the last mechanism that forms the bystander effect is shyness. Shyness is simply when people do not want to stand out and do something different from a crowd.

In an experiment examined in a nymag.com article, Marie Plotner studied how 5-year-olds either followed or strayed from the phenomena; the bystander effect. The experiment got 60 5-year-old children and told them they would be drawing a picture while an adult painted a cardboard canvas. In one scenario the child was alone with the adult and in the other scenario the child was with the adult and some other 5-year-olds coloring their own pictures. In the second scenario, however the other children were actors or confederates. The adult was told to spill water and ask the child for help, their reactions to the adult in distress is what was being measured. The findings confirmed the bystander effect because the children were more likely to help out if they were alone with the adult. Only a little over 50% of the children in that were in a room with other children actually helped the panicked adult. The children are exemplifying the diffusion of responsibility when they do not feel inclined to help when there are other children present to shoulder the accountability. The children in the room with other children are also exhibiting social referencing because they are mimicking the behaviors of those around them to cope with being in an ambiguous situation. Finally shyness can be attributed with the results because it is very natural for a 5-year-old child to be too shy to go out of their way to help an adult.

It is easy to claim that, when in a situation that requires it, a person will stand out and be a hero. The truth of the matter is that the bystander effect sis a natural social psychological phenomenon that humans are predisposed to exhibit.