The Bystander Effect

- by Kiran

Let’s start off with a classic example of the bystander effect. In March 1964, Catherine Susan Genovese was murdered by an attacker with a knife in her neighbourhood in Queens, New York. A week later a New York Times editor A. M. Rosenthal was having lunch with the commissioner and the commissioner revealed something very astonishing about the homicide case. The death of Genovese wasn’t a quick

and silent one. Instead it was loud and Genovese had been chased for about half an hour by her assailant. She had cried out for help numerous times and they hadn’t been unheard. Supposedly, 38 neighbours had heard her cries for help and were just watching without even calling the police.

The media kept pursuing this with follow-up stories about how the witnesses didn’t care to get involved, that America is becoming a country of selfish people, how they had become cold and how urbanization is making people apathetic. Two psychologists, John Darley and Bibb Latane, examined the reports of the case and ended up with what seemed like the most unlikely explanation. The reason why no one had helped Genovese is because of the fact that there were many people.

The psychologists speculated at least two reasons for bystander inaction to occur when the bystander is present among a large group of people.

1. With several people around, there were many who had the potential to help Genovese. This reduces the personal responsibility of the bystander. The bystander thinks ‘Someone else might give the aid required or perhaps it has already been done’.

2. The second reason, more interestingly, is that people are often uncertain as to what they should do in a situation. When such uncertainty arises, one has a tendency to see what others are doing to see what the correct response to that situation is.

What is forgotten though is that every other person is also uncertain. Everyone looks for social evidence as to see what course of action is appropriate and in this manner no one takes any decisions. Since no one makes any decision, people end up believing that nothing is wrong.

You might run into a situation like this too. Is the man lying on the road a victim of a heart-attack or is he just a sleeping drunk? Is the loud noises next door a case of assault with the need of the police or is it just an argument between spouses where intervention would be inappropriate? You are more likely to run into the bystander effect in an urban area than in a rural one. Often an emergency is viewed as a

non-emergency and ignored by people who think what they are doing is right.

Now, imagine the following scenario. You’re walking in a park with many people. Suddenly you feel dizzy and start losing your balance. You slump against a tree to rest for a bit but it doesn’t help. You’re losing control of your muscles, you can’t get up and you’re losing the ability to speak clearly. You’re having a stroke. People who pass by you don’t notice you or those that do see the weird way you’re sitting look for social evidence to see if it is an emergency but on finding none they continue on their way. Time is

crucial. Soon you might completely lose your speech, get paralysed and possibly die. What would you do to overcome the odds against you getting aid from a bystander?

You might cry for help to make sure it’s clear that there is an emergency but there are other factors to consider. Just crying for help isn’t the best strategy. There are other uncertainties present. A bystander’s mind would be plagued would questions like: ‘Should I help this person?’, ‘What kind of help do they need?’ or ‘Am I qualified enough to help?’. Remember that time is vital to your survival. You can’t let the

bystander waste time thinking about such questions.

The best strategy would be to isolate a single person from the group. Stare or point directly and call out “You in the red shirt. Call an ambulance. I need help.” Be as specific as possible. With this you have assigned the responsibility of providing you with aid to one person. The person is no longer uncertain and will act immediately. Notice how you remove uncertainties by stating you need help and prevent the responsibilities from being diffused by isolating one single bystander. By countering the two main reasons for the bystander effect to occur you drastically increase the odds of getting your life saved.

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References: Robert B. Cialdini, Influence: Science and Practice