The Bystander Effect
Stop, Drop, and Conform!
What is the Bystander Effect?
The Bystander Effect is a social psychological phenomenon that refers to cases in which individuals do not offer any means of help to a victim when other people are present.
The Kitty Genovese Murder
Winston Moseley
Kitty Genovese
Failure to Seek Help declines as the number of people witnessing the situation increases
The impact of Kitty Genovese's Murder
After the death of Kitty Genavese, two psychologists named Bibb Latane and John Darley gained an interest in exploring the topic of The Bystander Effect. Latane and Darley both performed various experiments to determine how we as individuals fail to respond to harmful situations due to the fact that others around us are doing the same thing. One of the experiments they did was placing an individual in a consolidated room by themselves. While the individual sat and worked on a questionnaire, a mysterious smoke came from under the door. Without hesitation, the individual quickly responded in alert and got help. However, when two more people were placed in the same exact room as them and the smoke reappeared from under the door, everyone observed what was going on but did nothing in response; they noticed it but did nothing about it.
The Purpose
The purpose behind Latane's and Darling's experiments was to determine how the Bystander effect plays a critical role in harmful situations. Their experiments truly exemplified how people fail to help those in need.
Findings
Latane and Darling made a conclusion that there are five characteristics of emergencies that effect bystanders and they are as following:
- Emergencies involve threat of harm or actual harm.
- Emergencies are unusual and rare.
- The type of action required in an emergency differs from situation to situation.
- Emergencies can not be predicted or expected.
- Emergencies require immediate action.
Five Cognitive and Behavioral Processes
- Notice that something is going on.
- Interpret the situation as an emergency.
- Degree of responsibility left.
- Form of assistance.
- Implement the action choice.