Out of all the things that I have learned in psychology this year, the topic that stands out the most for me is the bystander effect. This means that when there is an public emergency situation, people often find themselves wanting to help, but they become frozen in place and unable to help. I have witnessed this firsthand when I was on an airplane to Europe a few years ago with my family. A flight attendant came over the loudspeaker in the middle of the flight and asked if there was a doctor on the plane. My dad is a doctor, but he was hesitant to get up and help because he figured that there would be many other people that would offer their help. However, after no one got up to do anything my dad stood up to help the person in trouble. I think that this is interesting because even though my dad is a doctor and deals with patients everyday, he was still hesitant to help the person on the plane because he believed that there would be plenty of other people to help. In this case, it was good that he decided to help the woman because no one else offered their help. Also, one would think that on commercial flight there would be more than one doctor on the whole plane. As the textbook states, there is a danger rather than a safety in numbers. This could be due to the diffusion of responsibility. This means that when there are other people around, people feel less responsible for the outcome of the situation. If my dad had not helped the person on the plane and she ended up getting more sick or even dying, he could have felt that it was not his fault since no one else had helped either. I know I can speak for most people when I say that we all want to believe that we would not fall victim to the bystander effect, but chances are most of us would.
Will you be a Victim of the Bystander Effect?
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I think this stands out so vividly because it was discussed so recently. I still struggle wrapping my head around the fact that such a thing occurs, however, it is also a bit of an eye opener. I think that after going over this topic, I will be much more likely to intervene in a situation and help out if need be.
I agree with you on the bystander effect being the topic that stands out the most. That is an interesting story of your dad and how he didn't get up to help until after he realized others weren't. In some cases nobody ends up helping the lone individual, so thank goodness for your dad and his being a doctor!
This is really interesting because I feel that all of us has encountered this situation at least once in our lives. It is kind of funny that we all realize that we should have done something after the event has passed, but don't see that when the emergency is taking place.
Reading about the bystander effect is a bit unsettling to me. We typically assume that as long as there are other people around we'd be safer in an emergency, but this concept tells us that may not actually be the case. I think that because the bystander effect is really just a product of human nature, it's something everyone should be educated about. Perhaps if society is more aware of the problem, we would all become more likely to help in a situation.
I like this post a lot because it gives an example of how adults also fall prey to the bystander effect. Your post reminded me of a time where my mom fell prey to this effect because she works well with computers and when we attended my high school's senior night last year, our powerpoint presentation just was not working. She thought like your dad did that other people in the crowd would know what to do and so she did not help until she realized no one else would. Great post!
The stories supplied about the bystander effect were incredibly shocking to me, and I almost didn't believe them. I just couldn't fathom how a group could stand by and watch a gang-rape. I assume the events had special circumstances, like everyone present was extremely immoral or shy. But its an incredible phenomenon.
I love this real life story of the bystander effect, because I feel like we all experience this often, but we don't really realize the cause. The idea that having too many people to help could actually be more detrimental really struck me as well reading the chapter.
Woo go your dad! I like the thought of their being "danger" in numbers. Very interesting way to look at a crowd mentality.