I think that one of the things that will stick with me after this semester is the concept of responsibility diffusion. I commute to the U every day from Champlin, so I spend a little more than 2 hours on the bus every day going to and from campus. One of my biggest pet peeves on buses is when young healthy individuals don't offer to give up their seat to elderly, handicapped, or people with some other condition that would prevent them from being able to stand on the bus comfortably for the duration of their ride. I always make it a point to be the first one to offer up my seat to anyone that looks like they would need it more than I would, but all too often after I give up my seat, there are still others in need of seats and all the other riders just pretend not to notice. Maybe in the future I should ask individuals if they would give up their seats to make them feel more responsible and eliminate the diffusion of responsibility. If anyone reading this has the opportunity to give up their seat to someone else in need please do so. I sustained serious back injuries in combat in Afghanistan and am a card-carrying Disabled Veteran, if I can give up my seat, so can you.
Responsibility diffusion on metro transit
No TrackBacks
TrackBack URL: http://blog.lib.umn.edu/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/188911
Although I don't disagree with you, I would just like to point out that we live in a first come first serve society. Many people don't take into consideration the comfort of other passengers or how their actions could impact others.
I see this allllllll the time on Metro transit! I think it's so important when it's someone elderly or physically struggling, as well as when you can see people struggling with children or things to carry. It always shocks me how bold and rude some people can be about staying in their seat and not being bothered.
I completely understand where you're coming from. While I'm not a disabled veteran, I have also taken that tedious 2 hour trip from Champlin to campus. Regardless of how long I will be on the bus, anytime I see somebody who might need my seat, I will get up and let them sit there. Often, I will watch people as they come onto the bus and right as that person arrives, I simply get up and move to the back, to free up the first open seats even if there are more seats open farther back. I suppose responsibility diffusion is they only explanation for why people wouldn't give up their seats to those who really need it, but its still hard to imagine!
What a great post, and it really touched me. I also give up my seat for anyone who seems to need it more than I do, and definitely value respect for my elders. The personal touch on the psychological concept of diffusing responsibility was really interesting and had an impact. Not only were you able to reference the impact responsibility diffusion has on society, but also you were able to use this as a lesson for the future, and make a suggestion to others. You even gave me ideas to help prevent responsibility diffusion in my life as well.
It always surprises me to see this. The picture you posted is the epitome of responsibility diffusion. I'm sure if you asked the young guy reading the newspaper he would say something like I wasn't the only one who could've given up my seat. More people need to act like the exception and not the rule (or the majority). This may not be as big of an incident but say you were extremely injured and no one did anything. I'll try harder to help hoping someone would do the same if it were me.
I too often take the city buses and I see this happen all the time. It is disappointing. What I find very interesting is how sometimes you can catch those sitting in the front seats (meant for the elders and handicaps)looking at others like them, who have a seat and could/should give them up, but do not. Instead they just watch what the others do. I feel like this is an example of the social comparison theory as well as responsibility diffusion because they compare their inaction to someone else's inaction trying to justify that its okay.
First off, that's so incredibly kind of you to do that. Of course it seems like something that should be common sense, but you're kind for actually doing it. I commute to school everyday from Minnetonka (not as far, but still a god hour or two sometimes). Its odd because I'm rarely on a bus that doesn't have empty seats, so I never see this going on. I'm sure it must be infuriating to see it happening so often though. Way to be awesome about it! :)