After our most recent subject of learning, I now know what the bystander effect is and some of the possible reasons for why humans act as such; but I didn't always have this knowledge.
When I was about 9 years of age, I witnessed two elderly individuals take a fall on an escalator, in an airport in California. As I approached from a distance with my Mom, I noticed many if not all people proceeding by without any giving any aid or attention to these obviously in need people.
This threw me off because in no way could I decipher why such a large group of people acted this way. This made me believe that each of these people would act this way in any situation, but this was also wrong. I now know that it was in fact the size of the group that enabled them to act in such a socially unacceptable fashion. Despite my non-understanding of the psychology, one thing that was still apparent was that it was wrong. Do you have powerful memories of experiences with the Bystander Effect?
http://psychology.about.com/od/socialpsychology/a/bystandereffect.htm
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