We all grew up watching Sakthiman on TV and reading Batman comics. We saw these superheroes go out of their way to save people’s lives and restore peace. They are, of course, Good Samaritans and also, fictional. These altruistic characters are never going to be a part of our real life. But you don’t necessarily have to be a superhero to bring about changes. Sometimes, the small things you do can be of great help to someone. So this article is to talk about the bystander effect and ways to overcome it.
Bystander effect
• What is it?
Wikipedia defines bystander effect as “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.” It is also referred to as bystander apathy.
The number of bystanders present is inversely proportional to the probability of receiving help.
• Reason for our response
There is a sociopsychological phenomenon called diffusion of responsibility. Diffusion of responsibility is whereby an individual is most likely to not take responsibility for action (or inaction) in the presence of a group of people. When there a
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23-year-old female physiotherapy intern was brutally gang raped and murdered by six men in a private bus when she was travelling along with her male friend. After the attack, the attackers threw both the victims out of the moving bus. The male companion, later, said in an interview that several vehicles slowed down but none of them helped. It was only after half an hour someone on patrol stopped and called the police. Let us take a moment and imagine how much would have changed if someone had called the police as soon as they saw the victims. Instead, they let the wounds intensify for about half an hour. A number of people would have seen these two bleeding profusely and crying for help. But they all ignored and walked away, not because of ignorance, because of bystander