This study by Plötner et al. (2015) shows that young children do in fact exhibit the bystander effect, and 5 year-olds are just as likely as adults to be a passive bystander when other bystanders are available to help the person in need. Using the three conditions previously stated the study was able to conclude the lack of helping behavior was not due to simply to the presence of bystanders, but to diffusion of responsibility. The participants that claimed not knowing how to help in the event had seen the experimenter model the solution at the beginning of the study when she cleaned up the water with the paper towel; this lead to the conclusion that these participants did in fact know how to help. However, the presence of bystanders was more likely the cause for the lack of helping behaviors as the non-helpers placed the responsibility to help on the other bystanders.
Schoolchildren have recently become the focus of many studies regarding the bystander effect due to the increase in bullying incidents and the lack of help provided to the victim. In Sweden, a longitudinal study was conducted in the natural environment of a fifth-grade classroom by Robert Thornberg (2007). Thornberg had been present in the classroom for a few months at this point, and made himself a non-authority figure to
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Values or moral education, which is defined by Aspin (as cited in Thornberg, 2007) as “an introduction to values and morality, to give young people knowledge of this domain concerned with relating to other people, together with the ability to apply the values and rules intelligently, and to have the settled disposition to do so” (Aspin, 2000), can also be investigated further as possible means to educating youth to act in a prosaically manner and be helpful in bystander