Research Paper On Bystanders

Nowadays, civilians live in a world in which individuals are praised for their bravery and heroism. Many put themselves and their lives at stake, in order to help another. These people are idolized and recognized around the world, such as, Malala Yousafzai, Martin Luther King Junior, and the firefighters in the 9/11 scene. Unfortunately, majority of inhabitants on this Earth remain bystanders when exposed to stressful situations; rather than intervening and becoming a so called "hero". Many people do not respond and fight in emergency situations, like how Yousafzai fought for equality in education among genders, causing her a bullet to the face. These onlookers are better known as bystanders, a title everyone has worn at least once in their

They gathered a group of students and put each in a room alone. Darley and Latané had each student talk to others of varying number in a discussion group about their college lives. Each room had a microphone and speaker so that the students did not see each other face to face. Little did the participants knows that the conversations they were listening into were pre-recorded, one of which was a student having a seizure. Darley and Latané noticed that when the students were aware that they were in a bigger discussion group, only 31% of students did something to help the participant having a seizure. Although, one-on-one conversations made 85% of students search for help. Darley and Latané came to the conclusion that the diffusion of responsibility is one explanation of the bystander apathy experiment. When other people are present, individuals feel that they will intervene in order to detach themselves from the situation, feeling less responsible. Another reason for the results of the experiment is pluralistic ignorance, “this refers to the mentality that since everyone else is not reacting to the emergency; my personal help is not needed. Seeing the inaction of others will lead to the thought that the emergency is not that serious as

The bystander effect supplies individuals with guilt and mental damage, when realizing the power they had to intervene. This can be prevented with the help of awareness to grab and open the minds of all people. Likewise, the Kitty Genovese murder sparked a wave of realization within the nation. Unfortunately, many victims of the bystander effect have fell into denia in order to numb their own regret. These people say that their actions were inflicted by the other bystanders around them. Of course, this is false because the fact that an individual is mentally aware that they are bystanding, is why bystander apathy is such a major