The Unresponsive Bystander: Why Doesn T He Help?

Why do people who observe behaviors hesitate to act on their own or to come forward promptly, even when affected by that behavior? Why do they not immediately report those whom they see to be acting in an intolerable fashion? In real life hesitation is not confined just to bystanders. People in all roles may hesitate to act. The most common reasons for hesitation are: fear of loss of relationships, loss of privacy, fear of unspecified “bad consequences” or retaliation, and insufficient evidence. Some people feel too traumatized by the crime to want to speak out. They fear retribution by criminals. They worry police may not be able to protect their identity. And some just do not want the hassle of protracted legal proceedings. It has

They began their analysis of the “bystander effect” by recognizing several good reasons that one should not necessarily expect bystanders to offer help in an emergency. For example, most people are not prepared to deal with emergencies, which tend to happen quickly and without warning. In addition direct intervention may involve real physical danger, as in the Genovese incident. Finally becoming involved in such situations may lead to court or other legal consequences. Latane’ and Darley tested their ideas in a number of ingenious experiments, several of which are considered classic examples of social psychological research. They proposed three social psychological processes to explain precisely how the presence of others inhibits helping. Each operates within the decision-making framework and all three appear to be necessary to account completely for the bystander effect. The first of these processes is audience inhibition, which refers to people’s general reluctance to do things in front of others. When people are aware that their behavior is on public display and are concerned about what others might think, they may be hesitant to offer help for ear of appearing incompetent. The second process, social influence, frequently contributes to the social inhibition of helping by leading bystanders to misinterpret the event. Emergencies are often ambiguous, and a person confronted with ambiguity will look to the behavior of other people for clues about how to behave. While the person is attempting to appraise the reactions of other people, he or she will probably attempt to remain calm. That person, then, is likely to see a group of others doing exactly the same: appearing calm and doing nothing while trying to figure out whether a true emergency is taking place. Each