Bystander Intervention
Bystander Intervention
1----Social Psychology Eye
Skip to contentHomeAboutDisclaimerFeatured JournalsNews Editors ← Social and Personality Psychology Compass first Video AbstractAffirmative action for women in Iraq →Bystanders… just standing by. When do people help and when do they not?
Posted on March 13, 2011 by ezaiser| 1 Comment
By Erica Zaiser
Understanding when and why people intervene to help others, or when they don’t, is at the heart of social psychology. All students of psychology study the famous case of Kitty Genovese, whose screams while being attacked failed to elicit help from the nearly 40 bystanders. Most research on bystander intervention has found that the size of the group greatly impacts the likelihood of intervention. Too big of a group and everybody shifts responsibility assuming that someone else will help but the more people the less likely that any individual will help.
It seems hard to imagine that people would not help when someone is in trouble, wounded, or in danger, yet it happens all the time. Recently I myself stumbled upon a scene of bystander non-intervention which I have since struggled to understand.
The other day while walking home I came upon a man running up and down the street with no shoes or coat holding a phone out shouting at the people on the street and stopping cars banging on the windows. I took a second to survey the scene and it was clear this man was trying to get something from those around him. However nobody was answering him and none of the cars even rolled down their windows to listen. I heard his questions loud and clear, albeit in broken English, “How to call an ambulance?” Still nobody was saying anything. I shouted to him that he needed to call 999 and he came over profusely grateful for my help and I helped him make his emergency call and assisted him and his family until paramedics could arrive. His mother had fallen unconscious in their flat and he had run into the street desperate to
1----Social Psychology Eye
Skip to contentHomeAboutDisclaimerFeatured JournalsNews Editors ← Social and Personality Psychology Compass first Video AbstractAffirmative action for women in Iraq →Bystanders… just standing by. When do people help and when do they not?
Posted on March 13, 2011 by ezaiser| 1 Comment
By Erica Zaiser
Understanding when and why people intervene to help others, or when they don’t, is at the heart of social psychology. All students of psychology study the famous case of Kitty Genovese, whose screams while being attacked failed to elicit help from the nearly 40 bystanders. Most research on bystander intervention has found that the size of the group greatly impacts the likelihood of intervention. Too big of a group and everybody shifts responsibility assuming that someone else will help but the more people the less likely that any individual will help.
It seems hard to imagine that people would not help when someone is in trouble, wounded, or in danger, yet it happens all the time. Recently I myself stumbled upon a scene of bystander non-intervention which I have since struggled to understand.
The other day while walking home I came upon a man running up and down the street with no shoes or coat holding a phone out shouting at the people on the street and stopping cars banging on the windows. I took a second to survey the scene and it was clear this man was trying to get something from those around him. However nobody was answering him and none of the cars even rolled down their windows to listen. I heard his questions loud and clear, albeit in broken English, “How to call an ambulance?” Still nobody was saying anything. I shouted to him that he needed to call 999 and he came over profusely grateful for my help and I helped him make his emergency call and assisted him and his family until paramedics could arrive. His mother had fallen unconscious in their flat and he had run into the street desperate to
References: Cialdini, R.B. (2001) Influence: Science and Practice. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon ------------------------------------------------- Posted on October 8, 2010 by Brendaliss Gonzalez Courtesy NYPD CompStat Unit Many people believe that violent crimes occur in secluded places out of the site of others. However, many crimes are committed in the presence of a social audience (Hart & Miethe, 2008) 2Levine, Mark (2002). Walk On By? Relational Justice Bulletin (Issue 16, Nov 2002) Safety Canada January 2004