Mini-Writing: The Bystander Effect

Mini-writing

Topic: The Bystander Effect

When you’re in a public space, perhaps with your friends or family, and you see someone struggling with a task, what do you do? Do you help, or do you simply wait for someone else to do it for you? This is called ‘diffusion of responsibility - or more commonly, the ‘bystander effect’. It has been proven that when in large groups, individuals are less likely to help another person than they are when they’re alone. This written text will be informing you of the concept of the bystander effect, and the possibilities for why it occurs.

As previously stated, people in large groups are less likely to help out a stranger than they are in small groups. This is usually due to the fact that when surrounded by other people, we feel less personally responsible for the events which are going on around us. In thinking this, we are passing on the responsibility to someone else. This doesn’t necessarily define us as bad people, or unhelpful, or even irresponsible, it is simply a common process of thought. For example, if you are in a busy shopping mall and you see someone drop their groceries, you more often than not instinctively expect that someone else will help them out, and carry on with your day. However, if you are in the same circumstances but the mall is empty, you feel more personally obligated to give them a hand. Whether it be out of guilt, second-hand embarrassment, or genuinely just wanting to help. Hopefully it’s the latter.

Another possibility for why this occurs, is overthinking. Perhaps you’re self conscious, or afraid that you’ll somehow offend them, or look ridiculous in front of your peers/complete strangers. Maybe, you just want to wait it out and watch how others will react to the situation at hand. This is in our nature, studying other’s reactions to certain situations. In saying that, we should try our best to break this habit - the world would be a much simpler and better place if we all tried to help each other out when we can.