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PSY-
The Bystander Effect
Grand Canyon University PSY-530 Social and Cultural Psychology
Bystander Effect
The bystander effect occurs when you are in presence of an emergency and you get discourage to help because the presence of others. It is common for people to freeze or go in shock when facing an emergency or being attacked, this is due to a response to fear, the fear you have of being too weak to help. Bystander effect can be positive, if is used to increase helping behaviors. Individuals are more likely to behave well when they feel themselves being watched by “the crowd”, and when their actions align with their social identities. People that speaks against bullying is called “up-stander”, because they have a confident in their actions, and they are more to do the right thing. Once I was walking in New York, when I heard a loud noise, it was a woman hit by a car, and she was bleeding and unconscious on the ground, there was a lot of people who witnessed. I remember getting a panic attack and just wanted to run and don’t look back to the women, there was young guys taking a video with their cell phone, the entire scenario was horrible, instead calling the police they just stood there. I took my cell phone and dial 911, I was so nerves, but the horrible incident was reported and help was sent to the place. The diffusion of responsibility, refers to people that don’t help the individual because they are in a presence of a lot of people.
This doesn’t mean that people don’t have compassion to help, it only means that people get shock and because there is so many people present, no one feels pressure to respond. People are more likely to help if there is a connection or knowledge with the person in trouble. For example, long time ago in a family wedding party, my niece at the time she was 11 years old, started shocking with the food she was eating, since I have CPR 1st Aid training, I didn’t even think about jumping on her and help her, there was a lot of people watching, but even when it was uncomfortable, I only wanted to help my niece, thanks God she brought out the piece of food and was fine, my cousin which is a Doctor was there, and he took after me to check her. In my case even when there was a crowd the diffusion of responsibility impulse me to help her because there is a connection between us, we are family. According to Deborah (2020), “the pluralistic Ignorance is when people feel they are different from their peers erroneously, but they are behaving the same way as their peers.” Pluralistic ignorance can be linked to the failure of bystanders to help in an emergency situation. For example, when I was in College we went to a trip, we divided in groups to sleep in the hotel, I was with 4 friends, I am a clean person and like things well organized, one of my friends was throwing garbage in the floor, leaving her clothes in the bathroom, I wanted to say something to her about her behaviors, but my other 3 friends were like not caring about of what she was doing, because I was afraid of being made fun of by my friends for speaking up, I decide not to say anything. “The victim effect, refers to people’s tendency to help specific, identifiable victims than to anonymous, statistical victims.” S. Lee & T. Hugh Feeley (2016). The identifiable victim effect demonstrates that our moral is not objective and are often impacted by empathy rather than rationality.
around and just think he/she can do it, always demonstrate the values and moral that your family taught you since you were young. References Psychology Today. (2020). Bystander Effect. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/bystander-effect Very Well Mind. Kendra Cherry. (2020). The Diffusion of Responsibility Concept in Psychology. Retrieved from https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-diffusion-of-responsibility- 2795095 SAGE Knowledge. Deborah A. Prentice. (2020). Pluralistic Ignorance. Retrieved from http://sk.sagepub.com/reference/socialpsychology/n402.xml Social Influence. Seyoung Lee & Thomas Hugh Feeley. (2016). The Identifiable Victim Effect: A Meta-Analytic Review. Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15534510.2016.1216891? src=recsys&journalCode=psif Grand Canyon University. Branscombe, N., & Baron, R. (2017). Social psychology. Boston, MA: Pearson Publishing. ISBN-13: 9780134410968. Retrieved from http://www.gcumedia.com/digital-resources/pearson/2016/social-psychology_ebook_14e.php Very Well Mind. Kendra Cherry. (2020). How Psychology Explains the Bystander Effect. Retrieved from https://www.verywellmind.com/the-bystander-effect-
