Bystander Effect

Definition

Individuals who see or hear an emergency (but are otherwise uninvolved) are called bystanders. The bystander effect describes the phenomenon in which such individuals are less likely to seek help or give assistance when others are present. This does not mean that bystanders are apathetic to the plight of others, for bystanders often show signs of distress, anxiety, and concern if they delay responding or fail to respond at all. It also does not necessarily mean that a victim will be less likely to receive help as the number of bystanders present increases—after all, the greater the number of other people present, the greater is the likelihood that at least one of them will intervene. In the event of a medical emergency, for instance, a larger group of bystanders is more likely to contain someone trained to administer appropriate first-aid measures. Rather, the term refers simply to any given individual bystander's diminished likelihood of offering help when part of a group.

Context and Importance

As she was returning to her apartment on March 13, 1964, at 3:30 a.m., a young woman named Kitty Genovese was attacked and killed in the Kew Gardens district of Queens, a borough of New York City. Up to 38 witnesses later admitted witnessing the attack from their apartments as it was taking place, but no one intervened or reported the attack. These witnesses certainly had ample opportunity to call the police—the attack lasted between 30 and 40 minutes. The public and the media wanted to know why. Analysts and news commentators tended to focus on stereotypes of New Yorkers as being uninterested or calloused and lacking concern for their fellow human beings; they saw the event as an outgrowth of the anonymity fostered by life in a very large city. Social psychologists Bibb Latané and John Darley did not find such explanations particularly compelling; they thought that perhaps any individual in a similar circumstance might have hesitated to help. They argued that, among other reasons, it was the knowledge that there were so many other potential helpers, ironically, that inhibited each bystander's willingness to act. Indeed, since the murder of Kitty Genovese, the bystander effect has been observed literally dozens upon dozens of times in many other cities and countries, and it is not unique to New York. On November 7, 2004, in Corona, California, for instance, a security camera at a mall parking lot recorded two men kidnapping a woman. The men chased a woman around the parking lot, carrying her back to the car where the men then proceeded to stuff her into the trunk of the vehicle. The camera also recorded the images of a [Page 133]dozen bystanders scattered throughout the scene and at various stages of the kidnapping. Several bystanders turned their heads to watch the incident, but none of them called the police or went to the woman's aid. The security camera even recorded automobiles that drove past without slowing down to help the screaming woman as she was being stuffed into the trunk.

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