Bystander Effect

I feel as though this happens quite often...like, an every day occurrence. I've been both the bystander and the one looking for assistance from a bystander. The bystander effect is the tendency for someone to be less likely to help another if there are other people present. Why do we automatically assume that the other person is going to help?

In a situation where help is needed and there are multiple people present, there is a diffusion of responsibility. This means that each person feels that they hold little responsibility for helping the person simply because other people are there to help. If there was one individual, the chances of them helping would raise.

Another example that I didn't think of was explained in this article. If nobody else is helping, this is seen as socially acceptable behavior. We assume that since nobody else is helping, help must not be necessary or appropriate.

Collin, Emily, and I did our "Try It Project" on the bystander effect. Diffusion of responsibility was apparent quite a bit. Results also varied depending on the gender of the people, which ties a little bit into the socially acceptable aspect. Girls typically would not help Collin, whereas Emily was helped every time. That may be because they believe that men are perfectly capable of helping themselves. Mr. Dreier is not immune to the bystander effect. He blatantly refused to help Collin when he dropped all his pencils in front of him. Bit rude, don't you think?