The Bystander Effect

different times) act as if they were is a lot of pain or a drunk. The test was to see how long it took

The presence of other individuals in an emergency situation tends to make people less likely to help a victim. This is known as the bystander effect. Having others around you makes you feel less responsibility and want to make the correct social decision. If a person were by himself or herself, this effect would not happen because they are not feeling judgment of those around and all the accountability is on them. The articles for this paper look at experiments conducted to test the bystander effect and how participants act according to social norms. For example, the murder of a woman in the middle of a New York street took place and not one of the thirty-eight witnesses helped her. This may seem insane but research shows most people would react the same. Social and group norms have a great influence on the social psychological concept of the bystander effect. This concept has been thought to happen due to factors of diffusion of responsibility, social influence, audience inhibition, and an overall lack of a sense of community (Chekroun, P., 2002).

Kitty Genovese was a woman from New York City who was stabbed to death three separate times outside her apartment building in Kew Gardens. The first two times being outside her apartment, and finally finishing her off the assailant returned stabbing her on the floor at the foot of the stairs. Much controversy arose from the Kitty Genovese murder, due to how public the murder was, and how no one stood up for her, or even alerted the police. After Kitty Genovese’s murder, questions began to arise, why didn't anyone take action, how was the assailant able to stab her three times in public, and why weren't the police or ambulances called sooner? All these questions could be answered by a syndrome, titled after the Kitty Genovese murder, as the “Bystander Effect”.

Because we are more likely to help those that are similar to us, we are more likely to help those that are of the same race as us. According to Marsh and Keltner (2006), “Research has shown that people are more likely to help those they perceive to be similar to them, including others from their own racial or ethnic groups. We don’t like to discover that our propensity for altruism can depend on prejudice…” We can connect the evidence provided to explain issues of the bystander effect and racism. For example, when people witness a situation of racism, they are probably only going to help if it is someone from the same racial group. However, if it were someone foreign to his or her group, then that would ignore the issue and not step in. Regarding the Holocaust and many other world issues, people probably did not care for it or paid attention because it did not concern people of their own kind. However, once an issue hits their own country/social group, then people will be quick to offer as much help as possible. I believe that this mentality is a part of the racism issue our society faces; we prefer to only help people of our own kind. If people continue to carry this mentality, then we will never get over our differences in order to help others. But if the world can come together and put those racial differences aside, then we can possibly live in a world with less conflict as we strive to help one another and live in peace.

Darley and Latane, use the concept of diffusion of responsibility to explain the psychology behind why no one stepped in to help in either scenarios. According to Slater, diffusion of responsibility is explained as “The more people witnessing an event, the less responsible any one individual feels and, indeed, is because responsibility is evenly distributed among the crowd” (Slater, 102). Basically, the greater amount of spectators decreases the chances for the an individual to aid the victim in an emergency situation. A sole witness is less likely to respond if there are multiple witnesses around in comparison to scenario being one on one. The reason being that, the individual no longer feels as though they are the only ones responsible considering multiple witnesses are now as involved as they are.

On March 13, 1964, a woman by the name of Kitty Genovese was walking towards her apartment-complex in New York City, when suddenly she was fatally stabbed on different occasions by a man named Winston Moseley. As she screamed and begged for people to help, her neighbors just stood and idly watched the incident. The neighbors were well aware of her situation due to her screams and some even watched the incident happen. There were 38 witnesses to the event, and no phone calls were made, until after her death. Why do you think no one helped? Why did her neighbors watch? What could have changed the outcome?

For the past 25 years in Chicago, an average of one child has been killed per week (Ansari, 1), but the violence does not stop with children. In 2016 alone, there were, “762 murders, 3,550 shooting incidents, and 4,331 shooting victims” (Caputo, 2). While the murder rate has remained exceedingly high over the decades, and spiked in recent years, the willingness of witnesses to provide police with information remains at an all-time low, and approximately 80% of all cases have no workable leads (Shaper, 2). Which begs the question, “Why will no one help put away the perpetrators?” Theorists, and especially the police, explain that witnesses of crimes pretend they see nothing because of the culture of “do not snitch” (Simon, Exploring).

If only one person, just one, had dialed police and reported the crime scene, Catherine “kitty” Genovese would have had more years to live. But biggest mystery is, why did non even a one of the thirty-eight witnesses make the phone call? It was not a small number of people which became a huge question not only to police and reporters, but to the society as well. As we read or watched this news, most of us probably had a thought, “If I had been there, had witnessed the crime, I would make the call right away.” That is what I thought too, but would really make the phone call if you were one of the witnesses? Because it is easier to say it out loud rather than actually to do it.

Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love as the people say, but is it full of love? That’s the question everyone thinks about nowadays. On the northside of Philadelphia, the cost of speaking out against violence might be risking your life. But keeping quiet has a steep price too, in this part of the city. Having to live in this neighborhood may seem like any other neighborhood, kids running around playing but, that's to say the least. Homicide is the topic that is mostly talked about in this community where gangs, drugs and gun control are talked about in the community as well as, their freedom of speech. A community where someone's death is talked about than what they are planning to do for summer break.

A haunting story that will always stay stagnant through time is the case of Kitty Genovese, a young woman living in New York. In March of 1964 she was walking home in the early morning from work. A man under the name of Winston Moseley followed her with his car, eventually got out, chased after her, and stabbed her multiple times. She cried for help to any and all neighbors living in her apartment complex, one man even yelling at Winston to leave her alone. None of them, for that matter, called the police. As he continued to stab her, he raped her. Then he laid her body on the side of the road, and left. This was the first case to coin the term ‘bystander effect’. Thirty-eight witnesses watched and heard her cries for help, none of them deciding

The events leading to the 38 people who didn’t report a murder was horrifying. 38 cold-blooded bystanders didn’t intervene or report the stabbings watched as Catherine Genovese was stabbed 3 times and found dead. A community like this should be more involved in taking action when observing violent or life threatening combats between other people. Martin Gansberg’s, the author, purpose of writing this essay is to persuade readers in order to make changes in our society’s mindset on public safety. His proposed readers were towards anyone in general, especially to those who may witness violent quarrels between other people. This story spooked me because citizens in a community are supposed to back each other up in times of need. Because this is a true story this makes me have doubt of the people in my community, if anything happened to me. I strongly believe in times like this, a community must take some sort of action when they see a bystander in a deadly

When a homeless man is on the block asking for a dollar, we give him one. So why is it when somebody is laying on the ground, passed out or dead, that we don’t see if their ok? If you see a young lady getting hit by a young male do you just stand there or do you help? Martin Gansberg writes a story of a woman who’s getting off work, and gets home in a man has on his mind to take her life that night, and how people that saw it but did nothing but thought it was her in her boyfriend having agreement. This essay will summarize Gansberg

I believe that I have seen the possibility for the bystander effect when someone is injured. I play ultimate frisbee, and the closer knit the group is the more unlikely for the bystander effect to be observed when someone is hurt (closeness can be seen when people are talking to each other/participating in rituals).

The case with the policeman killing a young man in a street gives us a background for 360 degree analysis from the point of social psychology. First of all it is important to mention the construct of power which Philip Zimbardo studied precisely (Aronson, 2007, p.10-11). In the Stanford experiment he proves that people, who get power, are likely to overuse it and act in a cruel way. This reflects the situation when the police officer overuses his rights and kills Raheem. Another worthy phenomena in this context is the uninvolved bystander as conformist phenomenon. This concept appeared after a young woman was killed in a street thein a full view of the neighborhood (Aronson, 2007, p.49). No one called police back then and no one tried to help

A short story is a work of fiction and it focuses on 1 or 2 main characters and on a single problem or conflict. To understand a short story you can look for four elements to help, setting, character, theme, and plot.