Why Do People Ignore People in Need of Help

Recently, there has been a video shared all over social media of a man stabbing a young girl in the neck while they were on a train. The people around the girl did nothing to stop or help her. It was shocking and disturbing to see. While reading through some of the comments, I noticed many people asking why or how people could sit around and do nothing. Maybe the explanation of the bystander effect could help others understand why this happens. Truth, is we don’t really know 100%, however, there has been studies on why this happens and have come up with the term: bystander effect.

The bystander effect is the phenomenon where a group of individuals ignore someone needing help due to the amount of people around. The bystander effect happens for different reasons, such as people not wanting to get involved or deal with what is going on.

Another reason is that people feel less responsible when there is a large group of people who are also not taking action to help the individual, which is known as diffusion of responsibility. The bystander effect is amplified by the amount of people in the group. The more people, the less guilt and pressure the group feels as opposed to a smaller group, which feels more pressure and guilt to help an individual.

Additionally, if someone looks rich or is part of a group, people are more likely to help them instead of those who look poor or who isn’t part of the same group.

Lastly, things such as not knowing medical knowledge, not wanting to get involved, or wanting to conform to the surrounding group mentality all contribute to the bystander effect.

The textbook, Social psychology, states that people also display, “pluralistic ignorance”: ignorance that others are thinking and feeling what we are. In emergencies, each person may think, “I’m very concerned,” but perceive others as calm — “so maybe it’s not an emergency” (Myers & Twenge, 2021, p.256). In other words, people will read the expressions of others surrounding the emergency to see how they should respond. If surrounding people are not openly showing concern, then neither will they. This is another reason the bystander effect occurs.

My Experience with the Bystander Effect

A time I witnessed the bystander effect was a few years ago when I was in Walmart with my ex-husband. We noticed a mother trying to get her daughter’s foot frantically unstuck from a shopping cart. The little girl was crying, and the mother started panicking. People kept passing them by without offering any help.

My ex and I ran over to help. I helped calm the little girl while my ex helped her mom get the daughter’s foot unstuck. The mother was very grateful. It was shocking to see how many people walked by the mother and the little girl. They said they had been there for about 30 minutes before we helped.

I believe I responded to the situation the way I did because I thought about how I would feel in that situation. If my son got his foot stuck in a shopping cart, and no one helped me. The young mother needed help, so we helped. There have been a few times I have witnessed the bystander effect, but this one stuck out to me the most.

I’ve also been on the opposite side and have seen someone in need of potential help but was unsure if they needed help or not and kept walking. I think I responded that way because the person did not look as distressed. However, looking back on the recent video, the young woman who was stabbed in the neck, did not freak out, and she lost her life because she went into shock. Everything happened very fast. Which goes to show when people are in shock they may not be able to ask for help.

Have you ever witnessed the bystander effect? Why do you think people ignore people in clear need of help?

References

Coolpsychologist. (2009, June 9). The bystander effect links to an external site. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSsPfbup0ac

khanacademymedicine. (2014, February 10). Bystander effectLinks to an external site. | Behavior | Khan Academy [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=175ig2I9rt0

Myers, D., & Twenge, J. (2021). Social psychology (14th ed.). McGraw-Hill Higher Education (US). https://yuzu.vitalsource.com/books/9781260888522