7th APRIL 2020 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY MONDAY
KUSHAGRA PRASAD
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR (SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY)
DBRANLU, SONEPAT
RESPONDING TO AN EMERGENCY: WILL BYSTANDERS HELP?
The following topic will take into account various examples and through those
examples, you will be able to make a sense of what exactly is Bystanders Effect.
Suppose you are walking down a lane and trip and you injure your knee and elbow.
The pain is so much that you can’t get back on your feet.
Now think of 2 scenarios associated with it. 1.) The street is deserted and there is
only one person out there 2.) The street is full of dozens of people.
In which situation do you think help will be provided to you? Normally, we may
argue that more the people, more would be the chances of getting any kind of help
because at least one of dozens of people will come forward and help.
Using this hypothesis, we can conclude that chances of getting help when there isa
good number of people are more.
Darley-Latane Study on famous murder in NYC. Kitty Genovese’ murder case. A man
assaulted the woman on the street and a good number of people looked out of their
windows and no one rushed to help or call the police.
Diffusion of Responsibility- A principle suggesting that the greater the number of
witness to an emergency the less likely victims are to receive help. This is because
each bystander assumes that someone else will do it.
Example of Student having a seizure, beginning to choke and in need of help. The
greater the number of witnesses to a staged emergency where the student had a
seizure, the less likely they were to help the apparent victim. Illustrating Diffusion of
Responsibility in such situations.
Other factors also influence why we tend to help others. Studies have pointed to the
fact that race and ethnicity of the victim and the helper may play a role when it
comes to demonstrating any kind of prosocial behaviour.
UNDERSTANDING THE BYSTANDER’S EFFECT
The applicability of the Bystander’s effect- Five crucial steps/factors in determining if
you would help or not.
NOTICING/FAILING TO NOTICE- Happens when we are sleeping/deep in some
thought/concentrating too much etc and simply fail to notice that something
unusual is happening.
CORRECTLY INTERPRETING AN EVEN AS AN EMERGENCY- We fail to gauge the event
of an emergency. When there is any kind of ambiguity, people tend to take no action
in that situation. Pluralistic Ignorance- Refers to the fact that because none of the
bystanders responds to an emergency, no one knows for sure what is happening and
each depends on the others to interpret the situation.
DECIDING THAT IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO PROVIDE HELP- If responsibility is no
clear, people assume that anyone in a leadership role must take responsibility.
DECIDING THAT YOU HAVE THE KNOWLEDGE AND/OR SKILLS TO ACT- Even if the
person goes till first 3 steps and assumes responsibility he still can’t act unless he
knows how to be helpful.
MAKING THE FINAL DECISION TO PROVIDE HELP- Helping someone in need has the
last step- to work on “cognitive algebra” and engage in positive or negative
consequences of helping someone.
FACTORS THAT INCREASE OR DECREASE THE TENDENCY TO HELP
We are more likely to help the ones who are similar to us. This leads to lower
tendencies to help people outside our own social groups.
We tend to help those who were not responsible for their current need for help.
(example- drunkard vs Someone wearing three piece and lying brutally injured).
Helping is increased by exposure to prosocial; models, it can also be increased by
playing prosocial video games. Priming of the thoughts and prosocial behaviour
related to it.
Gratitude- Feeling of self-worth over here.
Exposure to the live prosocial models- if you see someone putting money in dan-patr
, you would be doing the same thing as well.