Chapter 4
Summary
This chapter discusses the bystander effect and the phenomenon of diffusion of responsibility. It tells the story of Kitty Genovese and then explains the studies that followed by Darley and Latane. One particular study they did was interview college students. One student (the subject) sat in a room while all the others were prerecorded. Each student could only speak when it was their turn. One of the prerecorded students had a seizure, and Darley and Latane waited to see what the actual student will do. Thirty-one percent reacted when they thought there were other students hearing the same thing. However, eighty-five of students who thought they were alone with the one having the seizure sought help within the first three minutes.
Discussion
Like most of these chapters so far, we discussed this in my psychology class last semester. Another example of the bystander effect occurred at a bar in which a girl was sexually assaulted in front of everyone at the bar and no one did anything to stop it from happening. The girl called the police and a taxi on her own after everything was over with.
The author mentions that we need to be educated on this when we learn things like CPR and first aid. My mom is a Red Cross instructor and while she doesn’t mention the “bystander effect,” she does go into it in much fewer words and helps to train people to take charge and give orders like “you call 911” or “you help me turn him over.” People don’t often know what to do in these circumstances and they look to others to see what they’re doing. If everyone is doing nothing, then they will do nothing too unless given an order.
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