People are crazy. In the video above a disturbing picture is shown on how people react to someone in a painful situation. An Actor plays an act of being sick and lays on the ground in a populated area in London. There he scream for help for 20 minutes straight begging for help. No one stops by and helps the young gentleman on the ground. Only after 20 minutes does he finally get up off the ground, but without any help. Why did no one stop and ask him what was wrong?
The bystander effect is an extremely interesting concept. Isn’t it human nature to help someone who’s in need? One would sure think so. In the latter half of the video, two more examples are shown. One of which is of a woman actor who pretends to be in pain. She is dressed casually and also lays on the ground asking for help. This time a man walks up to her asking if she needs help, but only after four minutes of laying down on the concrete. I believe he goes out to help her only because she’s a woman.
The third and final example in the video is of the same male actor as before, but this time he is dressed as a business man, and wears a suit. Here it takes six seconds for someone to help him! Only because he was dressed as a business man! The person who comes and helps him even addresses him as sir.
This video is scary and actually shows how very strange human psyche and people really are. Are people really that shallow that they would only help someone of a higher social class or status?
Something to think about.
By David Bassin
Perhaps the most famous example of the bystander effect is the case of Kitty Genovese, who pled for help while an assailant stabbed her to death, and the surrounding neighbors did not respond to the screams. The diffusion of responsibility is highly relevant in both Genovese’s murder and the experiment in this video. This concept states that one is less likely to help when there are more people in the area, a negative correlation. This is due to the assumption that another person will respond accordingly to the situation, so one does not need to act. As such, when there are many people in the area with the same thoughts, it leads to inaction.
The use of different clothing in this video is also interesting. It is possible that people automatically made assumptions about the actor due to his shabby appearance, resulting in the inaction of the bystanders. When he was in business attire however, a person can assume that he is well respected and works in a professional field. Helping him in this case, will unlikely lead to negative consequences as opposed to the former shabby appearance situation, where the people will be cautious about his background.
I do not believe that people are shallow, as there are many variables to consider in these situations. The manipulation of these variables can lead to different results, and it will be truly frightening for a person who is knowledgeable about these factors to use it for his own benefits. For a person who is a bystander in the situation however, it is impossible to analyze these variables.
Bystander effect seems not a country issues, it is the whole human being’s issues. Another story I had seen in China which was about two years old toddler, who was hit by a vehicle. But the hit-and-run accident was only the introduction to a shocking scene, in which 18 pedestrian passengers ignored the injured child and walked away, before a 57 years old woman, noticed the child while she was collecting trash, picked the kid up and looked for her parents. We can see the cold indifference of the passengers, and nobody care about the kid.
Sometimes we may come up the questions about what went wrong? How come nobody noticed others? Is it a matter of lack of attention? Does it have to do with the culture? Are people lacking minimal compassion?
The event is the similar as Kitty Genovese event which last person have mentioned which is a young woman named Kitty Genovese was attacked, sexually assaulted, then murdered in front of her apartment building in Queens, N.Y., in full view or hearing of 38 witnesses. Though the assault took over half an hour, not one of the witnesses moved to help or even to call the police. The murder of Genovese is held up as an example of public callousness in an urban setting to this day.
We need to think about what we need to do for people who are in need. A lot people who don’t help people are because they want to protect themselves. However, it is really good for our society. We need to think about it.
Bystander effect is the idea that we are more willing to help others when we are alone. When we are in group we like to be part of the group not stand out in front of the group we always want to feel a sense of belonging. Also when we are in groups we diffuse responsibilities, we make others responsible from one person to the next. So when we are in the streets with a group of people we are advice to make eye contact with one specific person and ask for help to that person in specific. That way that person will feel directly responsible for your health and get you help.
I don’t totally agree with the video where the actor in a suit gets help within a few seconds. In the city like our city NYC in the trains anyone can be dressed in a suit and won’t get help so soon but, for sure the person will get help where as a homeless will most likely get none. People are always involved in their own lives and don’t feel guilty because they are doing what everyone else is doing. Other factors that we face in big cities where we are constantly in crowds can also prevent us from helping others, which is probably what happened where the guy in the suit was helped. People put themselves in his position because he looked well dressed maybe like one of them thus felt more sympathy towards him. Factors such as your mood, your perception of the person asking for help can also influence a person reaction.
The Kitty Genovese case can prove this. In New York City 1964 Genovese was killed cruelly in the streets while 38 people watched from their apartment and none moved a finger to assist her. Their responsibility as citizens and human were diffused from one person to the next. At that moment each person watched an expected someone to help but no one really took the responsibility to do it. She died and no one really helped. At this moment most crimes are committed in front of others, our communities are not safer because we see but don’t help. Criminals know that we react this way they do whatever they want murder, robbery, domestic violence and no one responds. That’s how we are set to be and react and I don’t blame ourselves staying out of criminal situations gives us a sense of safety which is something we always long to have.
I have seen countless people on the street in need of help here in New York City. Most of them beg day by day to receive petty change to have at least some money to survive. Even though they beg endlessly on the streets, I never see anyone actually offer to help them, people actually just ignore them because either they do not have enough time or they do not want to be troubled. I’m not saying that I am not one of these people, I too ignore people on the streets when they ask for money because I really don’t want to be troubled by their problems. This seems incredibly selfish and mean but as the Bystander Effect states, if people don’t see anyone else help the person in need then they’re most likely not to assist them either.
This is a sociological problem as much as it is a psychological problem. Society nowadays is so focused on their own lives that there really isn’t a sense of community anymore because everyone just does their own thing. People ignore other people because they say to themselves “This really isn’t my problem so I shouldn’t get involved.” Although I believe this really only happens in big cities where there are thousands of people on the streets at one time, I think that if there is a person who is calling for help lying on the concrete that people should assist him even though there are other people around.
I found this issue astonishing when I first learned about it during my Psychology course, and even more amazing after I began to recognize and witness it as a traveled from place to place, especially here in brutal New York City. Nonetheless, with a combination from topics we’ve discussed in sociology and you resurfacing the bystander issue, its mind boggling how while we’re alone we’re more likely to help one who may be in need of assistance, as oppose to us traveling in a group where we’ll almost always try to ignore the situation. But why though? Is it because when we travel in groups we either think someone else will help, “it’s not my problem” or if everyone else walks by its not so bad if I do as well. Therefore, how does traveling alone change the outcome of the situation? Perhaps we tend to feel more sympathy for people in visible need when we not surrounded by a large crowd of people or possibly we don’t want to appear so self-centered and create a guilty conscious by not assisting someone as we walk directly by them by ourselves. Needless to say, I am too guilty of walking directly by people and ironically my excuse is always “I’m too busy, I’m sure someone else will help.” As the video states, in large urban cities such as New York cities, my excuse is probably largely similar to others. For instance when riding the train, there’s always someone who enters the car with the typical sob story and everyone is reluctant to go in their wallets and give them unneeded change, we all turn up the volume in our head phones and act as if nothing is happening. Yet, when it isn’t rush hour and we’re on the train with far less people, we tend to be a little less hesitant in going in our wallets. There is a lot of empty seats and it’s harder to turn up the volume and blend in with the crowd. What a world we live in to say the least.
We can see the different appearance may directly represent the different social class and indirectly hint the various social value or status behind clothes. How could people unconsciously evaluate those differently? I can’t find the answer till today, professor brought an interesting topic of “Mass media images of working class,” which often portrayed as Having “odd lifestyle” or personal problems. People may accept this judgment nonconscious into mind, and then they choose the “Bystander” attitude to that male actor without any response. On the second time, his business suits portrayed the middle class, which is the normal group. People have the positive impression on this group, at least better image than working class. And then, they like to offer a hand to him. The most interesting part is one lady speaks out he is an American once that actor says a word. What does “American businessman” mean or value to the London people? In my knowledge, the most professional people are self-employee. Those own power besides the wealth. Maybe those cultural images drive those people react in the opposite way. So we can see how important a media can influent people’s thinking and judgments.
Another interesting part is that female actor. The first helper is a constructor, a working class. How ironic it is! Based on professor’s lecture, most working class may only have H.S. education. What can education bring to us besides the higher status with power? How about their moral? We can see many financial cheating among some famous company, especially the case of “tax heaven” for the multinational companies. It seems not match that “I”(evil) go first, and then “me”(angel) appears. Related to this, a very famous Chinese ancient thinker, Lao Tzu thought people were born with “me”( Angel) . However, they might be “I”(evil), which had some bad habit or behavior if they weren’t be morally taught.
As many others here have pointed out, we want to feel like we are part of the group. We always want to fit in and belong in the society, not outside of it. I think that when we see someone in need of assistance on the street we often pretend that we didn’t see them or as the video says we leave the situation to others to handle. I think this should change and we should be more caring for strangers especially those in a serious need.
When someone is hurt and in pain on the street we don’t have to go over to them all we have to do is take out the phone and dial 911. Tell the people who deal with these types of situations that there is someone in need and you indirectly helped someone out in need. All it takes is a bit of an incentive and we as individuals can help others.
You don’t have to be the hero and help everyone, all it takes is to step out of the group for a minute and say I will help you. Society is like a herd of sheep’s blindly following each other we can sometimes step out and say or do something that will be different. I think that helping others in the first step we need to take to change as a society and not look at everything with a blind eye. As I’ve said before all it takes is a little incentive and the will to help when someone is in a serious need. At the end of the day you will not regret it.