Bystander Roles

The bystander effect occurs when the presence of others discourages an individual from intervening in an emergency situation, against a bully, or during an assault or other crime. The greater the number of bystanders, the less likely it is for any one of them to provide help to a person in distress.

Bystander effect, the inhibiting influence of the presence of others on a person’s willingness to help someone in need. Research has shown that, even in an emergency, a bystander is less likely to extend help when he or she is in the real or imagined presence of others than when he or she is alone.

• Outsiders witness the bullying situation, but stay out of it and do not get involved.
• Defenders help by intervening when bullying occurs1 or extend support to the person being bullied – privately or in the moment – or take other actions to address the bullying.

The diffusion of responsibility can also pop up in work environments. For example, you might notice that an entry-level worker is being mistreated in some way. Perhaps they are being overworked, underpaid, or harassed. The witnesses did not call for help or try to aid Kitty due to the diffusion of responsibility.

A responsibility is something you are expected to do. A responsibility might be a task you are expected to do. For example, your parents expect you to brush your teeth. Brushing your teeth is “a responsibility” and it is your responsibility to brush your teeth every day.

Here are some waysto overcome diffusion of responsibility:

1. Cultivate empathy with the individuals in distress.
2. Focus on addressing individuals rather than groups of people.
3. Provide greater incentives and rewards to encourage accountability.

Here are tips on how to overcome the pull of the bystander effect:

1. If you’re in trouble, pick out one person in the crowd.
2. If you’re a bystander, take action.
3. Take advantage of our natural tendencies toward altruism.
4. Try not to worry about the consequences of helping.
5. Model altruism and helping to the young.

A strength of the sample is that it was fairly large This is a strength as it means that the study has external validity. However, the study is ethnocentric – This is a limitation because it means that we cannot generalise from the sample due to cultural bias- the sample is unrepresentative…

After passing the first station (approximately 70 secs) the victim collapsed. In the “no help” condition, the model did nothing until the train slowed to stop, and then helped the victim to his feet.

Piliavin et al. (1969) put forward the cost–reward arousal model as a major alternative to the decision model and state it represents a ‘fine tuning’ of the earlier model. In a similar fashion to Latané and Darley’s decision helping model, it has two stages that occur before we either help or don’t help.

Conclusions: Piliavin proposes the arousal: cost-reward model, a way of predicting the helping behaviour in emergency situations. Arousal is reduced by helping (directly/indirectly), leaving the scene of the emergency or rejecting the victim as undeserving of help.

During 103 victim trials, observers recorded number and race of participants (approximately 4,450 men and women travellers, approximately 45% black, 55% white), latency (time) to help, race and sex of helper, number of helpers, movement away from ‘critical area’ and comments made.

The arousal: cost-reward model predicts that individuals will be most likely to help in a situation when the costs of helping are the lowest; conversely, individuals will be least likely to help when the costs of helping are the highest.

in social psychology, a model that attempts to explain helping behavior in terms of the reinforcements and costs associated with specific helping actions. Also called cost–benefit analysis. …

Empathy-altruism is a form of altruism based on feelings for others. According to his ’empathy-altruism hypothesis’, if someone feels empathy towards another person, they will help them, regardless of what they can gain from it (1991).

The main difference between altruism and empathy is that altruism refers to the disinterested and selfless concern for the well-being of others while empathy is the ability to understand the circumstance of someone as your own. Altruism and empathy are related emotions.

The Empathy Joy hypothesis states that the reason for someone helping another in need are positive feelings associated with the altruistic behavior. Helping others is a reward in itself because it brings a person happiness and joy when they commit a helping behavior.

However, the research is equally clear that humans are—at least in certain circumstances—capable of genuine altruism. Specifically, the conditions that promote empathy for another will also promote altruism, and the goal of this motive is to protect or promote the welfare of someone other than oneself.

Behavior is normally described as altruistic when it is motivated by a desire to benefit someone other than oneself for that person’s sake. The term is used as the contrary of “self-interested” or “selfish” or “egoistic”—words applied to behavior that is motivated solely by the desire to benefit oneself.