3 ways in which the bystander apathy effect might be reduced.?

Question

Support answer by referring to psychological theory and evidence.

Answer 1

The website and Angel's answers give some decent information.

The Kitty Genovese incident actually took over half an hour -- and three separate attacks -- before she was dead. She cried for help, lights came on, people yelled down, and the attacker fled. When no one responded, he came back and continued the attack. Same thing, one more time, and finally she had bled to death.

People WERE concerned -- but they weren't quite sure what was happening, it was the middle of the night in a city, and since the commotion died down each time, they decided it wasn't worth investigation.

The Darley and Latane study (where subjects were put in a room by themselves, listening to a discourse over the intercom, and one of the speakers would eventually feign a seizure) showed a number of things:

1. People who thought they were the only ones who could hear the person having the seizure were much more liable to try to help the person.

2. People who thought others were listening as well were less inclined to look for help.

3. The seriousness of the incident would raise someone's inclination to help. (i.e., the more life-threatening the situation seemed to be for the victim, the more someone would try to help).

Basically, the problem is a diffusion of responsibility. The more people who are nearby, the more likely it is that they will not take charge and will wait for someone else to do something. No one is sure if they are "in charge" -- and so NO one is.

While there might be egoism (self-interest / self-protection) involved, bystander apathy very much is impacted by how many people are nearby when the emergency happens. Another study showed that people are less likely to even *save themselves* if the group seems to think there is no danger.

In this study, the subject was given a test in a room with a vent. During the test, smoke/fog was sent through the vent into the room -- a lot of it -- and the person's reaction was monitored.

When the subject was alone, they were much more likely to investigate the vent and then go for help / leave the room. When other people were in the room and acted as if nothing was wrong (i.e., they ignored the smoke and kept doing their test), the person was much more inclined to decide "it was nothing" and continue taking their test.

So it seems we look for "cues" in other people, to help us determine how to act in certain situations. (It's sad to imagine that this probably occurred at the World Trade Center -- when, after the plane crashes, people watched others go back to their offices and so did the same thing, and thus were caught when the buildings fell.)

Three ways to reduce it?

* Positive modeling by adults. Take responsibility yourself for something that happens around you, even when it's not clear if someone else might intervene. Be a leader. When you take action, some other people will follow.

* Raise awareness. Educate people about "bystander apathy" and roleplay common scenarios -- once they are aware of why they're behaving a certain way, they at least have the potential to recall this in an emergency and choose to act rather than waiting.

* Work to build a sense of community/unity. When people feel connected to others and/or things become personal, they are more inclined to act. If our child was in trouble, we would react instantly. We need to see other people as "related to us" just by being human, and so we will be more apt to respond to their distress. This is harder to work on, because it's an attitude, but it would really help.

Answer 2

The website that the first answer gave is quite good. Another way is to teach people if they are a victim of crime and there is a crowd, instead of just yelling for help, which then leads to bystander apathy or the Genovese effect then they have to pinpoint one person in the crowd and ask for help. This places the emphasis on that person alone. Who in turn then cannot look to others in the crowd to help.

Answer 3

People are reluctant to get involved, try being a witness to an accident, after you've been questioned, cross examined, called a liar, lost time from work, been inconvenienced and kept hanging around for ages, you'll wish you'd looked the other way.

Answer 4

1 Shoot a few of them.
2 Shoot a few more
3 Shoot yourself

Answer 5

http://virgil.azwestern.edu/~dag/lol/BystanderApathy.html