If you were being attacked in public, would you rather have 20 people around or just one? You would think the chances that someone would intervene or call for help would increase with more people around, but countless incidents and psychological studies have actually shown the opposite; the more bystanders there are, the less likely any of them will help. Psychologists refer to this as the bystander effect. The bystander effect is counterintuitive and can be hard to believe, but there is a lot of real-world and research data to support it. Let's look at a few reasons that contribute to the bystander effect.
Ambiguity
One reason people do not intervene is that they are unsure if the situation warrants their help or intervention. The ambiguity of the situation makes people less likely to help. After the fact, it is very clear that a situation was an emergency or tragedy, but it is not always so clear when the situation is happening. As we go about our daily lives, we do not anticipate encountering these types of situations, and so our tendency is to assume that things are okay and go about our lives. Additionally, people do not want to look like a "fool" and think something is wrong when, in fact, everything is fine. As a result, when people are not sure if something is wrong, they tend to remain silent. This pressure appears to be even stronger in men, as they don't want to appear weak or scared in a situation. Our general preference is to look like we think everything is okay on the outside, even if we are unsure on the inside.
The ambiguity factor is further reinforced when other people are around, as when things are unclear to us we assume that other people know more about the situation than we do. The result is that everyone is waiting to respond while looking at those around them to determine what to do. Unfortunately, since they are doing the same thing, everyone assumes that no one is responding because nothing is wrong and the result is that no one intervenes. This is a form of what psychologists call pluralistic ignorance, as individuals assume that others are not intervening because they know more than they do, when in fact they are equally as ignorant. Everyone thinks that something might be wrong in their head, but when they look to others and see they are not reacting, they assume everyone believes nothing is wrong. This is why more bystanders can actually be a bad thing.
Diffusion of Responsibility
Another contributing factor is the diffusion of responsibility. When other people are around, individuals feel less responsible to help or intervene because they assume someone else will. Unfortunately, what tends to happen is that everyone has this thought and no one responds. This is why in CPR training, they tell you to point to someone specific and ask them to call 911, rather than saying "somebody call 911." They know that the "somebody" can easily turn into "nobody." By pointing to someone and asking them specifically to make the call, the diffusion of responsibility will no longer be at play and they will take ownership of that responsibility. Unfortunately, when we are not singled out in this way, we tend to assume someone else will take action.
Although this may all seem a little disheartening, here is the good news. Like many social psychology phenomena, knowledge and awareness of the bystander effect can actually help us overcome it. By understanding that we tend to think everything is okay in an ambiguous situation, we can risk looking like a "fool" and ask someone if they need our help. By knowing that the other people around us may know just as little as we do, we can be the first to ask if something is wrong. And by understanding our tendency to assume that someone else will take responsibility, we can jump to action and remember that we can only be sure something is done if we do it ourselves. The actual effect of the bystander effect will decrease as more bystanders (citizens) are aware of it.
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