The Bystander Effect

The Bystander Effect is when there is a large group of people and someone needs help people are less likely to help compared to when there are a smaller group of people. Say you are in a group of 10 people and you see someone struggle, to maybe put up a tent, you are less likely to help that person, you may help eventually, but not as fast as you would have in a group of say 2 or if it was just you and that person. This is because of the Diffusion of Responsibility this is basically when you see someone struggling and you are in a large group you think to yourself ‘someone else will help I don’t have to do anything’ the only problem is that everyone is thinking that so no one helps. I find this fascinating because I like to think that if I need help someone will see me struggle and help and I like to think that I will do the same. But most of the time it doesn’t work like that because we see people struggle, then we look around and see that no one else is helping, you know that if you help everyone will look at you and you don’t necessarily want that so I think it has a bit to do with being part of the crowd and not wanting to draw attention to yourself. I find this topic fascinating and I encourage you to look into it yourself.