A Clear Case of the Bystander Effect?
You may have heard that recently a man was pushed onto the tracks of an oncoming subway train and that no one reached out a hand to help the man get back onto the platform. Not only that, but a photographer snapped a picture of the man as he desperately tried to get back onto the platform. [Here is a link to the photo, which should also appear below.]
Why didn’t anyone help? This real life story has many similarities to the infamous story of Kitty Genovese who was attacked and killed in NYC in the early ‘60s while many people heard her screams but did not help.
Your first reaction might be that of many others who read these stories; that people are callous – especially people who live in cities, or that the photographer was uncaring and more interested in getting a picture that would make him rich than he was in doing the right thing.
Bibb Latane and John Darley, psychologists who studied bystander intervention, might say that this is a clear example of diffusion of responsibility: all the onlookers are shocked, but they’re thinking that someone else – perhaps a police office – will jump in to help.
When we read about a story like this we often think we would not just stand by – we would help. But when things like this happen the chaos and confusion of the situation often make people behave quite differently than they might like.
There is also a connection here to the idea of the fundamental attribution error: our reaction to what the photographer did (or didn’t do) might be to think that he’s “immoral” or “selfish”. We’re attributing his actions to an internal cause – his personality. The photographer, however, attributes his behavior to an external cause – despite what the picture shows, he was actually too far away to help the man.
Here’s another connection to an important concept in psychology: blaming the victim. If you read the full story about the incident you would learn that the victim left home that morning drunk and that police found a bottle of vodka on his body. Learning this, you might say to yourself that maybe he was partly to blame for what happened to him. After all, he shouldn’t have been drunk.
Psychologists would say that we don’t like to think that we too could be victims of something bizarre and somewhat random like what happened here, so we are motivated to blame victims as a way of protecting ourselves from the anxiety involved with thinking that we might be victims ourselves.
It’s a disturbing story, but one worth discussing with students and helping them understand the many different psychological principles that could be applied here.
PS: Here's another wrinkle: the photographer who took the dramatic photo later said that he was not deliberately taking a picture of the man on the tracks anyway. He was flashing his camera in an attempt to alert the conductor that there was something wrong. The pictures that came out of this act were just an accident.
Also, many people on the platform were shouting at the conductor to stop while others ran to the ticket booth to tell that person to contact the conductor to tell him to call the conductor and tell him to stop.
So perhaps people did try to help after all – just not the way we think we would have done if we were there. But what would you really have done in this upsetting situation?
By the way, not everything you read or heard about the famous “Kitty Genovese” story is true. Listen to this episode from The Psych Files podcast: “Kitty Genovese – What Really Happened?” http://www.thepsychfiles.com/2007/11/episode-36-the-myth-of-the-kitty-genovese-story/
Due to the bystander effect, in Lifeguard training, we are told to pick a specific person and tell them to call 911, instead of just yelling to a crowd to call, because there have been too many incidences where bystanders have not called.
ReplyDeleteI think that it doesn't make sense for the cameraman to say he was taking a picture so the conductor could see the flash. Since when has a flash of a camerra been used to signify that something has gone wrong or that someone might have fallen down onto the tracks? This was a clear example of the bystander effect--people tend to be less likely to give aid to someone if other bystanders are around. This is exactly what happened with this situation, and unfortunately someone lost their life because of it.
ReplyDeleteI do not think this case shows the bystander effect. Rather i think it was a case of poor actions on behalf of the helpers. people shouted at the operator of the train to stop, they should have known that the driver could not hear them. Also i am not sure about the speed or braking time of the subway car but i would think that the driver would not have enough time to stop the car by the time he saw the people shouting. Also the statement that the flash would be a signal to the driver is far fetched. there is no way that the driver could have known what the flash meant.
ReplyDeleteI see the bystander effect a lot, especially when you go to sporting events such as the Reds game. When you are walking down the road to the field, you tend to see several homeless people on the side of the road, begging for spare change. You always think that someone else is going to give them money so you just keep walking by, trying not to glance. In actuality though, that person behind you thinks the same thing, so they continue to walk by as well, and so the bystander effect begins. The homeless people are left with barely any money.
ReplyDeleteI think that people may have been hesitant to help because they did not want to be blamed for his death if they were unable to pull him up. Thus, the bystander effect. It is also kind of ironic that people are criticizing these people for not helping when if they had been in the same situation, would probably have done the same thing. All it takes is one person to try.
ReplyDeletei can see this going both ways; it could be that nobody wanted to risk their own lives to save this drunken stranger, i mean, can you honestly say to yourself that you would bend over the tracks of a subway train to save some random person seconds before the train was supposed to run over you? i don't know if you can. not saying that to be selfish, but we have to see this story from both points of view; plus, you never have, nor probably ever will be put in this exact situation that the rest of the crowd was, so who knows how you would really react. it's hard to say in this instance because we don't know the full story & never will (since people's memory can be janky with the misinformation effect & source amnesia). It's hard to place blame on any one person, because we aren't in their situations.
ReplyDeleteThis seems to be like the bystander effect, but also it seems that in a situation like this, people worry about their own welfare- what if while trying to pull him out you were pulled/fell onto the tracks as well? People did what they thought was their best in the situation- they first looked out for their own safety (which is innate) and then tried to alert the workers and get help. This is a prime example of human instinct, which is neither right nor wrong.
ReplyDeleteI believe it's the bystander effect but also I think him beings drunk is irrelevant. Since when does a person have to be sober to be worth saving
ReplyDeleteI think this is the bystander effect but I also think people may have been in complete shock with the fact that there was a man on the tracks and also even if someone went over to help him which would've been the right thing to do, they would also be risking their own safety.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, this article doesn't surprise me a whole lot. Society has become increasingly dependent on others to do things for them, and even in this case its an awful example of how bad its gotten.
ReplyDeleteI argee that this is indeed the bystander effect, I also think that it's possible that the people didn't want to get hurt themselves. They didn't want to be blamed for something that could have happened to the man pushed in front of the train.But that still doesn't mean it is ok for the people to just leave the man there to die.
ReplyDeleteThis is awful how people would rather just stand there and be a bystander in an event such as this watching it all happen and even taking a picture. Than going and helping the individual the trauma is happening too. This just shows societys views on things they would rather have someone else step up to the plate and help the person rather than themselves. They think someone else is just going to autimatically come to the rescue.
ReplyDeleteThis is a huge problem in todays society. It is true that whe there is a problem we tend to think that someone else will take care of it and then it never gets taken care of.
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