Which of the following factors does not contribute directly to the bystander effect according to research on this topic?

1. Social Psychology
2. Bystander Effect

Bystander Effect and Diffusion of Responsibility

By Udochi Emeghara, published Sept 24, 2020

Take-home Messages

• The bystander effect, or bystander apathy, is a social psychological theory that states that an individual’s likelihood of helping decreases when passive bystanders are present in an emergency situation.
• The most frequently cited real-life example of the bystander effect regards a young woman called Kitty Genovese, who was murdered in Queens, New York, in 1964, while several of her neighbors looked on. No one intervened until it was too late.
• Latané and Darley [1970] proposed a five-step decision model of helping, during each of which bystanders can decide to do nothing:
1. Notice the event [or in a hurry and not notice].
2. Interpret the situation as an emergency [or assume that as others are not acting, it is not an emergency].
3. Assume responsibility [or assume that others will do this].
4. Know what to do [or not have the skills necessary to help].
5. Decide to help [or worry about danger, legislation, embarrassment, etc.].
• Latané and Darley [1970] identified three different psychological processes that might prevent a bystander from helping a person in distress: [i] diffusion of responsibility; [ii] evaluation apprehension [fear of being publically judged]; and [iii] pluralistic ignorance [the tendency to rely on the overt reactions of others when defining an ambiguous situation].
• Diffusion of responsibility refers to the tendency to subjectively divide the personal responsibility to help by the number of bystanders present. Bystanders are less likely to intervene in emergency situations as the size of the group increases, as they feel less personal responsibility.

The term bystander effect refers to the tendency for people to be inactive in high danger situations due to the presence of other bystanders [Darley & Latané, 1968; Latané & Darley, 1968, 1970; Latané & Nida, 1981]. Thus, people tend to help more when alone than in a group.

The implications for this theory have been widely studied by a variety of researchers, but initial interest in this phenomenon arose after the brutal murder of Catherine “Kitty” Genovese in 1964.

Through a series of experiments beginning the 1960s and 1970s, the bystander effect phenomenon has become more widely understood.

Kitty Genovese

On the morning of March 13, 1964, Kitty Genovese returned to her apartment complex, at 3 am, after finishing her shift at a local bar.

After parking her car in a lot adjacent to her apartment building, she began walking the short distance to the entrance, which was located at the back of the building.