Bystander_Effect

On the morning of March 13, 1963, a lady named Kitty Genovese was brutally stabbed to death in front of her apartment in Kew Gardens, NY. Kitty’s cries for help were said to be heard from blocks away, yet nobody lifted a finger to call 911 nor attempted to help or to see what was happening until about thirty minutes after the attack began. Was it the fear of being hurt or the fear of being involved' In the following paragraphs, this essay will discuss the psychological concept, “The Bystander Effect”. The bystander effect (also known as bystander apathy) is a phenomenon where people are less likely to intervene in an emergency situation when others are present than when they are alone. Research also shows that people are more likely to help if they are alone, even if risk is involved. Unfortunately, in Kitty Genovese’s case many people heard and witnessed the attack on her and never gave a second thought to helping. When others are present in an emergency situation people would rather step back and not get involved, rather than making a little effort to at least call for help. In the bystander’s mind they think other people that have witnessed the situation and must have called for help or help is on the way. This leads to people stepping back so they do not have to get involved. In reality this type of phenomenon happens very often and is called diffusion of responsibility, there have been a lot of reasons of why these types of total disregard for an emergency happen. Some of those reasons include that people assume other bystanders may be more qualified to help and that their help is unneeded. It is unfortunate that people just assume help will magically fall out of the air and that they can just walk away from a situation like Kitty’s. After doing research on the concept of the bystander effect, I was surprised by how often this happens. It is very interesting to know how little people are willing to get involved in emergency situations, from a personal stand point I cannot imagine seeing someone in the need of aide and not helping.