An emergency situation can influence someone’s ability to help. Many factors can interrupt a person’s ability to help: possibility of danger, presence of other people, willingness to help and even nervousness. We often watch shows like “What Would You Do?” and think we would do the right thing and intervene in such situations. However, people often see things happen and do nothing thinking that others will help. Hopefully being aware of such a thing called the bystander effect, will help people be aware and help them take the initiative to help when they see something is wrong.
Does the number of people in an emergency influence helping? According to Garcia, Weaver, Moskowitz, and Darley (2002) the bystander effect is when “a person who faces a situation of another person in distress but does so with the knowledge that others are also present and available to respond is slower and less likely to respond to the person in distress than is a person who knows that he or she is the only one who is aware of the distress”. Many studies have been conducted to see if the bystander effect is real. For example, the rape and murder of Kitty Genovese in 1964 (Fisher et …show more content…
The proposed research is important because everyday people are confronted with non-dangerous emergency situations. Seeing how and when people will help someone is important because it will contribute to going against the stigma that maybe someone else will help first (diffusion of responsibly). The purpose of this study is to see if the bystander effect does inhibit a person’s willingness to help. In an emergency situation, it is predicted that more people present decrease helping. This prediction is based off of previous studies and a person’s belief that if they do nothing someone else will help. That is why in this paper we will explore the bystander effect and the results of the
Does the number of people in an emergency influence helping? According to Garcia, Weaver, Moskowitz, and Darley (2002) the bystander effect is when “a person who faces a situation of another person in distress but does so with the knowledge that others are also present and available to respond is slower and less likely to respond to the person in distress than is a person who knows that he or she is the only one who is aware of the distress”. Many studies have been conducted to see if the bystander effect is real. For example, the rape and murder of Kitty Genovese in 1964 (Fisher et …show more content…
The proposed research is important because everyday people are confronted with non-dangerous emergency situations. Seeing how and when people will help someone is important because it will contribute to going against the stigma that maybe someone else will help first (diffusion of responsibly). The purpose of this study is to see if the bystander effect does inhibit a person’s willingness to help. In an emergency situation, it is predicted that more people present decrease helping. This prediction is based off of previous studies and a person’s belief that if they do nothing someone else will help. That is why in this paper we will explore the bystander effect and the results of the