Bystander Intervention Essay

Literature Review There are obvious humanitarian norms about helping a victim, but there are also rational and irrational fears of what may happen if one attempts to intervene (Darley & Latane, 1968). In certain circumstances, the norms favoring intervention may be weakened, leading bystanders to resolve the conflict by not intervening. One reason for nonintervention may be due to the presence of other onlookers. However, when only one bystander is present in an emergency, if help is to come, it must come from him. When there are several observers present, however, the pressure to intervene do not focus on any one of the observers; instead the responsibility is shared among all the onlookers (Darley & Latane, 1968). As a result, no one helps. A second reason for nonintervention is that potential blame may be diffused. It is reasonable to assume that, under circumstances of group responsibility for a punishable act, the …show more content…
When bystanders were present but confined behind a barrier, children helped just as often as they did when they were alone (Plötner et al., 2015). Thus, it was not just the presence of bystanders that caused the effect. The effect was motivated by the diffusion of responsibility, which existed in the bystander condition (Plötner et al., 2015). In the alone and bystander-unavailable conditions, children recognized that they were responsible to help. However, in the bystander condition, responsibility was diffused among three potential helpers. Therefore, children were more likely to report that it was their job to help in the alone and bystander-unavailable conditions (Plötner et al.,