Overcoming The Bystander Effect

The attacker saw a bunch of people's lights turn on in the apartments around him. Then he figured out people could see him and were watching. Catherine had to drag herself into a doorway bleeding, she might survive at this point. But then the attacker decided to finish her off because, as he later said in court: ¨It didn't seem like anyone was going to stop me!¨ She screamed for help again even though she was very much wounded. Out of the thirty eight people that actually saw this happen within a half hour, not a single person helped her. She was already dead by the time the police were called. Why did no one take action? Were they bad people? Or was it the nature of the situation - the context - that made them seem inhuman? Just because they didn't do anything about the situation doesn't mean they didn't care. No one picked up the phone to call for rescue for this woman. …show more content…
While the bystander effect can have a negative impact on prosocial behavior, altruism, and heroism, scientists have discovered a lot of different things that can help people overcome this habit and increase the ratio that they will engage in helping behaviors ("Bystander