The Bystander Effect In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

The average person only helps twenty percent of the time when others are around, according to the University of Minnesota. This phenomenon is called the bystander effect. People are eighty percent more likely to help someone in need when they are alone versus around other people. Everyone would like to think that they would help someone in need, but in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, a small town’s lottery is a symbol of the bystander effect and how no one questions tradition. The children collect rocks to use for the stoning, everyone jokes around before the names are picked, and the way Mrs. Delacroix comments, “Be a good sport Tessie’” (137) implies that the town thinks ritually killing a person is a game. Children often do not understand what is right and wrong. The children collecting rocks to use for Tessie’s stoning is a perfect example of this. They play games and try to see who can collect the most, not thinking of the fact that they are helping to find weapons to murder a real person. The children are not really the ones to blame, they do not know the difference between a …show more content…
It happens more often than you would think. It is like when a group of girls bully someone and another group just stands there and watches. The bystander effect is more common now more than ever because of the internet. The stoning of Tessie Hutchinson and the whole lottery in itself is an example of the bystander effect. No one stands up for Tessie, or any other victims of the lottery, because if they would have, then Tessie would have never had to become a victim. The fact that no one even mentions the bystander effect after a stoning says a lot about their character and education. If they had an education they would know that there is no scientific evidence to support that killing someone gives the town a good harvest. Why would the death of a person ensure that crops grow