The scientific reason why you will not help someone in need when you’re in a crowd will blow your mind

Last Updated on 2016-06-06 , 10:03 am

We have heard many stories of people standing around taking videos or watching when an accident or emergency happens.

In this cases. almost always, no one steps forward to help. This leads to people being horrified by humanity and invites a lot of backlash.

But why do we do this? If you too find yourself unwilling to move forward to help someone when you are part of a crowd, it may not mean that you are a coward or a disgrace to the human race. There is actually some science as to why there is this resistance in a large group of people.

Bystander Effect
According to Psychology Today, this is known as the Bystander Effect. It occurs when the presence of others discourages an individual from intervening in an emergency situation.

Diffusion of responsibility
This is first attributed to the perceived diffusion of responsibility. If you witness an accident and there are few or no other people around you, you feel that there is a higher responsibility on you to help so you are more likely to offer assistance. However, if you realise that there are many people who also witnessed the accident, you are more likely to wait for someone else to go forward and help because the responsibility is no longer only on you.

Social influence
Another attribution to the Bystander Effect is social influence. To put it simply, imagine you are part of a crowd looking at an accident. You look around you and you notice that everyone is standing around and not doing anything. This then lets you conclude that since nobody is taking action, there is no need for you to.

So basically, it gives you the idea that the people in that accident do not need your help since no one is helping. This is also known as pluralistic ignorance which involves you reading the situation of the incident.

To give a clearer view of these effects, let’s say you are sitting by the swimming pool minding your own business. Suddenly, you hear a child screaming in the water. You look around you and you see no one doing anything. The social influence factor will lead to thinking that your help is not needed and you will have a perceived diffusion of responsibility since there are people around you.

Therefore, you read the situation of the scream as the child just playing in the water, not in distress, and also that if the child is in distress, someone else would offer their assistance. This is exactly what everyone else will be thinking and therefore, no one steps forward to help.

You guys would remember the recent case of the 12-year-old Yishun Primary School boy who went to lend his hand in an accident while everyone else stood around taking photos and videos.

This is probably a bystander effect and also probably social media influence where everyone wants to be the “first” to put up the news to get likes/shares and whatnot.

I definitely applaud the boy for his bravery. For everyone else, now that you know what goes on in your mind and that of others, maybe next time when you come across such a situation, remember this effect and know that if you do not step forward to help, no one else will.