Why nobody helps in a crowd
3 min
After freezing with a crowd when a man collapsed, the writer explains the bystander effect, the famous story and experiments behind it, newer and more hopeful research, and what to do in an emergency.
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Last winter, a man collapsed on the platform at a busy metro station. I was one of about thirty people standing nearby. For a few seconds, nobody moved. We all looked at each other, and I remember thinking that someone else, probably someone who knew first aid, would . a teenager and asked if he was all right. Then everyone .
Psychologists call what I felt the bystander effect. The idea became famous after the murder of Kitty Genovese in New York in 1964. A newspaper reported that 38 neighbours had watched or heard the attack and done nothing. Later investigations showed that the paper had . people saw what happened, and some the police. , the story a famous series of experiments.
In one, the psychologists Bibb Latané and John Darley had students talk to each other over an intercom. , one voice seemed to have a seizure. Students who thought they were the only listener almost always . Those who believed four others could hear were much less likely to act, and much slower when they did.
Two things seem to be . One is that responsibility gets . If you're alone, it's clearly your job to act, but in a crowd each person feels only it. The other is that emergencies are often unclear. Is the man on the pavement ill, or just asleep? We check other people's faces, and if they look calm, we decide nothing is wrong. , they're doing exactly the same.
Newer research is more hopeful. A study published in 2019 looked at security camera footage of real public arguments and fights in three countries. In about cases, at least one bystander , and help was more likely in bigger groups. The effect is real, but crowds are not as cold as the old story suggests.
If you ever need help in public, don't shout to everyone. Point at one person and : 'You in the blue shirt, call an ambulance.' And if you're the one watching, remember that the calm faces around you are probably you are. On that platform, it took one teenager to .
Check your understanding
0 of 4 answered1.What did the writer think when the man first collapsed?
2.What did later investigations show about the Kitty Genovese story?
3.In the intercom study, what happened when students believed others could hear?
4.What does the 2019 study suggest?
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