According to Wikipedia, ‘the bystander effect,” or “bystander apathy,” is a psychological phenomenon in which individuals are less likely to offer help to a victim when other people are present. The greater the number of bystanders, the less likely it is that any one of them will help.’
Social psychologists Bibb Latané and John Darley popularized the concept following the infamous 1964 Kitty Genovese murder in New York City.
Is it really that black and white? When in a crowd nobody will assist you in an emergency? Yet, in smaller settings, you can guarantee somebody will come to your aid?
Ken Brown provides a little further in depth look at the Bystander Effect in his TEDx talk below, explaining it’s a little more complicated than we have all been led to believe.
