Bystander Effect

There is a visually handicapped, middle-aged man (Let's call him Mr. X) that usually takes the same bus as me when i go home.
In July 2006 I the bus interchange at Boon lay MRT station was changed. It was moved entirely from the one side of the MRT to the other side. I am not aware of SMRT making it an easy transition for the the visually handicapped but i know what i saw that disturbed me that time. I was as usual on my way to the bus stop when from afar I saw Mr X walking in the right direction (my bus stop) but having trouble finding his way around new obstacles such as the shape of the bus interchange. it used to be a square and easily to walk around whereas now it is more of a paragon where the corners are not easily identified.

http://www.sbstransit.com.sg/images/news_2006jun_14-1_poster.jpg

I was astonished and shocked to find that people saw poor Mr X stumbling around, clearly not knowing his way around and did nothing about it. By the time I got to him he was leaning against the wall, clearly exhausted and in dispair. I walked up to him, grabbed his hand, started talking to him and led him to the bus stop.

What is the bystander effect?
According to Wikipedia, the bystander effect is when someone is less likely to intervene in an emergency situation when other people are present and able to help than when he or she is alone.

Possible causes of the bystander effect is the idea of diffusion of responsibility. People walk by thinking that someone else will surely take care of it or attend to the person. The problem with this is that if everyone thinks this way how will anyone ever help? Luckily there are people that are leaders and not followers.
There are types of diffusion of responsibility:

• groupthink: action taken by a individuals in a group which they wold never do when alone
• bystander effect: if no action is taken to help another individual
  
• hierarchical organizations: someone else tells them to do or not do something which makes it less personal and easier

Examples of Diffusion of Responsibility taken from Wikipedia:

• In a firing squad, one of the shooters may be randomly issued a weapon containing a blank cartridge rather than one with a bullet. This allows each of the members of the firing squad to believe that he did not fire a fatal shot.
• In some electric chairs there are many switches, only one of which is connected. The executioners may then choose to believe that they pulled a non-functional switch.

Interesting? I think so. So, next time you see someone who needs help be the one to act. Be a leader and not a follower! I'd also like to make a quick last point and encourage everyone to start putting themselves in another's shoes. For example if you see someone with an epileptic fit, there are other people tending to that person and you know there is nothing you can do, walk on. This would not be considered the bystander effect because someone is already helping. By walking away you are showing consideration because imagine you have such a fit (which you cannot control) and you wake up to find 30+ people starring at you and realize they just saw you at your most helpless. What a horrible feeling!!

Look up the case study of Kitty Genovese who was died because 38 people (who witnessed) didn't call the police for help when she was being murdered by a serial killer in 1964.

References and interesting articles to check out:

http://psychology.about.com/od/socialpsychology/a/bystandereffect.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitty_Genovese

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/10/01/genovese.ap/index.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2005/aug/04/ukcrime.features11

http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=198120&Disp=12&Trace=on