The reality is that there is no safety in numbers.
Recently, there have been quite a few media reports of incidences in which someone was harassed in a public place, in front of dozens of people, and no one in the crowd stepped forward to help the victim.
Many netizens have joined the online chorus to condemn these witnesses for being apathetic, calloused, and inhuman. While it is easy to condemn these witnesses for their inaction, there is a scientific explanation as to why they didn’t react. It is called the bystander effect.
The term bystander effect refers to the psychological phenomenon in which the greater the number of people present during an incident, the less likely people are to help the person in distress. Researchers have attributed this to the “diffusion of responsibility,” and the “ambiguity of the situation”.
In the former, if no one acts, then we are all equally responsible. It may hurt my conscience, but I can live with it as there are many other people who are as responsible as me. In the latter, if no one acts, perhaps they know something about the situation that I don’t so it is best to follow their lead and not act. In short, in an emergency situation, bystanders are more likely to take action if there are few or no other people around.
