Toddler in China hit by 2 cars, then ignored, dies In this photo taken Tuesday Oct. 18, 2011, journalists surround the unidentified parents of a two-year-old girl identified as Wang Yue in a hospital in Guangzhou in south China's Guangdong province. (AP Photo) (AP/AP) BEIJING — A 2-year-old girl who was run over by two vehicles and left lying in the street ignored by bystanders died early Friday morning in a Guangdong hospital, Chinese media reported. The plight of the little girl, identified as Xiao Yueyue, ignited an intense round of public soul-searching here on why so many people — 18, according to surveillance video of the scene — could pass by an injured, bleeding toddler in the road without offering to help. The girl was finally pulled to the side of the road by a old woman who was scavenging through garbage. In Internet chat rooms and newspaper opinion pages, many Chinese — from academics to ordinary citizens — began questions whether in the quest to get rich, China had lost its moral compass. world asia-pacific post_newsletter353
How Diffusion of Responsibility Affects Group Behavior Diffusion of responsibility is a psychological phenomenon in which people are less likely to take action when in the presence of a large group of people.1 For example, imagine that you are in a large city on a bustling street. You notice a man fall to the ground and start convulsing as if having a seizure. Many people turn and look at the man, but no one moves to help or call for medical assistance. Why? This situation is often used to explain the bystander effect, which suggests that the greater the number of people present, the less likely people are to help a person in distress. Darley and Latané on Diffusion of Responsibility In a series of classic experiments conducted in the late 1960s, researchers John Darley and Bibb Latané asked participants to fill out questionnaires in a room which suddenly began to fill with smoke.2 In one scenario the subjects of the experiment were alone when the smoke entered the room. Factors That Influence Diffusion of Responsibility
New Yorkers grapple with stabbing death New Yorkers are grappling with the inaction of more than two dozen pedestrians who didn't help a Good Samaritan bleeding to death on a sidewalk after he tried to save a woman from a knife-wielding man in Queens, N.Y. Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax, 31, was stabbed at about 7:20 a.m. on April 18 as he tried to help a woman being threatened by a knife-wielding man. Surveillance video from an apartment building captured Tale-Yax chasing the attacker before collapsing on the sidewalk. Both the woman and attacker fled. Over the next hour and 20 minutes, more than 25 people walked by and did nothing. Most ignored him. In a city accustomed to anonymity and violence, New Yorkers were still disappointed with others. "It's man's inhumanity toward man," one man told the CBC's David Common. Psychologists attribute this behaviour to the bystander effect, also known as the Genovese syndrome, where the more people are around, the less likely it is for the person in trouble to get help.
Chinese woman run over once, then again a minute later as witnesses leave her lying in traffic A woman in Henan has died after being run over twice. Footage showed her being run over once, then again about a minute later, as pedestrians stood by and failed to act. Shocking footage of the accident emerged when a Weibo user posted it on the popular microblogging site Wednesday. The video was posted by a verified user who identifies himself as a car critic. [Video: Graphic scenes] It showed a car that appears to be a taxi running her over as she looks down. The accident occurs in front of witnesses waiting to cross on both sides of the road, but they do not appear to act. Approximately a minute after she was first hit, another car runs over Ma again. Arrests Local police said on Weibo the night of the accident that the woman had died. The video triggered outcry on social media in China, where onlookers are often reluctant to intervene. One Weibo user said: “Even if the hardware is built well, if the quality of people cannot keep up, [China] will remain far from a strong country.”
Example: George Floyd's Death - Police violence and the ‘bystander effect’ explained Since George Floyd died after police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes on May 25, demonstrators across the country have gathered to protest police actions against African Americans. While most of the protests were calm, in several cities police officers have used force against demonstrators and journalists under the justification of crowd control. The sight of officers in riot gear beating marchers, firing rubber bullets and chemical- or pepper-based irritants, and shoving activists has reignited questions about accepted practices in the nation’s law enforcement community. Francesca Gino, Tandon Family Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, studies leadership, the psychology of decision-making, and organizational behavior. GAZETTE: When a police officer acts inappropriately, a common defense is that it’s “one bad apple,” not an entire department. This is not a story in isolation. This research, I think, gets to [this] question.
Toddler incident in China shows 'volunteer's dilemma' A security camera video of a toddler being run over twice on a street in China has swept across the Web in recent days and has drawn a chorus of horrified denunciations. How, we wonder, could so many passers-by have so callously ignored the girl's plight? As humans, we are horrified when we learn that a person in distress is not helped, even when, as in this case, many potential helpers are present. Our horror increases if the person is victimized in a particularly vicious or careless way by fellow human beings. Our horror is further heightened when we learn that the victim is helpless and the kind of person who normally stimulates our instinct to aid and protect. Our spontaneous reaction is to say: "Had I been there, I would have helped; what is wrong with these people?" It is true that cultural differences exist in many aspects of human behavior, and many of these differences are not trivial. Since the original experiments, many studies have explored the bystander effect.
First-aid know-how empowers people to help, Letters in Print News I thank Madam Tamilselvi Muniyandy ("Doctor went beyond call of duty"; last Friday) and Ms Yeo Pei Shi ("Bystander effect: Training in skills makes people more willing to help"; Sunday) for highlighting the importance of knowing and administering first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Basic first response can increase chances of survival, mitigate serious injuries and help to calm and stabilise affected people in an emergency. However, about 60 per cent of casualties do not receive any form of bystander assistance before the arrival of the ambulance. If all of us can identify the signs of cardiac arrest and know how to perform CPR, we can save many more lives. The Singapore Red Cross (SRC) believes that first-aid training is key in empowering bystanders to respond to emergencies, and strongly advocates the national goal of "one first aider in every home". Besides Standard First Aid, we have introduced a suite of courses tailored for specific needs over the years.
'Bystander Effect' not exclusive to humans -- ScienceDaily A rat is less likely to help a trapped companion if it is with other rats that aren't helping, according to new research from the University of Chicago that showed the social psychological theory of the "bystander effect" in humans is present in these long-tailed rodents. The study, titled "The Bystander Effect in Rats," also demonstrated that in the presence of other potential helper rats, rats are more, rather than less, likely to help. Whether helping is facilitated or suppressed depends on the circumstances rather than on personal temperament or morals, a finding with implications for human society. In 2011, Peggy Mason, PhD, professor of neurobiology and senior author of the study, and her UChicago team of researchers found that rats consistently freed trapped companions, even saving a bit of chocolate for them, and this behavior was driven by a rat version of empathy. "My students had been bugging me to do this experiment for years," said Mason.
Overcoming the Bystander Effect Have you ever been a hero? Going about our daily routines, few of us have the opportunity to save a life or disrupt a crime in progress—fewer still take that opportunity when it presents itself. I once witnessed a car accident in which the guilty party leapt from his disabled vehicle and fled the scene. I quickly pulled over and dialed 911. Fortunately, another passerby stopped and apprehended the suspect. The culprit—who was clearly intoxicated—struggled to escape, but he was easily overpowered. Not only are acts of heroism unsurprisingly rare, reports about observers who, out of indifference or perplexity, fail to report criminal behavior or respond to emergencies with inaction are common. Psychologists Bibb Latané and John Darley identified a pattern of behavior they called the bystander effect, which they demonstrated in their labs for the first time in 1968. A number of options exist to help us overcome what in this case appears to be bystander effect on a massive scale.
How to Overcome the Bystander Effect Psychologists have long been interested in exactly why and when we help other people. There has also been a tremendous amount of interest in the reasons why we sometimes don't help others. The bystander effect is a social phenomenon that occurs when people fail to help those in need due to the presence of other people. While the bystander effect can have a negative impact on prosocial behavior, altruism and heroism, researchers have identified a number of different factors that can help people overcome this tendency and increase the likelihood that they will engage in helping behaviors.2 Some of these include: Witnessing Helping Behavior Sometimes just seeing other people doing something kind or helpful makes us more willing to help others. Imagine that you are walking into a large department store. Researchers have found that when we observe other people engaging in prosocial behaviors, such as donating blood, we are more likely to do the same, according to a study published in 2019.3
The bystander effect in rats Abstract To investigate whether the classic bystander effect is unique to humans, the effect of bystanders on rat helping was studied. In the presence of rats rendered incompetent to help through pharmacological treatment, rats were less likely to help due to a reduction in reinforcement rather than to a lack of initial interest. Only incompetent helpers of a strain familiar to the helper rat exerted a detrimental effect on helping; rats helped at near control levels in the presence of incompetent helpers from an unfamiliar strain. Duos and trios of potential helper rats helped at superadditive rates, demonstrating that rats act nonindependently with helping facilitated by the presence of competent-to-help bystanders. Furthermore, helping was facilitated in rats that had previously observed other rats’ helping and were then tested individually. In 1964, on a cold March night, Catherine Genovese was murdered on a crowded residential street in Queens. Observational learning Subjects Setup