The document discusses the bystander effect phenomenon where individuals are less likely to help a victim when other people are present. It provides explanations for the effect, including diffusion of responsibility among witnesses and looking to others to determine the appropriate response. The document also presents examples of the bystander effect, such as the Kitty Genovese murder case. It defines what constitutes a Good Samaritan and discusses the importance of Good Samaritan laws in providing legal protections for people who render emergency assistance.

1. Bystander Effect
Defeating the Bystander Effect - How to Act as a Good Samaritan
During Emergencies.

2. Bystander Effect
• The bystander effect, or bystander apathy, is
a social psychological phenomenon in which
individuals are less likely to offer help to a
victim when other people are present.

3. Bystander Effect

4. Bystander Effect
• The greater the number of bystanders, the
less likely it is that any one of them will
help.
• Several factors contribute to the bystander
effect, including ambiguity, cohesiveness, and
diffusion of responsibility that reinforces
mutual denial of a situation's severity.

5. Bystander Effect

6. Bystander Effect
• If you witnessed an emergency happening
right before your eyes, you would certainly
take some sort of action to help the person
in trouble, right?
• While we might all like to believe that this is
true, psychologists suggest that whether or not
you intervene might depend upon the number
of other witnesses present.

7. Bystander Effect

8. Understanding the Effect
• The term bystander effect refers to the
phenomenon in which the greater the
number of people present, the less likely
people are to help a person in distress.
• When an emergency situation occurs,
observers are more likely to take action if there
are few or no other witnesses. Being part of a
large crowd makes it so no single person has to
take responsibility for an action (or inaction).

9. Understanding the Effect

10. Bystander Effect
• In a series of classic studies, researchers Bibb
Latane and John Darley found that the amount
of time it takes the participant to take action
and seek help varies depending on how many
other observers are in the room.
• In one experiment, subjects were placed in one of
three treatment conditions: alone in a room, with
two other participants or with two confederates
who pretended to be normal participants.

11. Bystander Effect

12. Researchers Bibb Latane and John
Darley
• As the participants sat filling out
questionnaires, smoke began to fill the room.
When participants were alone, 75% reported
the smoke to the experimenters.
• In contrast, just 38% of participants in a room
with two other people reported the smoke.
• In the final group, the two confederates in the
experiment noted the smoke and then ignored it,
which resulted in only 10% of the participants
reporting the smoke.

13. Researchers Bibb Latane and John
Darley

14. Bystander Effect
• Additional experiments by found that
while 70 percent would help a woman in
distress when they were the only witness,
only about 40 percent offered assistance
when other people were also present.

15. Explanations for the Bystander
Effect
• There are two major factors that contribute to
the bystander effect.
• First, the presence of other people creates a
diffusion of responsibility.
• Because there are other observers,
individuals do not feel as much pressure to
take action, since the responsibility to take
action is thought to be shared among all of
those present.

16. Explanations for the Bystander Effect

17. Explanations for the Bystander
Effect
• The second reason is the need to behave in correct
and socially acceptable ways.
• When other observers fail to react, individuals often
take this as a signal that a response is not needed or
not appropriate. Other researchers have found that
onlookers are less likely to intervene if the situation
is ambiguous.
• In the case of Kitty Genovese, many of the 38
witnesses reported that they believed that they were
witnessing a "lover's quarrel," and did not realize that
the young woman was actually being murdered.

18. Explanations for the Bystander
Effect

19. Explanations for the Bystander
Effect
• Characteristics of the situation can play a role.
During a crisis, things are often chaotic and the
situation is not always crystal clear.
• Onlookers might wonder exactly what is
happening. During such chaotic moments, people
often look to others in the group to determine
what is appropriate.
• When people look at the crowd and see that no
one else is reacting, it sends a signal that perhaps
no action is needed.

20. Explanations for the Bystander Effect

21. The Mind of the Bystander
• The social paralysis described by the bystander effect
has implications for how we behave not only on city
streets filled with strangers, but any place where we
work or socialize.
• When individuals relinquish responsibility for addressing a
problem, the potential negative outcomes are wide-
ranging—from minor household issues that housemates
collectively avoid dealing with to violence and abuse that
go unchecked.
• Some efforts have been made, including on college
campuses, to encourage people to be “active bystanders”
and fight the urge to step aside when someone is in
trouble.

22. The Mind of the Bystander

23. Bystander Effect: Reactions and
Causes
• The bystander effect is an element of social
psychology that implies that when the number
of bystanders is increased in an emergency
situation, the less likely any of the bystanders
will aid, or assist in the situation.
• The bystander effect is one of the most
significant well established social
psychology findings, which manifested in
the late 1960’s.

24. Bystander Effect: Reactions and
Causes

25. Bystander Effect: Reactions and
Causes
• The cause for social psychologist to begin to
study how bystanders react during
emergency situations, was due to Kitty
Genovese being attacked and murdered in
front of her Queens, New York apartment.
Kitty’s unfortunate attack lasted nearly 45
minutes and was witnessed by nearly 38
residents who did not assist by calling police,
or trying to stop her attacker.

26. Kitty Genovese being attacked and murdered
in front of her Queens, New York apartment.

27. Bystander Effect: Reactions and
Causes
• Kitty’s death, along with social psychologists
research established not only the bystander
effect, but other elements that are related to the
reasons why the bystander effect occurs in
groups of bystanders.

28. Kitty Genovese being attacked and murdered
in front of her Queens, New York apartment.

29. Kitty Genovese being attacked and murdered
in front of her Queens, New York apartment.

30. Diffusion of Responsibility
• One of the main reasons why the bystander effect occurs
is due to a social influence being present known as
diffusion of responsibility (Heroic Imagination Project,
2013).
• The diffusion of responsibility is a phenomenon related
to the bystander’s sense of responsibility to aid and
decreases when there are more.
• Diffusion of responsibility simple implies that bystanders
do not react because they feel that other bystanders will
respond to the emergency situation and render appropriate
assistant.
• This phenomenon only requires one bystander and increases
in larger groups and decreases in smaller groups.

31. Diffusion of Responsibility

32. Pluralistic Ignorance
• Pluralistic Ignorance relates to helping behavior, as
well as to pluralistic ignorance being present when
bystanders think that others are interpreting the
incident in a certain way, when indeed they are not.
• This thought comes into notion as bystanders witness a
situation, then base their reaction to the incident by
gagging other onlookers responses to the incident.
• If the bystander sees others reacting a certain way, then
they too will be more apt to express their thought of the
incident as not being too big of an issue, thus effecting
their helping influences.

33. Pluralistic Ignorance

34. Knowing How to Help
• When a bystander has decided to help, they
must decide what kind of help is appropriate
for the situation.
• For example, if somebody collapses and a
bystander does not know CPR, but decides
to assist, they should probably assist by
calling for emergency services and trying to
find another bystander that can provide
CPR.

35. Knowing How to Help

36. Knowing How to Help
• Often time’s bystanders will not assist because
they are afraid they might make matters worse,
or place themselves in danger if the situation is
considered dangerous.

37. Cultural Differences of Helping Behavior and
The Bystander Effect
• Some social psychologist believe the
phenomenon of the bystander has little impact
and will lead to the same affects regardless of
the culture.
• However, some studies have analyzed that
culture can play a significant role in
determining if a bystander will or will not
assist during certain situations.

38. Cultural Differences of Helping Behavior
and The Bystander Effect

39. Cultural Differences of Helping Behavior and
The Bystander Effect
• Meta-analysis data show that individualist
societies contain loose bonds between
individuals, causing individuals to have the
notion to look for themselves causing an
independence reward.

40. Cultural Differences of Helping Behavior
and The Bystander Effect

41. Cultural Differences of Helping Behavior
and The Bystander Effect
• This differs from non-individualist societies,
because non-individualist societies have been
shown to contain a closer community bond,
thus causing an increase in bystanders and
their wiliness to help during a certain
situations.

42. Cultural Differences of Helping Behavior and
The Bystander Effect

43. Cultural Differences of Helping Behavior
and The Bystander Effect
• When a group of bystanders are part of shared
social category of membership, they will have
an increased chance of one of them intervening
if both groups contain specific norms
associated with their group.
• However, despite the increase chance of
assistance, group size can still affect
intervention.

44. Notable Examples
• Kitty Genovese
• The murder of Kitty Genovese is the case that
originally stimulated social psychological research into
the "bystander effect".
• On March 13, 1964 Genovese was stabbed, sexually
assaulted, and murdered while walking home from
work at 3 am in Queens, New York. According to a
sensationalized article in The New York Times, 38
witnesses watched the stabbings but did not
intervene or even call the police until after the
attacker fled and Genovese had died.

45. Kitty Genovese

46. Notable Examples
• The shocking account drew widespread public
attention and many newspaper editorials.
• Psychology researchers Latané and Darley
attributed the lack of help by witnesses to
diffusion of responsibility: because each witness
saw others witnessing the same event, they
assumed that the others would be taking
responsibility and calling the police, and therefore
did nothing to stop the situation themselves

47. Kitty Genovese

48. Larry Froistad
• In 1998, Larry Froistad posted a confession
that he murdered his five-year-old daughter on
an official email list for Moderation
Management.
• Three of the approximately 200 members of
the email list reported the confession to legal
authorities. The incident has been studied as
an online version of the bystander effect

49. Larry Froistad

50. Raymond Zack
• On Memorial Day, 2011, 53-year-old
Raymond Zack, of Alameda, California,
walked into the waters off Robert Crown
Memorial Beach and stood neck deep in water
roughly 150 yards offshore for almost an hour.
His foster mother, called 9-1-1 and said that he
was trying to drown himself. (There are
conflicting reports about Zack's intentions.)

51. Raymond Zack

52. Raymond Zack
• Firefighters and police responded but did not
enter the water. The firefighters called for a
United States Coast Guard boat to respond to
the scene. According to police reports,
Alameda police expected the firefighters to
enter the water. Firefighters later said that they
did not have current training and certifications
to perform land-based water rescue.

53. Raymond Zack
• Dozens of civilians on the beach, and watching
from their homes across from the beach, did not
enter the water, apparently expecting public safety
officers to conduct a rescue. Eventually, Zack
collapsed in the water, apparently from
hypothermia.
• Even then, nobody entered the water for
several minutes. Finally, a good samaritan
entered the water and pulled Zack to shore.
Zack died afterwards at a local hospital.

54. Raymond Zack

55. Conclusion
• The bystander effect is a unique
phenomenon related to social psychology
that contains many different components
related to the influencing of helping
behavior.
• Since the bystander effects emergence, it has
become one of the most prolific forms of
social psychology and appears in nearly all
social psychology undergraduate textbooks.

56. Bystander Effect

57. Conclusion
• The bystander effect contains elements that
ultimately provide plausible reasons as to why
some choose to help or ignore certain situations.
• Typically, ones decision to assist is impacted
heavily by diffusion of responsibility and other
aspects of knowing when and if to help. Other
components, like cultural differences and social
situations can also determine the outcome, based
on group size and the totality of the circumstance.

58. Bystander Effect

59. Good Samaritan
• A Good Samaritan is a person who, in good
faith, without expectation of payment or
reward and without any duty of care or
special relationship, voluntarily comes
forward to administer immediate assistance
or emergency care to a person injured in an
accident, or crash, or emergency medical
condition, or emergency situation

60. Good Samaritan

61. Good Samaritan
• Another name for someone who selflessly
helps others.
This term originates from the parable told by
Jesus in the Bible about a Samaritan (a man
from a country called Samaria) who helps
out a Jewish man who is ambushed by
theives and left to die.

62. Good Samaritan

63. Good Samaritan law
• Good Samaritan laws offer legal protection to people who
give reasonable assistance to those who are, or who they
believe to be, injured, ill, in peril, or otherwise
incapacitated.
• The protection is intended to reduce bystanders'
hesitation to assist, for fear of being sued or prosecuted
for unintentional injury or wrongful death.
• An example of such a law in common-law areas of
Canada: a good Samaritan doctrine is a legal principle
that prevents a rescuer who has voluntarily helped a
victim in distress from being successfully sued for
wrongdoing.

64. Good Samaritan law

65. Why be a Good Samaritan?
• The current annual death toll on Indian roads is
over 1,40,000
Over 70,000 lives can be potentially saved if
bystanders come forward to help.
• According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), in
the absence of established emergency medical services,
bystanders can play a game changing role in saving
lives. They can call for help, provide first-aid to the
injured and even rush them to the nearest hospital, if an
ambulance does not arrive in time.

66. Why be a Good Samaritan?

67. Why be a Good Samaritan?

68. Why did we need a Good Samaritan
Law?
• According to the Study on Impediments to Bystander Care
in India conducted by SaveLIFE Foundation in 2013 in the
cities of Delhi, Hyderabad, Kanpur, Ludhiana, Mumbai,
Indore and Kolkata.
• 88%
• People expressed the need for a supportive legal
environment for a Good Samaritan
• 77%
• People stated that hospitals unnecessarily detained Good
Samaritans
• 88%
• People were reluctant to help for fear of legal hassles,
repeated police questioning and court appearances

69. Why did we need a Good Samaritan
Law?

70. How did India get a Good Samaritan
Law?
• In the last ten years, road crashes have killed over 13 lakh people in
India. According to the Law Commission of India, 50% of these
victims died of preventable injuries and could have been saved if
they had received care on time. The role of the bystander is critical
in providing emergency care to the victim. Yet, in India, bystanders
have been hesitant to help the injured for fear of legal repercussions
and procedural hassles.
• Not Anymore.
• In 2012, SaveLIFE Foundation had filed a Public Interest Litigation
(PIL) in the Supreme Court of India, requesting the Hon'ble court to
safeguard Good Samaritans who come forward to help the injured.

71. How did India get a Good Samaritan
Law?

72. How did India get a Good Samaritan
Law?
• On March 30, 2016, the Supreme Court of
India gave "force of law" to the guidelines for
the protection of Good Samaritans issued by
the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.
The purpose of a Good Samaritan law is to
provide legal protection to bystanders who
come to the aid and rescue of victims of road
crashes.

73. How did India get a Good Samaritan
Law?

74. How am I protected?
• From Police
• A Good Samaritan will not be liable for any
civil or criminal action for any injury or death
of the victim
• Good Samaritan who informs police or
emergency service regarding an injured person
not to be compelled to reveal his personal details
• Disciplinary action against public officials who
coerce Good Samaritan to reveal his personal
details

75. How am I protected?

76. How am I protected?
• At Hospitals
• Good Samaritan not to be forced to reveal his/her personal details:
Disclosure of personal information including for the Medico Legal
Case (MLC) Form to be made optional and voluntary
• Good Samaritans not to be forced to bear the initial cost of treatment:
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) to issue guidelines that
no public or private hospital can demand payment for registration and
admissions costs from the Good Samaritans
• Hospitals cannot refuse treatment to a victim: Lack of response by a
doctor in an emergency situation to be considered as a “Professional
Misconduct” and disciplinary action shall be taken against such a
doctor (as per Indian Medical Council Regulations, 2002)

77. How am I protected?

78. How am I protected?
• From Judiciary
• The Good Samaritan can choose to be an eyewitness
and cannot be compelled
• Eye witness to be examined in a single occasion
• Examination of an eye witness to be either through:
– Section 284 CrPC: Allows examination of a witness
through a commission
– Section 296 CrPC: Allows evidence to be given through an
affidavit
• Video conferencing may be used for examination of a
Good Samaritan

79. How am I protected?

80. How can I help as a citizen?
• Not everyone knows about the law. Spread the
word and help others learn.

81. Terminology
• Duty To Rescue
• A duty to rescue is a concept in tort law that
arises in a number of cases, describing a
circumstance in which a party can be held
liable for failing to come to the rescue of
another party in who could face potential
injury or death without being rescued.

82. Duty To Rescue

83. Terminology
• Somebody Else's Problem
• Somebody else's problem (also known as
someone else's problem or SEP) is a phrase
coined comedically by Douglas Adams that
refers to a "field" that hides objects. It has
since passed into common usage, usually to
refer to things people don't see, or don't want
to see.

84. Somebody Else's Problem

85. Terminology
• Bystander Revolution
• Bystander Revolution is an anti-bullying
organization founded in 2014 by billionaire
author and parent MacKenzie Bezos.
• Bystander Revolution offers advice about simple
things individuals can do to defuse bullying.
Bystander Revolution's website is an online
resource that includes hundreds of unscripted
videos featuring celebrities, students, experts, and
others talking about their personal experiences
with bullying

86. Bystander Revolution

87. Terminology
• Diffusion of responsibility
• Diffusion of responsibility is a sociopsychological
phenomenon whereby a person is less likely to take
responsibility for action or inaction when others are
present.
• Considered a form of attribution, the individual
assumes that others either are responsible for taking
action or have already done so. Assumption of
responsibility tends to decrease when the potential
helping group is larger, resulting in little aiding
behavior demonstrated by the bystander(s).

88. Diffusion Of Responsibility

89. Terminology
• Whistleblower
• A whistleblower (also written as whistle-
blower or whistle blower) is a person who
exposes any kind of information or activity
that is deemed illegal, unethical, or not correct
within an organization that is either private or
public

90. Whistleblower

91. Terminology
• Altruism
• the principle or practice of unselfish concern
for or devotion to the welfare of others.

92. Terminology
• Empathy
• Empathy is the capacity to understand or feel
what another person is experiencing from
within their frame of reference, i.e., the
capacity to place oneself in another's position.
There are many definitions for empathy that
encompass a broad range of emotional states.
Types of empathy include cognitive empathy,
emotional empathy, and somatic empathy.

93. Empathy

94. References
• Bystander Effect
• https://En.Wikipedia.Org/Wiki/Bystander_effect
• Bystander Effect
• http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/bystander_effect.htm
• Bystander Effect: What It Is and How to Prevent It
• https://www.healthline.com/health/bystander-effect
• How The Murder Of Kitty Genovese Created The Bystander Effect
• https://allthatsinteresting.com/kitty-genovese
• How Supreme Court Guidelines Protect Good Samaritans Who Help Road Accident Victims
• https://sites.ndtv.com/roadsafety/how-supreme-court-guidelines-protect-good-samaritans-who-
help-road-accident-victims-3803/
• Murder of Kitty Genovese
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Kitty_Genovese
• Parable of the Good Samaritan
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_Good_Samaritan
• Good Samaritan law
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Samaritan_law
• Why be a Good Samaritan?
• https://savelifefoundation.org/gsl-microsite/

95. Bystander Effect

96. Good Samaritan laws offer legal protection to people who give reasonable
assistance to those who are, or who they believe to be, injured, ill, in peril, or
otherwise incapacitated.

97. “Always help someone. You might be the
only one that does.”