The Bystander Effect

If you were a bystander of someone in need would you drop everything and help or would you turn you back hoping that somebody else would help instead?

In March of 1964, 28-year-old Catherine “Kitty” Genovese arrived at her home from work, and as she reached her apartment entrance she was brutally attacked and eventually murdered by a man now known as Winston Moseley. While she screamed and pleaded for help, dozens of people nearby never answered her cries. The attack began at 3:20 AM, but it wasn’t until 3:50 a.m. when someone nearby decided to contact the police. Genovese was not only a victim of a brutal murder, but a victim of The Bystander Effect.

The Bystander Effect is a phenomenon where the more people around when someone’s in need, the less likely someone will be willing to help. We are all guilty of The Bystander Effect in some way; whether it’s not interfering when a bully is picking on our peers, the fights that we never bother to break up, or the car on the side of the road. All situations we leave in the hands of someone else, but why do we do this? Why do we suddenly drop our morals and values when we come across situations like these?

“People in general feel that if they didn’t do it, then it isn’t their problem,” junior Cymore Richardson said. “It’s sad, but I can’t change how people react in those situations.”

Though we cannot generalize all people’s reasons not to help, because there may be many reasons why bystanders do not help victims, that certainly may be one of the many excuses people do not help.

“I mean, you would think someone would be willing to help somebody in need,” junior Alexis Sanders said. “That’s not the case anymore.”

If the situations happened to be flipped, and the victim was now the bystander…would these new victims want anyone else to help them when they are in an emergency situation? Of course they would.

“Now when I know someone that needs help,” sophomore Tranesha Barnes said. “I will be more open and willing to help.”

The Bystander Effect is a worldwide phenomenon. This is a problem that we are dealing with as a human race, and hopefully they will be more willing to fix it. One student at a time.