Indifference Kills: The Bystander Effect

In 1964, Kitty Genovese was raped and stabbed to death in the middle of an open apartment complex in Queens, New York.

As reported by the New York Times on March 27th, 1964, 37 bystanders who witnessed the murder did not call the police, nor did they assist her in any way..

“For more than half an hour 37 respectable, law-abiding citizens in Queens watched a killer stalk and stab a woman in three separate attacks in Kew Gardens” – New York Times

Why is it that not one of these people, who later reported hearing or witnessing the crime, aided Kitty?

The Bystander Effect, or Bystander Apathy (Social Psychology): when individuals are less likely to take action when others are present due to diffusion of responsibility and social influences (observing others to determine one’s own behavior).

Basically, the greater the number of bystanders, the less likely it is that an individual will take action.

This is because people in a group will assume that someone else around them will help, and that their individual action is not needed.

But if all members of the group think in this apathetic manner, incidents such as the Kitty Genovese murder and the Wang Yue hit-and-run occur.

Wang Yue was just another child wandering around in an open market in China.

The two year old was run over by a truck, which then stopped briefly- only to continue driving, running her over with the back tires a second time.

Nineteen people walked past her body, some stopping to stare, and yet no one came to the child’s aid.

It was only an hour later that a bystander helped Wang– but it was too late. She died in the hospital shortly after.

Watch the CCTV footage here. WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9KuUR2-p9Q#t=39)

How can this behavior be explained?

According to Richard Dawkins, a renowned biologist and professor at Oxford University, what differentiates humans from every other species in the animal kingdom is the development of the prefrontal cortex (PFC).

The medial and dorsomedial parts of the PFC control controls cognitive functioning and rational thought—the argument is that empathy and the ability to mentalize can motivate unselfish behavior.

In essence, humans are special because we can choose to act kindly to our fellow humans. (Right?)

However, evolutionary biology says that throughout our history, humans have only acted out prosocial behaviors to benefit the self, or else you wouldn´t have lived.

This makes sense, because survival of the fittest means that whoever has the best resources also has the highest chances of survival.

The infamous example of apathy is the Holocaust, in which the whole world closed its eyes to the genocide going on before them– some even living close enough to the concentration camps to report “smelling” the corpses being burned.

But if these people had spoken out individually, they most likely would have suffered the same fate.

The ones that stayed quiet, however, would go on to reproduce, and so on. This would be referred to as reproductive fitness. (Death, of course, would reduce one’s reproductive fitness to a 0%.)

So biologically and socially, people are just inclined to be apathetic and ignore things that they cannot benefit from/might be harmed by.

How can we help this? Well, we are the only species to have a PFC.

“I didn’t want to get involved.” This is the common factor of all of the aforementioned events.

Bystanders reported not wanting to be involved for fear of negative consequences for the self, and also because it was likely that “someone else could offer help, not me”.

If people were aware of this phenomenon, they could choose to act in way that could prevent events such as these from happening, one step at a time.

If someone had called paramedics faster, Wang Yue might have lived.

If someone had helped Kitty, her assailant might have ran away and not had the opportunity to rape and stab her to death for over half an hour.

Fight indifference.

Whether it’s a small event, such as helping the elderly across the street, or something more significant with higher risk, such as nursing a friend back to health, don’t assume that because someone else will take responsibility, you don’t have to care.

Everyone around you might be thinking the exact same apathetic thought.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/bystander-effect

http://paultripp.com/assets/1804/12_article_graphic_kitty_genovese.jpg

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/03/11/50-years-later-kitty-genovese-murder-still-grips-nyc-nation/

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/09/06/chinese-toddler-hit-run-foshan-van-jailed_n_1860228.html

http://www.whatayear.org/images/prefrontal_cortex.jpg