But new research shows that even when accompanied by another person, individuals are much more likely to intervene if the situation is dangerous or violent, and when they feel empathy for the victim. The findings are published in the latest edition of the European Journal of Social Psychology.
To study this, researchers at Ludwig-Maximilian-University, Munich, Germany, recruited 54 women and 32 men and told them that they were going to monitor the interaction between a man and a woman who had never met. In fact, these two people were actors, and the after a few minutes the interaction became violent. The researchers were interested in seeing how long it took before the observer sought to break up the fight. They varied the degree of apparent danger by altering the relative sizes of the male and female actor. In some experiments a second observer, who had been instructed not to respond to the situation, accompanied the recruits.
In situations of low danger, 50% of observers tried to help the victim if they were watching alone, but this dropped to 6% when a bystander was present.
In situations of high danger, 44% of observers tried to help when alone, but in this situation so did 40% of those accompanied by a bystander.
"The classical bystander-effect was replicated when the situation involved low potential danger, but not when the situation involved high potential danger," says lead author Dr Peter Fischer. "The good news is that when people are in real trouble, they have a good chance of receiving help, even when more than one bystander is present."
Article: Fischer, P et al: The unresponsive bystander: Are
bystanders more responsive in dangerous emergencies?
European Journal of Social Psychology. 2005; 35: 1-12.
The European Journal of Social Psychology is an international forum for original research in all areas of social psychology.
The European Journal of Social Psychology was founded and is sponsored by the European Association of Experimental Social Psychology. It is dedicated to fostering scientific communication within Europe and between European and other social psychologists. The European Journal of Social Psychology can be accessed at: www.interscience.wiley.com/journal/ejsp
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European Journal of Social Psychology