Knowra Bystander effect Bystander effect The tendency for people to be less likely to help someone in need when other people are present. It is often explained by shared responsibility and uncertainty about how others interpret the situation.
Diffusion of responsibility : The reduction in each person’s felt responsibility when responsibility is shared among several people. More apparent potential helpers can make each person feel less personally accountable for intervening.
Murder of Kitty Genovese : The 1964 killing of Kitty Genovese in New York City, later central to public discussion of bystander inaction. News accounts of the killing prompted widespread concern about why witnesses might fail to intervene.
Active bystander intervention : An approach that equips people to recognize harmful situations and take safe, constructive action. It counters passive group dynamics by giving observers concrete ways to intervene.
Bystander intervention effect : The finding that, across many studies, individuals are less likely to help when other potential helpers are present. This label describes the observed pattern, while explanations such as diffusion of responsibility identify possible mechanisms.
Bystander effect meta-analysis : A statistical synthesis of research findings on how the presence of other people relates to helping. Meta-analytic work tests how consistently the effect appears across tasks and settings.
Pluralistic ignorance : A misreading in which people privately reject a norm or interpretation but assume others accept it. People may interpret bystanders’ calm reactions as evidence that the situation is not an emergency.
John M. Darley : An American social psychologist known for research on helping, moral judgment, and responsibility. Darley helped establish experimental research on how the presence of others affects intervention.
Bystander intervention : Action by someone who witnesses another person’s need, danger, or mistreatment. The effect concerns when and why this broader form of helping does or does not occur.
Bystander calculus : A decision framework in which helping depends on perceived costs, benefits, and responsibility. Cost-sensitive decisions offer an alternative emphasis to explanations based mainly on group size.
Bystander intervention in cyberbullying : Actions taken by witnesses to prevent, challenge, or report cyberbullying. Online settings raise questions about whether visibility, audience size, and responsibility work as they do in person.
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