The Unresponsive Bystander: Are Bystanders More Responsive in Dangerous Emergencies?

By Peter Fischer, Tobias Greitemeyer, Fabian Pollozek, Dieter Frey. 2006

257 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Previous research in bystander intervention found that the presence of other bystanders reduces helping behaviour in an emergency (bystander effect). This research was mainly conducted in the context of non-dangerous, non-violent emergencies. We hypothesize that the classic bystander effect does not occur in more dangerous situations because: a) they are faster and more clearly recognized as emergency situations; and b) higher costs for refusing help increase the accepted costs for helping. Following this line of reasoning, the present research tests whether the bystander effect is affected by the degree of the emergency's potential danger. Results supported our expectations: In situations with low potential danger, more help was given in the solitary condition than in the bystander condition. However, in situations with high potential danger, participants confronted with an emergency alone or in the presence of another bystander were similarly likely to help the victim.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/89f2839450f927155d814f55efa90391940d032b

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Citations in the corpus

A Situational Model of Sexual Assault Prevention through Bystander Intervention (2009, background): “reduce ambiguity and therefore reduce the bystander effect (Fischer et al. 2005; Harari et al. 2001), sexual assault risk in many situations may be ambiguous.”
Contributions of Personal and Situational Factors to Bystanders' Reactions to School Bullying (2009, background): “Fischer et al. (2006) tested whether this bystander effect is influenced by the degree of the emergency’s potential harm.”
A classmate in distress: schoolchildren as bystanders and their reasons for how they act (2007, background): “In contrast, in situations with a clear potential danger to the victim, bystanders are more likely to intervene ( Fischer, Greitemeyer, Pollozek, & Dieter, 2006 ).”
The bystander-effect: a meta-analytic review on bystander intervention in dangerous and non-dangerous emergencies. (2011, background): “The new studies address a variety of critical issues, such as bystander intervention in dangerous emergencies (Fischer et al., 2006; Harari, Harari, & White, 1985), high versus low ambiguous emergencies (Kalafat, Elias, & Gara, 1993), or bystander intervention for a Black victim versus a White…”