Essay Sample on Bystander Effect: Inaction in Emergency Situations

Introduction

The bystander effect is a psychological claim which propounds that persons are less likely to intervene or come to the rescue of others in an emergency as the number of bystanders grows (Van Bommel et al., 2016), and (You & Lee, 2019). This theoretical claim, to some extent, can be propounded by pieces of evidence from experiences. For instance, the 1964gruesome incident in which Kitty Genovese was sodomized and killed in Queens, New York, as several neighbors watched, yet none intervened. In yet another more recent incident in 2009, two teenagers murdered Dominik Brunner at a German train station at the back of the deceased's attempts to rescue children who had themselves been accosted by the killers. The atrocity took place without any physical intervention despite the heavy presence of passersby (Fischer et al., 2011).

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Research Objective and Problem Statement

According to Garcia, Weaver, Moskowitz, and Darley (2002), when an individual faces a situation of another person in distress, he or she is less likely to intervene or be slow to respond in the presence of others than when they are alone. This is because they presume the other present parties are equally available to intervene. However, if the individual becomes aware that the immediate present or imagined persons cannot intervene, the bystander apathy fades, and one is likely to respond as if they were alone. Over time, psychologists have constructed some theoretical accounts to explain their findings on the bystander intervention phenomenon. First, the diffusion of responsibility accounts. The diffusion of responsibility accounts propounds the perspective that as the number of persons in an intervention-demanding situation grows, the urge or compulsion for each person to respond diminishes. This often is influenced by the subconscious assumption that the victim in distress is already receiving or will receive help. Secondly, social influence and pluralistic ignorance account according to Darley et al. (1973) and Prentice and Miller (1996) respectively, as quoted by Garcia et al. (2002) posit the perspective that the potential interveners to an emergency are most likely to be influenced by the behavioral characteristics of others present in that situation. If the immediate persons to an emergency appear calm and composed, the would-be interveners are prone to assume the situation is under control or altogether, not an emergency. At the back of these three theoretical accounts, Cacioppo, Petty, and Losch (1986) postulated the confusion of responsibility theoretical account (Garcia et al., 2002). This account is of the perspective that the would-be helpers refrain from intervening in especially when others are present for fear of being perceived as the perpetrators of the incident.

These theoretical accounts construct compelling grounds upon which one can explain bystander apathies concerning emergency responses in the presence of others (Hortensius & de Gelder, 2018). However, by exploring more literature material on this subject, the objective of this thesis will be to investigate with a renewed and insightful perspective the main influential factors in bystander response behavior by looking at items like fear expressed by the bystander effect in response behavior.

Research Questions

In order to achieve its objective, this research proposal will focus on answering the following four separate question that focuses the paper on the inquiry:

What factors mainly influence an individual's behavior in the bystander effect model?

What is the fear expressed by the bystander effect in response behavior?

Is the bystander effect minimized or reversed in dangerous emergencies?

Are there particular circumstances where bystanders can accelerate their response because they are perceived as welcome support in dangerous emergencies?

Literature Review

Volumes of studies have been carried out on the subject of bystander effect on situation responses and have revealed a myriad of findings and perspectives. According to Karakishan, Walter, Christopher, and Lucas (2006) and Van De Sande and Leinhardt (2008), shyness and fear of negative evaluation (FNE) are influential in bystander responses, and there is a significant margin in the interaction between FNE and the condition. Separately, Tice and Baumeister (1985) and Karakashian et al. (2006) support this claim that in non-social conditions, it was witnessed that persons who helped had lower FNE scores than those who did not. There were also shreds of evidence of gender-condition interaction, with males more likely to help a female victim within a social condition compared to the female counterpart, propounding the wide held social perspective that a man ought to help a woman.

On the other hand, however, Tice and Baumeister (1985) and Hudson and Bruckman (2004) argue that masculinity is a fear-contributing factor in bystander response. Men are less likely to intervene for fear of their masculinity being called into question. Carlson (2008) points out that females will readily assist a woman in need, as opposed to a man's fears. For example, Leone et al. (2016) and Thomas et al. (2016), highlights a case of a rape victim, men will shy away from assisting for fear of being suspected while a female will readily help. Due to the bystander effects, some scholars have also argued that victims' lives may be exposed to more danger with a bystander as opposed just like their absence. Fromell et al. (2019) ponders over this issue and assesses how the bystander effect is harmful to the victims. Zhong (2010) and Liebst, Heinskou, and Ejbye-Ernst (2018) support this claim because most of the bystanders' fear being victimized for offering assistance.

Significance of the Study

This study will be instrumental in this topic. First, it will add to existing literature pieces of evidence on this interesting subject. Secondly and most critical, by analyzing its empirical findings on this subject, it will help reconstruct perspectives and understand the role of some psychological factors like fear in bystander effect to situational responses.

Research Methods

The research will be both quantitative and qualitative. The qualitative method used will be a systematic literature review. This methodology often is employed in business and social sciences researches to examine behavior-based issues and social problems. It entails defining the scope of the literature review through the development of questions that direct the study and evaluation of data to strengthen efficiency.

To ensure a high-quality review of the literature on this subject, an effective procedure will be employed. This will involve an in-depth search of relevant peer-reviewed articles. The sources will mainly be databases such as Google Scholar and EBSCOHost. After gathering the related literature s, the data will be analyzed and summarized in findings. On the other hand, in its quantitative model, the research will adopt the interview methodology to come up with empirical pieces of evidence on this matter and analyze for any differentials between wide-held perspectives and the reality of bystander effect in emergency response. The interview will consist of semi-structured, consisting of open-ended questions.

Conclusion

Insofar as the bystander effect is concerned, it is evident that the concept faces a myriad of challenges. As demonstrated in this study, several issues affect a bystander's reaction to assist a victim. The issues mentioned range from fear of being victimized to an individual's sex. The existing literature, however, does not offer a joint approach in overcoming the fear of assisting an injured person in public.