Hiding from Yourself Amid the Crowd

It's called the Bystander Effect...

... and sometimes it makes me sad to be a human.

Basically, the Bystander Effect is the phenomenon that occurs when a group of people witness a crime. See, when a single person sees something bad happen to someone else, they tend to act. But put that person in a small group, and not only are they less likely to act, the likelihood that any person is smaller than the single witness scenario. The trend continues as the group of people grows.

At first, this seems weird. Why is a huge group of people unlikely to yield a single helper? Even a group of people who, had they been the solitary witness, each would have been willing to help.

It's all about deferral of responsibility. See, the lone witness knows that if they don't help, no one will. But in a group you know that there is someone better suited, more knowledgeable, or more apt to be the hero. In the end, everyone stands there, the responsibility smoothly distributed amongst all who stand by, just enough to make each one to feel uncomfortable, but not enough to make them help.

In all honesty, this nuance of human psychology makes me angry. I want to believe the group would come in and kick ass as a group. 10,000 strong, solving the problem. I want to be a member of race that is unfalteringly responsive to the needs of the world. But I'm not.

The thing that gets me is that the Bystander Effect is a product of social science. It isn't some idea about people, its the product of empirical study. This is how people behave. It would seem that I am doomed to be the coward in the crowd, hiding from my own conscience amid the masses.

So it would seem.

Unless you know a little about social science. Whenever scientists study the world there is all kinds of crazy crap that happens. Some of it fits into the system they are trying to test... some doesn't. If all research had to deal with all the occurrences, research would very rarely get done. So they only keep the data that allows forward movement. Basically, you are allowed to throw out the radicals, those unpredictably far from the mean.

Translation. A study can throw out weird subjects in order to make a cohesive picture. Mark it off to oddity, unforeseen variables, and extraordinary circumstances.

This is a ray of hope. Scientific conclusions need not be fates concerning your behaviors. That statistical radicals. That can be you.

See, my father is immune to the Bystander Effect. Perhaps its because he is a fire fighter, and he is used to being the one in the crowd actually responsible for helping. Perhaps its because of his strong sense of service that prompts him to act. Maybe its a foolishness or a fearlessness that keeps him from worrying about it long enough to not want to act.

Whatever it is, when something is going wrong, he is on the scene. No hesitation. No deferral of responsibility. Just action. Does this make the Bystander Effect wrong? Not exactly. It just makes my father part of the 5% that the researchers had to throw out in order to make sense of it all.

Strive to be that 5%. Idealize those people who are unwilling to let injustice and danger come to pass without acting. Act.

Ironically, me learning about the Bystander Effect has made it less true, at least in my life. Nowadays, when I am in a situation where many people aren't responding, and I start thinking, "Isn't someone going to do something?" I suddenly think, "Oh, crap, the Bystander Effect!" and I jump into action. I also try to consciously hone my identity so I don't even have the first thought. I try to develop my compassion for others and the courage within me so that when something bad happens, by first response is help. Hopefully one day I will only entertain thoughts like, "What is the way to do the greatest good?"

Besides, the Bystander Effect speaks nothing of human nature. It only describes human actions. This means that it could simply be a nuance of our culture, and that if enough people strove to live beneath the alpha level, eventually the Bystander Effect would no longer true.

What a great goal, huh? To be part of a people who at the first sign of trouble, solved it as one. Part of a race that refused to let the reigns of responsibility slip from their fingers, acting as though it was our sacred calling to right every wrong, no matter what caused it.

If I want to be a member of that group, I had better start with me. Waiting for other people to defy the Bystander Effect would be missing the point.