Bystander intervention in emergencies: Diffusion of responsibility
Darley and Latane's experiment is the origin of the bystander effect as a demonstrated finding rather than a story. Participants sat alone in a room communicating over an intercom and overheard another participant, in fact a recording, having what sounded like a seizure. What varied was how many other people they believed were also listening. Those who thought they were the only listener reported the emergency fastest and most often; the more others they believed were present, the slower and less likely the response. Personality and background measures predicted almost nothing. The authors' explanation is diffusion of responsibility, and their argument is that the usual explanations for inaction in real emergencies, apathy or indifference to the victim, are the wrong place to look: the bystander is responding to the other bystanders rather than to the person in trouble. The design has been repeated many times. This vault should note that the aggregate picture looks different, as the study of real recorded conflicts shows.
Darley and Latane's experiment is the origin of the bystander effect as a demonstrated finding rather than a story. Participants sat alone in a room communicating over an intercom and overheard another participant, in fact a recording, having what sounded like a seizure. What varied was how many other people they believed were also listening. Those who thought they were the only listener reported the emergency fastest and most often; the more others they believed were present, the slower and less likely the response. Personality and background measures predicted almost nothing. The authors' explanation is diffusion of responsibility, and their argument is that the usual explanations for inaction in real emergencies, apathy or indifference to the victim, are the wrong place to look: the bystander is responding to the other bystanders rather than to the person in trouble. The design has been repeated many times. This vault should note that the aggregate picture looks different, as the study of real recorded conflicts shows.
Written from the abstract, OpenAlex.
What our sources record
Reproduced as it was written when this source was checked, figures and all.
Darley, J. M. & Latané, B. (1968). The bystander intervention experiments.
Where we use it
- The Courage Problem, Why We Act
Reliability of this reference
The link below is the right work, with one detail that does not line up. The citation names no specific paper. This is the foundational 1968 study. The companion Latane and Darley paper is at 10.1037/h0026570. Worth opening before quoting a figure from it.
The source
https://doi.org/10.1037/h0025589
DOI: 10.1037/h0025589