Would I be helped? Cross-national CCTV footage shows that intervention is the norm in public conflicts
Philpot and colleagues point out that fifty years of bystander research answered a question about individuals, whether any one person is less likely to help when others are present, and left the question an actual victim would ask entirely open: will anybody help me. They answered it with surveillance footage of real public conflicts in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and South Africa, coding more than two hundred incidents for whether anyone intervened. In roughly nine cases in ten, at least one bystander did something, and usually several did. The rate was similar in all three countries despite very different levels of perceived public safety. And crucially, more bystanders present meant a greater chance that someone acted, which is the opposite of the pattern the individual-level effect leads people to expect. The authors argue the discipline should stop telling the story of inaction and start studying what makes intervention work. This is the paper to cite alongside the classic bystander experiments.
Philpot and colleagues point out that fifty years of bystander research answered a question about individuals, whether any one person is less likely to help when others are present, and left the question an actual victim would ask entirely open: will anybody help me. They answered it with surveillance footage of real public conflicts in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and South Africa, coding more than two hundred incidents for whether anyone intervened. In roughly nine cases in ten, at least one bystander did something, and usually several did. The rate was similar in all three countries despite very different levels of perceived public safety. And crucially, more bystanders present meant a greater chance that someone acted, which is the opposite of the pattern the individual-level effect leads people to expect. The authors argue the discipline should stop telling the story of inaction and start studying what makes intervention work. This is the paper to cite alongside the classic bystander experiments.
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What our sources record
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Philpot, R., Liebst, L. S., Levine, M., Bernasco, W. & Lindegaard, M. R. (2020). "Would I Be Helped? Cross-National CCTV Footage Shows That Intervention Is the Norm in Public Conflicts." American Psychologist. N = 219 incidents in Amsterdam, Cape Town and Lancaster; intervention in nine of ten; more bystanders associated with greater likelihood of intervention.
Where we use it
- The Courage Problem, Why We Act
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The link below was matched against the publisher's record on title, first author and year, and all three agree.
The source
https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000469
DOI: 10.1037/amp0000469