h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The Bystander Effect is also known as Being A Sheep, because sheep react much the same way as your typical bystander.

A person is a (mostly) sane, intelligent, articulate entity capable of individual thought and action. People are stupid, panicky, animals who need to be told what to do. Herd instinct.

Morbid curiosity is also a part of the Bystander Effect. Take a motorway crash, for example, and how many people will slow down to rubberneck at the wreckage and there you go. Any accident will leave any bystander openmouthed, gazing owlishly and making comments on how awful it is, whilst AT THE SAME TIME making no attempt to move unless they are physically moved on (gently) by the local herd leader (usually police, firemen, etc.)

There must be some Darwinian selection pressure that says that behaving in a manner that is fairly similar to others of your species in your environment is a good (safe) thing to do. If there is nobody else around you are making your own decision. That decision will depend upon the bystander's assessment of the likely level of risk that arises from acting compared to the level of benefit that arises to him. Where a group is present, the bystanders will be making the same decision but will have their assessment reinforced by whatever the others do.

The risk can arise from lots of different directions. I have worked with people who say that they would not stop to help somebody because they are not a trained first aider and are frightened that they would be sued. I have walked past a violent confrontation between two young males, becaue I decided that they were reasonably evenly mathed and both likely to turn on me if I got involved.

Any incident in which at least one of the bystanders takes action will not exactly make that headlines. (Car crash in high street - somebody stops to help!).

Where at least one person acts it is likely that this will give others encouragement to do the same (Car crash in high street - some people stop to help!).

Where many people can help but decide not to, we are surprised. (Car crash in high street - driver dies alone!).

I think that the problem is that we all like to imagine that we are people of strong and good character. Because we are predisposed to think this of ourselves we tend to think it in relation to all the members of our species. This is what physcologists call the Fundamental Attribution error. We all tend to believe that somebodies actions are determined by some basic element of human character. The real truth is that we are all make these types of decisions based on the context and environent in which they occur.