The Bystander Effect | The Science of Empathy

If a stranger needed help, how long would it take you to offer them a hand? According to psychology, the answer to that question may depend less on who you are as a person and more on how many people are with you at the time. In a strange paradox of human nature, the more people there are in a group, the less likely anyone is to offer help. It's called the bystander effect, and it may be a roadblock that's keeping you from showing empathy. When someone is in need, people in large groups tend to feel that they don't need to do anything because someone else will take care of it. This is known as the diffusion of responsibility. The end result is nobody does anything. And if you don't believe me, I'll show you. We started with a large group of 10 people and told them they were here today to see a product demonstration. So we're just basically looking for emotional reactions to certain products. We're not quite ready to go yet. So as you can see, you have these surveys. Go ahead, start filling them out. Take all the time you need with them. I am going to go get the product and just kind of start throwing it together, and then we're going to begin. Sound good, everyone? Okay. Cool. Thanks. Here's the thing, though. Everybody but one of these people wasn't in on it. We gave her a 10-minute window where she could offer to help. Let's see if she comes to my rescue. We repeated this a few more times with varying results. Come on. That didn't sound good. Next, we tried it with a group of five. Oh, geez. So far, it's not looking good for people in general. Are we just plain unhelpful, or is there something to the bystander effect? To find out, let's see how helpful people are when they're all by themselves. Hi. The results? With our group of 10 people, it took our participants an average of 8 minutes and 1 second before they lent a hand. Excuse me. Thank you. Can I help? I just feel bad. Oh, thanks. Participants in our groups of five were a little quicker, saving me from the tent with an average time of 7 minutes and 25 seconds. I'm okay. Do you need help? Do you want to give me a hand? Yeah. That'd be great. Thank you. What can I do? But when our participants were by themselves, that is when they really shined. Oh, thank you so much. On average, they offered to step in in just 3 minutes and 19 seconds. You were the fastest by a country mile. I have set this thing up by myself seven times today. That makes me sad. Completely. You took a total of 12 seconds. Why do you think you were so quick to do it? I like to help in any way that I can. That's the funny thing about the bystander effect. You would think that a group with more people would mean there's a higher chance someone would do something, but people in a group are actually less likely to help. I knew I should have just stood up and done it, but then a big part of me wanted to see what these people would do, and I was just kind of like, are any of them going to help? At first, I was a little shy to jump in and help, but then after a while, I was just like, you know, I'm just going to jump in and help. Thank you. I appreciate it. You're welcome. Sorry it took 8 minutes. When it's just the two of us in a space, there's like a bond that's created that's like, I'm not going to let you struggle on your own. And I think if there is a group of people, it's way more acceptable for me to be doing that. It's the diffusion of responsibility. I think that's totally true. If something is saying jump in and offer to help, just follow that intuition. Even if no one else is saying anything, just, hey, if you can be a part of helping someone, instead of just watching them struggle, or even take out your cell phone and like tape it or something like that, which is the worst, just offer some help. So now that you know about the bystander effect, ask yourself, how often do you feel like you should help someone, but don't because you think somebody else will do it. Maybe next time you will be that somebody.