Local 6 News in Orlando recently conducted a test to see how quickly people would respond to a crime. They arranged for an undercover police officer to pretend to be a burglar trying to break into cars and homes in plain view of bystanders.
The results:
most bystanders ignored or just watched the crime -- and some even helped the thieves...
people were ready to help the mystery man break into a car.
A third test had the fake burglar enter a home through a window and then go out the front door. During the staged crime, some golfers gave a friendly wave and a technician ignored the incident.
These results aren't surprising. Psychologists have long been aware of the
"unresponsive bystander" effect. Witnesses to medical emergencies or crimes often do nothing, either because they assume someone else will do something, or because they fail to correctly interpret the situation.
In
Elephants on Acid
I describe an experiment that was conducted at Columbia University in 1968. Subjects were led to believe they were participating in a group discussion over an intercom system, with each participant sitting in a separate cubicle. Suddenly they heard one of the other participants having an epileptic seizure. The seizure was fake, but the subjects couldn't know that, and most of them did nothing to help, because they assumed someone else would help.
Comments
At the time, this passivity horrified the public. I wonder if it would have the same effect on people today.
It's also possible they've had a previous experience with unresponsive law enforcenment agencies. Who doesn't have a story about that. I once spotted a man obviously breaking into cars in the very early morning hours from my 2nd floor apartment window. I called 911 and they kept trying to convince me he really wasn't breaking into cars. There's never an assault rifle around when you need one.
Around here, members of the local gendarmarie get sarcastic when I even suggest they might want to do something about, for example, a rash of burglaries or robberies. Then they agitate for pay raises, pointing out how we have one of the highest crime rates in the country.
Try one of those experiments in some parts of Glasgow. If someone spots one of their cars being broken into they'll be all over the researcher, like a violent moss.
Many honest people think others are honest. I'd help a guy break into his car if I thought he was sincere. But more than likely, I'd offer to call a locksmith for him or a tow truck since I know nothing about breaking into a car other than the "brick" method.
The man was at a bus stop, and fell, hitting his head. There was a fair amount of blood. The guy I know stopped to help, and picked the guy up. When the old guy came back to being conscious, he started screaming at my pal and accused him of attacking him! Two young guys heard all this and were about to come intervine and grab my pal, until my pal explained.. so they held the old guy back while an ambulance was called. (the old guy hit my pal and landed a few good blows in actually).
So there's a risk when you're trying to help someone that they could then blame you..
It was interesting. Some people agreed with the guy refusing service to a muslim, or just plain ignored the situation. Some people did stand up for her - which I thought was nice.
In the one with the girls, more women got involved than men...until the girls got physical, THEN the men stepped in to stop them. The girls were teens, and the scenario happened in a family type park where the passers-by were parents themselves. Most of the people they showed had kids with them. The girls (all actors) were told to keep their language clean - which they did - but a lot of the people confronting them did NOT. I thought that was crummy. So, when you see a kid bullying another, you should call them names & be profane with them?
The car one was a little stupid. They had a woman back into a jag...and then later they switched it & had a guy back into it. I don't remember if they gave results on if people intervened more when it was a male vs. female driver.
I have called 911 from my cell phone more than once when I have seen something happening while I'm driving. (Car accidents type stuff mostly.) Once I saw a guy trying to push a girl into traffic. I was afraid to stop b/c it was a busy street & I couldn't really pull over b/c of a sidewalk. Another time I told a manager that a woman was abusing a child in a walmart. She was hitting him with her cart repeatedly. And screaming at him & calling him names. I stayed long enough to see the manager going over to the woman with a very large male employee (protection maybe?)...It's hard to know when to help sometimes...but to me, if violence looks imminent or there is a child involved, I will at least notify someone who may be able to do something. (Typically being with 2 children in public myself - I would not want them in harms way while I helped someone else.)