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from Verywell

What Is the Bystander Effect?

Why would a person standby and fail to help another person in trouble? In social psychology, this is known as the bystander effect. Learn why it happens and explore some examples.


This is an example of the bystander effect. The people walking in this video have several reasons not to help them man lying on the ground. The reasons range from giving excuses for his behavior ("he's drunk"), which to them is not a really important reason to help him, to putting the responsibility on others ("I'm sure someone else will handle it").


According to wikipedia; "The bystander effect, or bystanderapathy, is a social psychological phenomenon that refers to cases in which individuals do not offer any means of help to a victim when other people are present. The probability of help is inversely related to the number of bystanders."