{"id":21541,"date":"2013-10-10T09:53:09","date_gmt":"2013-10-10T16:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/?page_id=21541"},"modified":"2015-08-04T11:20:40","modified_gmt":"2015-08-04T18:20:40","slug":"bystander-apathy","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/bystander-apathy\/","title":{"rendered":"Bystander Apathy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Bystander apathy<\/strong><\/span> is the tendency of bystanders in some stressful or life-threatening situations to not react or intervene to help others.<\/p>\n<h2>What Is Bystander Apathy?<\/h2>\n<p>Bystander apathy is a symptom of the bystander effect. The bystander effect occurs when bystanders do not intervene when watching someone be victimized or otherwise in need of help. For example, bystanders witnessing a child being forced into a car by a stranger might not intervene to help or contact the police. The apathy of bystanders is a significant contributing factor to the bystander effect. This effect has been heavily documented, and there have been several well-publicized incidents of it, including an instance in which no bystander intervened to help murder victim Kitty Genovese.<\/p>\n<h2>What Causes Bystander Apathy?<\/h2>\n<p>Although bystanders to horrifying events have been criticized for their apathy, the apathy of bystanders seems to be a common phenomenon, and many people from many walks of life will not intervene in stressful circumstances. This apathy has been heavily studied, and researchers have documented several contributing factors including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Size of the crowd:<\/strong> When people are in a large group they are less likely to intervene, possibly because they believe someone else will intervene. When a person is in a large group, they are less likely to view themselves as responsible for the well-being of a victim and therefore might be less likely to intervene.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Noticing and interpreting the event:<\/strong> When a stranger is in trouble, a bystander&#8217;s willingness to help depends first upon noticing the event. If a bystander does not see what is happening&#8211;as is common among rushed bystanders or in large crowds&#8211;they cannot intervene. Second, a bystander&#8217;s interpretation of the event can prevent intervention. A person might, for example, not intervene in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/learn-about-therapy\/issues\/domestic-violence\">domestic violence incident<\/a> because he or she views the incident as a private matter or does not perceive the victim as particularly threatened.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>References:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Tyrrell, M. (n.d.). Bystander apathy &#8211; it&#8217;s none of my business! Uncommon Knowledge. Retrieved from http:\/\/www.uncommon-knowledge.co.uk\/articles\/bystander-apathy.html<\/li>\n<li>Yudkowsky, E. (n.d.). Bystander apathy. Less Wrong. Retrieved from http:\/\/lesswrong.com\/lw\/9j\/bystander_apathy\/<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bystander apathy is the tendency of bystanders in some stressful or life-threatening situations to not react or intervene to help others. What Is Bystander Apathy? Bystander apathy is a symptom of the bystander effect. The bystander effect occurs when bystanders do not intervene when watching someone be victimized or otherwise in need of help. For [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2373,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"psychpedia.php","meta":{"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-21541","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2373"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21541\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}