Bystander Effect

During my career as a Safety Professional, it was not uncommon during accident investigation to learn that the action that let to the accident had happened many times before.  It was also not uncommon for peers to have witnessed the unsafe action, and made no attempt to intervene and stop the chain of cause and effect before the accident happened.

So, one of the many things I focused on in accident prevention was in getting people more comfortable to make an intervention, to stop someone when they were doing something that they could get hurt doing.

I'm sure many of you are thinking that this should have been pretty easy.  We all like to think that we would stop someone from doing something that they could hurt themselves doing.  But intervention is hard.

One of the tasks I was assigned to was to create a learning event to help people understand the barriers to intervention, and the psychological predisposition to looking the other way.

It was in the creation of that learning event that I first learned about bystander effect.  The term bystander effect was first popularized after the 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese.  Genovese was stabbed to death outside her New York apartment.  There were many witnesses to the murder, but no one helped or called police.

In the years since 1964, the popularized version of the murder of Kitty Genovese has been called into question.  There are accounts that the police were called, but arrived too late.  But the lessons from the psychological studies that followed this case still have merit.

There are many underlying causes for bystander effect.  One of the most profound is the belief that other people see the problem, and one of them is more qualified to intervene.  Another cause is fear, fear for your own safety or comfort.

I've been thinking a lot about bystander effect lately.  In a country that seems torn by political discord, violence and a declining social norm for solving problems peacefully, it seems impossible that all of us will not have to make a choice at some point between intervening in a frightening public situation, or looking the other way.

I don't want anyone who is reading this to feel criticized if you know you just can not intervene.  There are huge psychological barriers to intervention.

But I would ask everyone reading this to think about what you can, and what you should do.  Can you film the event using your smart phone?  Can you call 911?   Can you just make a lot of noise and attract a crowd?  What can and what will you do?

Challenge yourself on many levels.  One of the exercises in the learning event gave groups scenarios, and asked what they would do.  It was fairly universal that someone seeing a toddler about to run into a road would grab the toddler.   Seeing a woman with small children broken down on the side of the road?  More people would stop and help, then would stop and help if it was a man broken down on the side of the road.  But most would call 911.

I know none of us want to imagine ourselves in an active shooter situation.  Or watching someone get beat up.  Or watching someone be verbally abused.  But I think it is good to imagine yourself in those situations, and make a plan for what you will do.

We most often regret what we didn't do more than what we did do.  I would hate to think that my inaction cost someone their life, but I would also hate to think my inaction cost someone their dignity.

We all have the power of our voice and our presence to be a force for good.  It is hard to be the good we can be when we are shocked into silence.  Because of that, we have to anticipate what could go wrong that could need our voice, and prepare to be that voice.

Psychologists recommend that when seeing someone being verbally abused that you do not confront the abuser, but rather approach the victim with small talk.   Lovely weather, nice dress, love your hair, whatever; and place yourself as close to the victim without invading their space.  Keep up a steady flow of inoffensive chatter, distract them from the verbal abuse, and stay with them until the abuser is gone.

Physical abuse is harder to figure out what to do.  By all means, call for help.  Then you will have to make a call based on the personal risk of the specific situation.  Often you will have limited options. Just do the best you can.

If in an active shooter situation, run if you can, hide if that is the only possibility.  If you are hiding with a group, try to help each other to barricade yourselves from the shooter.

With this past weekend seeing mass shootings in New Orleans and Kansas City, and with yesterday's attack on Ohio State's campus; it seems that the violence in society is escalating.  Checking in with the gun violence archive, they report nine mass shootings since Thanksgiving.

Be smart about where you go.  Have a plan for what you will do if violence erupts where you are.  And as much as possible, know what you will do to be one of the helpers.