[hobbes]

Give her the phone! GIVE HER THE PHONE!!

edit: OK, I'm being downvoted. That's fine. But, why put your irreplaceable life in mortal danger for the sake of keeping hold of replaceable consumer electronics? That's the disconnect I'm finding hard to process.

[swang]

Very sad you are being downvoted.

Someone should have helped her, but with hindsight she didn't want to give up her own electronics and wanted someone else to risk their life for her things.

But this situation is also very traumatic for her so there could be any number of reasons why she chose not to just hand her phone over.

I definitely can understand her being angry, but this isn't really an issue about people not paying attention as much as it is bystander effect (it seems).

[icebraining]

It was a poor decision made in a moment of panic, not a rational, well pondered choice. Is it really that hard to empathize?

[gametheoretic]

11 minutes of panic. With torn ligaments. Empathize with an 'e'?

[blueskin_]

People's responses don't work that way. In any serious situation, the adrenaline will leave you feeling off for an hour or so afterwards, where you might still make decisions you might say you wouldn't when not under pressure.

[blueskin_]

Possibly because it's easy to say that afterwards, but it isn't directly relevant to the bystander effect. Sure, it's the sensible option, but that isn't on many people's minds at the time because that isn't how biology works.

Also, although it may be beside the point, you could argue that giving them what they want will just increase muggings. The way to sort out the problem is to relax laws around people helping out victims in cases like this.

[crashoverdrive]

I don't know why you're being down voted either. In the moment I couldn't get past her wanting all of my things, and I couldn't get past having to do my presentation and letting all of my peers and company down. I froze and in the future that won't happen again, but you were right, I should have thrown my phone and hobbled away.

[k-mcgrady]

I was thinking the same thing. Even if you can't afford another one, hand over the damn phone. And don't throw coffee over the person attacking you with a deadly weapon. Of course they will chase you.

[Mithaldu]

I downvoted you, but to be honest, not because i think your advice is bad. (It's kind of reasonable.)

I downvoted you because, like the other top posts, your post managed to gather downvotes via emotional appeal, while posts that point out the actual social source of this behavior along with simple and effective advice on how to circumvent it, are left in the middle of this comment section due to lack of emotional appeal.

[alandarev]

It was not a choice between give phone and life. I view her story as she initially had a choice between give phone and scare the mugger off by the fact it is a middle of a day in large city.

Yes, the second option did not work as planned, and it is the main point of the article.

[jwmoz]

Agreed. The fact someone would potentially risk their lives over a mobile phone is beyond me.

And also, did the OP not consider the potential consequences of throwing a boiling drink in the face of another person armed with a knife?

[icebraining]

Does it matter? What do you intend to gain from that discussion?

[gametheoretic]

Yes, the audience's ability to relate to the protagonist matters.

Intend? In the trivial sense, you can guess; in the broad, unknowable.

[hobbes]

Someone was almost murdered. Of course it matters.