[TheZenPsycho]

this is a well known phenomenon called the "bystander effect"

wikipedia entry here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bystander_effect

long story short, what's going on in people's minds when they don't help is that, probably someone else will step in, and playing hero will probably just get in the way.

which, isn't that helpful if 100% of the bystanders are thinking that. It's somebody else's problem.

there's a simple remedy- Don't scream "help! anyone! help!" scream "Hey you, burly looking dude. Help! yes you!" ' This is what psychologists say. until the evidence comes in, I'm skeptical that it would work. but it's better than repeating these stories again and again.

[blueskin_]

>there's a simple remedy- Don't scream "help! anyone! help!" scream "Hey you, burly looking dude. Help! yes you!"

Exactly this. The same goes for calling emergency services - there are cases where response was delayed because everyone was assuming someone else was doing it. I've been the one person who did it before, I'd say due to having an understanding of this. It's really something people should be taught about in school and how to avoid both participating in it and letting it happen.

[jeroen94704]

It may be partly "somebody else will fix this", but also largely "is this really what it seems"? It could be a genuine robbery, or a piece of improv street theatre, or a sociology experiment. And since nobody else is responding, maybe they see something I don't.

As an aside, apparently she pretty much did what you suggest (which is the standard advice to deal with the bystander effect) in that she asked one particular bystander to help her, but even that didn't work.

[blueskin_]

>It could be a genuine robbery, or a piece of improv street theatre, or a sociology experiment.

If so, irresponsible experiment/theatre, and they have only themselves to blame if someone did get tripped/punched/rugby tackled/hit with martial arts moves/arrested. The fact that nobody did any of those is the main problem - if someone did, many people would have felt more confident too, both at not being caught up in police issues around it, but also via a safety in numbers instinct.

[TheZenPsycho]

Yeah I'm a bit confused by that part. She got the guy's attention but didn't really say what happened with him after that.

[loup-vaillant]

The "is this really what it seems?" part is mostly a rationalization. It's hard to feel the full force of shame, when you have an easy escape like this.

[netcan]

Any psychology grad students here?

Is this hypothesis testable?

[lectrick]

Former Psych major here (not grad student).

Pretty easy to test yourself: Walk into a random aisle in a grocery store and say "Can anyone help me?" Elsewhere, point to an employee and say "can YOU help me?" Observe difference in results.