Question

Watch the following video: abcNEWS Would You Stop Muslim Discrimination? abcNEWS Would You Stop Muslim Discrimination?

Apply and explain three concepts to characterize the behavior of the clerk and customers agreeing with the clerk. Be specific in describing each concept and explain how it applies to what you observed. We are looking for some excellent critical thinking

Provide any references

Answer 1

Note: This response is in UK English, please paste the response to MS Word and you should be able to spot discrepancies easily. You may elaborate the answer based on personal views or your classwork if necessary.

(Answer) The news segment showcases an experiment where an actor is hired to exhibit bigoted behaviour and one is hired to be the victim. The purpose of the experiment is to watch the public’s reaction towards this behaviour and analyse their level of intervention. 6 people sided with the bigot, 13 people with the victim and 22 people did not intervene to clearly hostile behaviour.

The 6 people who sided with the behaviour of the clerk were mostly of an older age group or ignorant about the Islamic culture.

Bystander effect – This is when a bystander would generally adopt the common and general behaviour of the people in the immediate vicinity. These individuals feel that it is safe to agree with the majority and complement their actions. The majority of the customers were “American” in terms of aesthetics and hence felt that they would all adopt the same apathy as the other bystanders.

Diffusion of responsibility – This effect suggests that people in groups might not act to bring about certain effects because they believe that someone else has the responsibility to do so. This is when the people watching do not fight for the right of the victim because they feel that it is not their responsibility to speak up for the truth.

Mob mentality – This is the kind of behaviour that people exhibit when they have the backing of a large group or majority. Since the other customers fitted the description of what the bigoted clerk considered “American” they might have felt that they are the majority and hence didn’t feel the need to fight on behalf of the victim.

Conversely, the 13 people who took the side of the victim or simply protested the bigotry by walking out of the store were ones that were not ignorant about Islam. They seemed to comprehend the plight of the lady by understanding that Islam is not synonymous with terrorism in the similar way that conservative Americans believe that middle-aged white men are not all likely to be school shooters.