In: Psychology
Imagine a student named Pippy is walking across campus and drops an armful of books and papers, creating a mess that takes a lot of effort to clean up. Although numerous other students pass by and see the situation, they do not stop to help. What does this best illustrate?
a.Social exchange
b.Social capital
c.The bystander effect
d.The social-responsibility norm
e.Kin selection
The answer is:
c. The bystander effect
Explanation: Bystander effect is a phenomenon or a situation when a person needs immediate help, and no one comes to help him/her. The more the number of people present around, the tendency to come and help reduces. When none of the bystanders come forward to help, it is because they think someone will eventually help the person in distress, thus depending upon others. This is also called as pluralistic ignorance or diffusion of responsibility.
This phenomenon is not uncommon to witness. We often see people watching an accident happen and rarely does someone come to rescue the victim. This happens majorly due to the fact that the sudden incident becomes confusing and the consequences are also unknown leading to ambiguity. Most bystanders also try to avoid these situations as they are unsure about police, medical or legal inquiries later.
In this case, no one comes to help Pippy simply because they are reluctant to help to avoid further unknown consequences.