Bystander Apathy

As Esther and I walk through Union Square last night, we hear someone yell, "call the police!" We look in the direction of the shouting and we immediately see a scuffle at a taxi cab parked near the Starbucks on 15th Street. The driver is in the front. A man wearing a red shirt is sitting in the back seat and he is arguing with a man dressed in a striped polo shirt and khakis who is attempting to exit the cab. As the polo shirt guy exits, the red shirt guy is still sitting and he slams the polo guy’s arm in the door. Striped Shirt Guy then opens the door and quickly slams it on Polo Guy’s arm again. That must hurt, I think to myself. Esther, me and a small crowd of other people are watching the altercation. "Somebody call the police!" The guy with the smashed arm yells. Everyone stares. I turn to Esther and whisper, "should we call the police?" "I don't know," she answers as she keeps her eye on the scuffle. We all stare. No one does anything. I tell Esther that someone has to do something. What if the guy really does need help? We walk into the Union Square subway station and enter the police station. We tell the cops the story and they just look at us for a moment. "Look," I say, "it could be nothing or it could be something, but I wanted to say something just in case." They tell us that they'll send someone out. Psych 101. The bystander effect (or bystander apathy) is what happens when, for example, an urban crowd witnesses a crime but no one does anything because everyone thinks that someone else will. Two scenarios: (1) you're walking down Broadway at 2:00am and the streets are packed and you yell, "call the police!" or (2) you're walking down that same street at that same time but there are only two or three people around and you yell the same thing. Your chances that someone will actually call the police would be greater in the latter situation. Because, if there are only a couple of people around, they assume that you're talking to them: we need to call the people. If there is a crowd, they assume that you're talking to someone and that someone isn't anyone in particular: somebody call the police. [Historical cases: Kitty Genovese and Deletha Word.] At any rate, I don't know what came of the smashed arm guy, but I felt good that we actually did something about it ... just in case. Read a blogger's post about curing bystander apathy.