Bystander Effect

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thought there were four other people, this dropped again to 31%

* WANG YUE Wang Yue was a two-year-old Chinese girl who was run over by two vehicles on the afternoon of October 13 2011 in a narrow road in Foshan, Guangdong. As she lay bleeding on the road for more than seven minutes, at least 18 passers-by skirted around her body, ignoring her. She was eventually helped by a female rubbish scavenger and sent to a hospital for treatment, but succumbed to her injuries and died eight days later. The closed-circuit television recording of the incident was uploaded onto the Internet, and quickly stirred widespread reaction in China and overseas. Many commentators saw this as indicative of a growing apathy in contemporary Chinese society.

* WHAT WOULD YOU DO? is an American television show on ABC where actors act out scenes of conflict or illegal activity in public settings while hidden cameras videotape the scene, and the focus is on whether or not bystanders intervene, and how. This particular episode centers on

* CONFORMITY Imagine that you are in a crowded city such New York City, where millions of people will walk by someone laying on the street without turning back. If you do, you are breaking the group code and you will feel awkward. Often, people are simply unwilling to help because others don’t. On the other hand, if you are the only person around, you are more likely to immediately seek help.

* SIMILARITY It is one thing to conform to group norms, but we cannot rule out our prejudices when we examine the Bystander Effect. The way we dress, the color of our skin, our gender, coupled with the location we are in, all contribute as to whether not people will help.