Decoding deficits and social competency: A continuous rating approach

Males who self-reported heterosocial difficulties and whose performance in a role-played interaction was judged to be of low social competence were compared to high-competent males on a continuous rating task. The rating task required that subjects make continual, ongoing social competency ratings of their own and six other males' performance in a role-play situation. The continuous measurement of performance provided a profile of ratings that was compared on frequency, latency-to-first ratings, profile elevation or level, scatter, and patterning. Low-competent males had longer latencies-to-first ratings than high-competent males and less scatter in their continuous ratings than did the high-competent group. The reduced scatter effect for continuous ratings replicates previous work done with global ratings and suggests that the low-competent group may not be able to discriminate among social stimuli as well as the high-competent group. The research also suggests that the continuous rating methodology may hold promise as a tool to investigate social perception processes.     

Social competency and social perceptivity in self and others

Males who self-reported heterosocial problems and whose role-play interactions were judged to be low on social competence were compared to a group of high socially competent males on their ability to judge their own and others' social competency. Results indicated that in comparison to the high-competent group, low-competent males showed less agreement with judges in rating their own and others' levels of competency. Using profile components of elevation, scatter, and pattern, more detailed analyses showed that the two groups differed primarily on scatter. The low-competent individuals had less scatter, suggesting that they have a discrimination deficiency. Implications of the results are discussed for the etiology and treatment of social incompetence and for future research.     

The unresponsive bystander: are bystanders more responsive in dangerous emergencies?

Previous research in bystander intervention found that the presence of other bystanders reduces helping behaviour in an emergency (bystander effect). This research was mainly conducted in the context of non‐dangerous, non‐violent emergencies. We hypothesize that the classic bystander effect does not occur in more dangerous situations because: a) they are faster and more clearly recognized as emergency situations; and b) higher costs for refusing help increase the accepted costs for helping. Following this line of reasoning, the present research tests whether the bystander effect is affected by the degree of the emergency's potential danger. Results supported our expectations: In situations with low potential danger, more help was given in the solitary condition than in the bystander condition. However, in situations with high potential danger, participants confronted with an emergency alone or in the presence of another bystander were similarly likely to help the victim. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Anticipation of future interaction and the bystander effect

Previous research suggests that people are slower to offer help in an emergency when there are other witnesses than when there are not. This finding has come to be known as the bystander effect. In research that has demonstrated this effect, however, the other witnesses were invariably anonymous others who had no relationship with the subject and with whom the subject probably did not expect to interact again. The present research examined the hypothesis that the expectation of participating in subsequent face-to-face interaction with other bystanders would cause the bystander effect to be minimized. Female college students were led to believe either that they would have no personal contact with the other participants in an ostensible group discussion, or that the participants would be involved in a later face-to-face discussion session. Each subject then participated in what she believed to be an anonymous discussion via intercoms, involving either one person or five persons beside herself. During this period, an ostensible co-subject experienced a choking fit. Help was offered more quickly among subjects who expected future interaction than among those who did not. In the no future interaction condition, latencies to help were longer in six-member than in two-member groups, but the comparable difference, although in the same direction, was not reliable among subjects who expected interaction. Presence of male “co-subjects” in an exploratory condition failed to inhibit helping. Discussion centers on the broader implications of the findings.     

The effect of another bystander's ability to help on bystander intervention in an emergency

Previous research in bystander intervention found that the presence of other bystanders reduced the speed of reporting an emergency. The present research tested the hypothesis that it is not the mere presence of others that reduces speed of helping, but how the others are perceived. Specifically, if another bystander is seen as not being able to help, then there should be no effect on the speed with which the S helps. Subjects who thought they were in an ESP experiment overheard what seemed to be an emergency. A “victim” cried out that a bookcase was falling on her; this was followed by a scream and a loud crash. There was no difference in helping behavior between the condition in which there were no other bystanders present and the condition in which the other bystander could not help. However, as predicted, Ss in both of these conditions helped significantly sooner than Ss in the condition in which the other bystander was perceived as being able to help.     

Measuring global bystander intervention and exploring its antecedents for helping refugees

Although the bystander intervention model provides a useful account of how people help others, no previous study has applied it to a global emergency. This research aims to develop a scale for measuring global bystander intervention and investigate its potential antecedents in the Syrian refugee emergency. In Study 1 (N = 80) and Study 2 (N = 205), a 12-item scale was established through a substantive-validity assessment and a confirmatory factor analysis, respectively. Study 3 (N = 601) explored the potential antecedents of the global bystander intervention, employing British and German samples. Results show that the global bystander intervention model worked for both samples, but there were significant between-group differences in terms of the extent to which they notice the emergency, know how to help, show political support, and donate money. Overall, the visibility of the global emergency aftermaths within the context has been deduced as a meaningful driver for between-group differences. This research provides the first empirical evidence on global bystander intervention and it offers timely suggestions to promote support for refugees or other victims of global disasters, especially among those who are distant to the disaster zone.     

Expectations and prescriptions for responding to peer aggression: The adolescent offenders' perspective

The purpose of the current research was to investigate adolescent offenders' perspectives about responses to interpersonal aggressive encounters. Specifically, participants' perspectives were assessed regarding the role of a bystander when either a friend or an acquaintance of the bystander was the victim of an aggressive act. Two aggressive acts were presented. First, the bystander witnessed an acquaintance stealing from the victim. Second, the bystander witnessed an acquaintance hitting the victim. Participants were asked to indicate (a) if the bystander would do anything (bystander expected behavior), (b) what the bystander would do (expected behavioral action), (c) if the action would be the right thing to do (evaluation of bystander expected behavioral action), and (d) what the bystander should do in response to the violation (prescribed bystander behavioral action). Results indicate that the adolescent offenders' perspectives varied as a function of offender status, type of aggressive act, as well as relationship of the victim to the bystander. Aggr. Behav. 23:149–160, 1997. © 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Be aware to care: Public self-awareness leads to a reversal of the bystander effect

The classic bystander effect stipulates that people help others more when they are alone than when other bystanders are present. We reason that, sometimes, the presence of bystanders can increase helping, notably in situations where public self-awareness is increased through the use of accountability cues (e.g., a camera). We conducted two experiments in which we tested this line of reasoning. In both experiments, participants read messages soliciting support in an online forum. We varied the number of people that were present in that forum to create a bystander and an alone condition. In Study 1, we introduced an accountability cue by making participants' screen-names more salient, and in Study 2, we used a webcam. Both studies indicate that, as expected, the bystander effect can be reversed by means of cues that raise public self-awareness in social settings.     

Social relations and presence of others predict bystander intervention: Evidence from violent incidents captured on CCTV

Are individuals willing to intervene in public violence? Half a century of research on the “bystander effect” suggests that the more bystanders present at an emergency, the less likely each of them is to provide help. However, recent meta-analytical evidence questions whether this effect generalizes to violent emergencies. Besides the number of bystanders present, an alternative line of research suggests that pre-existing social relations between bystanders and conflict participants are important for explaining whether bystanders provide help. The current paper offers a rare comparison of both factors—social relations and the number of bystanders present—as predictors of bystander intervention in real-life violent emergencies. We systematically observed the behavior of 764 bystanders across 81 violent incidents recorded by surveillance cameras in Copenhagen, Denmark. Bystanders were sampled with a case–control design, their behavior was observed and coded, and the probability of intervention was estimated with multilevel regression analyses. The results confirm our predicted association between social relations and intervention. However, rather than the expected reversed bystander effect, we found a classical bystander effect, as bystanders were less likely to intervene with increasing bystander presence. The effect of social relations on intervention was larger in magnitude than the effect of the number of bystanders. We assess these findings in light of recent discussions about the influence of group size and social relations in human helping. Further, we discuss the utility of video data for the assessment of real-life bystander behavior.     

Do dogs (Canis familiaris) seek help in an emergency?

The question of whether dogs recognize an emergency and understand the need to seek help from a bystander was tested in two experiments. In the first experiment, dogs' owners feigned a heart attack in an open field, and in the second experiment, dogs' owners experienced an accident in which a bookcase fell on them and pinned them to the floor. In these experiments, one or two bystanders were available to which dogs could go for help. The dogs' behavior was taped for 6 min after the owner had fallen and was later scored for the frequency and time the dogs spent performing different behaviors. In no case did a dog solicit help from a bystander. It is concluded that dogs did not understand the nature of the emergency or the need to obtain help.     

Self-relevance enhances susceptibility to false memory

Eyewitness testimony serves as important evidence in the legal system. Eyewitnesses of a crime can be either the victims themselves—for whom the experience is highly self-referential—or can be bystanders who witness and thus encode the crime in relation to others. There is a gap in past research investigating whether processing information in relation to oneself versus others would later impact people's suggestibility to misleading information. In two experiments (Ns = 68 and 122) with Dutch and Chinese samples, we assessed whether self-reference of a crime event (i.e., victim vs. bystander) affected their susceptibility to false memory creation. Using a misinformation procedure, we photoshopped half of the participants' photographs into a crime slideshow so that they saw themselves as victims of a nonviolent crime, while others watched the slideshow as mock bystander witnesses. In both experiments, participants displayed a self-enhanced suggestibility effect: Participants who viewed themselves as victims created more false memories after receiving misinformation than those who witnessed the same crime as bystanders. These findings suggest that self-reference might constitute a hitherto new risk factor in the formation of false memories when evaluating eyewitness memory reports.     

Interpersonal determinants of attitude change following counterattitudinal behavior

In a test of predictions derived from an identity-analytic model of self-presentational behavior, individuals who privately endorsed positive or negative attitudes about sexual behavior were asked to deliver a prosexuality speech while alone, while watched by observers, or while being watched by observers who questioned the morality of the subject’s actions. Subsequent attitude measures indicated that the subjects who initially adopted negative attitudes justified their behavior by expressing more favorable attitudes about sexuality, but only when no audience witnessed their speech. When an audience was present, these individuals emphasized their lack of choice. In contrast, subjects who privately endorsed positive attitudes publicly expressed less favorable attitudes when their morality was challenged by the observers. These findings suggest that attitude change following counterattitudinal behavior (a) stems from private image-maintenance needs as well as public self-presentational concerns, and (b) is sometimes designed to secure an image of morality as well as an image of consistency.     

A classmate in distress: schoolchildren as bystanders and their reasons for how they act

Research has shown that bystanders more often fail to or are slower to help a victim in emergency when there are other bystanders than when there are not. The study presented in this paper is a qualitative case study with a focus on students’ own reasons why they do not help a classmate in emergency when there are other children witnessing the emergency situation in the real-life classroom case studied. Grounded theory methods were used to analyse the data. The individual conversations with the students indicated a variety of definitions of the specific distress situation when they recalled and talked about the classroom incident. During the process of the analysis seven concepts of definitions associated with passive or non-intervention bystander behaviour were constructed and grounded in the empirical material: trivialisation, dissociation, embarrassment association, busy working priority, compliance with a competitive norm, audience modelling, and responsibility transfer. Relations between these concepts of definitions were also analysed. However, this study is a first step and a first report from an ongoing study about school children as helper and bystander.     

Self‐Categorization and Bystander Non‐intervention: Two Experimental Studies1

This paper outlines a new approach to the study of bystander intervention. Using insights derived from self‐categorization theory (Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher, & Wetherell, 1987), we explore the social category relations among those present in the context of physical violence. The paper describes two experiments that manipulate the social category relations between (a) bystander and fellow bystanders, and (b) bystander and victim. Analysis indicates that fellow bystanders are only influential when they are in‐group rather than out‐group members. Furthermore, bystanders are more likely to help victims who are described as in‐group as opposed to out‐group members. Overall, the findings suggest an important role for a self‐categorization perspective in developing strategies to promote bystander intervention.     

Intervention in the Library: The Effect of Increased Responsibility on Bystanders' Willingness To Prevent a Theft

Two field experiments tested the hypothesis that a bystander's increased responsibility to act increases the likelihood of his helping the victim of an emergency. In Experiment 1, an individual asked or did not ask the bystander to protect his property in his absence. In Experiment 2, the presence/absence of an unattentive confederate was varied orthogonally to the request/no request manipulation. The results of both experiments indicated that bystanders who received a prior request for protective assistance felt more personally responsible for protecting the individual's property and were more likely to prevent a theft of that property than were bystanders who received no request. The presence of a confederate in Experiment 2 decreased bystanders' felt responsibility and their willingness to intervene on the victim's behalf. The results were interpreted as support for the "felt responsibility" proposition of the Latané and Darley (1970) model of bystander intervention.     

An educational test of health behavior models in relation to emergency helping.

This study used a true experimental design to evaluate the quality and occurrence of emergency helping behavior among university first-aid students in response to a supplemental educational unit designed to improve bystander helping. The educational unit addressed the inhibitors of emergency helping behavior within the framework of bystander behavior models and was delivered using several behavior modification strategies. Using chi-square analysis, it was found that the 43 treatment students exposed to the supplemental unit responded appropriately to a simulated emergency more often than 41 similar control students not exposed to the unit (32.6% vs. 7.3%, p = .004) and that the effect was confined primarily to women (p = .001). Future emergency care education incorporating similar theory-based educational strategies might improve trained bystander responsiveness and thus enhance the efficiency of prehospital care. Theoretical and future research implications are discussed.     

The bystander-effect: a meta-analytic review on bystander intervention in dangerous and non-dangerous emergencies

Research on bystander intervention has produced a great number of studies showing that the presence of other people in a critical situation reduces the likelihood that an individual will help. As the last systematic review of bystander research was published in 1981 and was not a quantitative meta-analysis in the modern sense, the present meta-analysis updates the knowledge about the bystander effect and its potential moderators. The present work (a) integrates the bystander literature from the 1960s to 2010, (b) provides statistical tests of potential moderators, and (c) presents new theoretical and empirical perspectives on the novel finding of non-negative bystander effects in certain dangerous emergencies as well as situations where bystanders are a source of physical support for the potentially intervening individual. In a fixed effects model, data from over 7,700 participants and 105 independent effect sizes revealed an overall effect size of g = -0.35. The bystander effect was attenuated when situations were perceived as dangerous (compared with non-dangerous), perpetrators were present (compared with non-present), and the costs of intervention were physical (compared with non-physical). This pattern of findings is consistent with the arousal-cost-reward model, which proposes that dangerous emergencies are recognized faster and more clearly as real emergencies, thereby inducing higher levels of arousal and hence more helping. We also identified situations where bystanders provide welcome physical support for the potentially intervening individual and thus reduce the bystander effect, such as when the bystanders were exclusively male, when they were naive rather than passive confederates or only virtually present persons, and when the bystanders were not strangers.     

The attribution of arousal and emergency helping: A bidirectional process

J. M. Piliavin, J. A. Piliavin, and J. Rodin (1969, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 13, 289–299) and J. A. Piliavin, J. F. Dovidio, S. L. Gaertner, and R. Clark (1981, Emergency intervention, New York, Academic Press) proposed that physiological arousal is causally related to a bystander's response to an emergency. Examining this proposition, the current research investigated the hypothesis that residual arousal from an extraneous event has the capacity to facilitate as well as to inhibit bystander intervention during an emergency depending on whether the extraneous arousal is attributed to the emergency or whether the emergency-generated arousal is attributed to the extraneous event. Specifically, it was predicted that during an Unambiguous emergency, extraneous arousal from the prior performance of physical exercise would be attributed to the emergency and thus facilitate bystander responsiveness. During an Ambiguous emergency, however, emergency-generated arousal would be attributed to the prior performance of physical exercise and thus bystander responsiveness would be inhibited by higher levels of arousal. Fifty-four male subects performed no, moderate, or high levels of exercise before exposure to an Unambiguous or Ambiguous emergency. Results indicated that during the Unambiguous emergency, higher levels of prior exercise facilitated helping. However, when the emergency was Ambiguous, high levels of exercise tended to inhibit bystander responsiveness. Correlational analysis of telemetered heart rates and latency to intervene corroborated the above pattern of findings.     

The Others Will Help: The Presence of Multiple Video Game Characters Reduces Helping After the Game Is Over

The bystander effect refers to the phenomenon that individuals are less likely to help if there are potential other helpers present. For instance, past research revealed that participants were less likely to help computer-controlled characters if there were other computer-controlled characters present. Research has also shown that the bystander effect occurs if the presence of others is merely imagined. The present research examined the idea that the presence of multiple characters within a video game reduces the player's helping behavior even after the video game is over. In fact, participants who played a video game with multiple characters present were less likely to devote time to assisting in a future study than participants who had played the same video game with only a single character present.