One of the most easily noticeable applications of social psychology theories to the real world is the diffusion of responsibility. Related to the bystander effect, diffusion of responsibility describes what takes place when individuals do not take action to help others when in they are in a group, ostensibly because they believe someone else can or should be responsible. Individuals tend to stand by and watch assuming someone else will help, which is why diffusion of responsibility is known as the bystander effect. As natural as it might seem to diffuse responsibility when one is in a crowd, the consequences of the bystander effect can be devastating including loss of life (Lickerman, 2010). For this reason, organizations have recently incorporated Bystander Effect Training into their employee development programs (“Diffusion of Responsibility,” n.d.). For this exercise, I pretended to be a tourist who did not know how to buy a ticket from the metro machine. As suggested for testing the diffusion of responsibility, I performed the simple experiment twice, once during peak travel times and again late at night when there were only a few people in the station.
Situation 1: Crowd
When it was peak hours, I stood looking deliberately...
References
“Diffusion of Responsibility,” (n.d.). UPenn. Retrieved online; http://sites.psu.edu/aspsy/2014/02/18/diffusion-of-responsibility/
Lickerman, A. (2010). The diffusion of responsibility. Psychology Today. Retrieved online: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/happiness-in-world/201006/the-diffusion-responsibility
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