This thread will document the Bystander Effect, which is a group-think based psychological phenomenon that is increasingly prevalent in our modern desensitized society -- and for which, is an effect of conformity, complacency, irresponsibility, ignorance, and the fear of standing out from a crowd. Additionally, this thread is non-exclusive to the Bystander Effect and therefore will cover issues related to it.
Woman murdered in front of crowd while they do nothing
Her name was Stacy Wilson.
She was assaulted and then beheaded in front of people in Kingston, St. Vincent Island about two years ago. The killer was a distant relative who stalked her for roughly a year. The killer's name is Shorn Samuel.
KINGSTOWN, St Vincent, December 15, 2006 - A 35-year old relative was yesterday charged with the brutal murder of 21 year old Stacy Wilson of Vermont, located about five miles north of the capital on the west coast.
Reports say that the man accosted Stacy in the Leeward Bus Terminal Monday evening during rush hour when there were hundreds of people around. She brushed off his advances and boarded a mini-van. The man disappeared and came back soon afterwards with rope and a cutlass. He pulled her from the van and started his attack, cutting of a wrist and struck her head. The head did not fall. People on the scene reported that he allegedly held the neck and sawed off the head with the sword.
The real question is, why would the crowd just stand there and let him do this to her? This sort of non-action responsiveness 1 , 2 from society is yet another proof that Humanity as a whole is continuing to degenerate into a culture of unconscious complacent dumbed-down automatons.
Note:To respect the victim and her family, I will not post the photos of the crime scene from one of the links listed above.
This crime reminds me of that beheading incident inflicted on a sleeping passenger in a Trans-Canada Greyhound bus that happened a few months ago when all the other passengers just screamed in shocked and fled out of the bus. NONE of them even tried to stop the killer who was only armed with a knife.
Last edited by totalitariantiptoe on Mon Jan 25, 2010 12:46 pm; edited 8 times in total
The term bystander effect refers to the phenomenon in which the greater the number of people present, the less likely people are to help a person in distress. When an emergency situation occurs, observers are more likely to take action if there are few or no other witnesses.
In a series of classic study, researchers Bibb Latane and John Darley (1) found that the amount of time it takes the participant to take action and seek help varies depending on how many other observers are in the room. In one experiment, subjects were placed in one of three treatment conditions: alone in a room, with two other participants or with two confederates who pretended to be normal participants.
As the participants sat filling out questionnaires, smoke began to fill the room. When participants were alone, 75% reported the smoke to the experimenters. In contrast, just 38% of participants in a room with two other people reported the smoke. In the final group, the two confederates in the experiment noted the smoke and then ignored it, which resulted in only 10% of the participants reporting the smoke.
Example of the Bystander Effect
The most frequently cited example of the bystander effect in introductory psychology textbooks is the brutal murder of a young woman named Catherine "Kitty" Genovese. On Friday, March 13, 1964, 28-year-old Genovese was returning home from work. As she approached her apartment entrance, she was attacked and stabbed by a man later identified as Winston Moseley.
Despite Genovese’s repeated cries for help, none of the dozen or so people in the nearby apartment building who heard her cries called police for help. The attack first began at 3:20 AM, but it was not until 3:50 AM that someone first contacted police.
Initially reported in a 1964 New York Times article, the article sensationalized the case, despite a number of factual inaccuracies. While frequently cited in psychology textbooks, an article in the September 2007 issue of American Psychologist concluded that the story is largely misrepresented mostly due to the inaccuracies repeatedly published in newspaper articles and textbooks.
Explanations for the Bystander Effect
There are two major factors that contribute to the bystander effect. First, the presence of other people creates a diffusion of responsibility. Because there are other observers, individuals do not feel as much pressure to take action, since the responsibility to take action is thought to be shared among all of those present.
The second reason is the need to behave in correct and socially acceptable ways. When other observers fail to react, individuals often take this as a signal that a response is not needed or not appropriate. Other researchers have found that onlookers are less likely to intervene if the situation is ambiguous(2). In the case of Kitty Genovese, many of the 38 witnesses reported that they believed that they were witnessing a "lover’s quarrel," and did not realize that the young woman was actually being murdered.
You know, I see this all the time. I am on the road all day and I often stop to help people when I see a broken down car or an accident. It's amazing how may people just drive by and gawk.
Crowds just keep walking on by while the camera crew do nothing but film.
You see many researchers seem to think that emerging transhumanism only pertains to the acceleration of technological advances (which can be a good or bad thing or a combination of both depending on the agenda and the incentives). But the word "trans" translates to substantiare in Latin which means to "substitute". It doesn't necessarily suggest improvement or regression of any sort, nor does it suggest technology. It simply means to substitute (to change).
When we see things like the Bystander Effect occurring more frequently throughout general society, we must realize that that in itself is a form of emerging transhumanism -- in this case, a negative one. Because our modern society has become so desensitized, human emotions are now being substituted with dehumanized thought processes.
