The Bystander Effect: An Experimental Study
the 1960’s, and has been described as the reluctance of a person to help another in distress or report an emergency when in the presence of other bystanders. The bystander effect was initially observed in adults (Darley & Latané, 1968), who found themselves either alone or in a group in a waiting room when they noticed the room began to fill with smoke. It was found that by the 6-minute mark 75% of people who were alone reported the smoke; however, when people were in groups in the waiting room only 38% of them had reported the smoke by the 6-minute mark. More recently, studies have been conducted to determine if this phenomenon is present in children and adolescents as well, and what factors play a role in their willingness to assist someone
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Plötner, Over, Carpenter, and Tomasello (2015), investigated whether the bystander effect would be found in young children when they were placed in a room with an experimenter needing help. Participants were sixty 5 year-olds, half of which were male and the other half female, and they were randomly assigned one of three conditions: alone, bystander, or bystander-unavailable. In all three of the conditions the participants were asked to select a picture to color, while the experimenter would paint a cardboard wall. The alone condition had just the participant and the experimenter in the room, the bystander condition had the participant in the room with the experimenter and two confederates, and the bystander-unavailable condition was the same as the bystander condition except the experimenter secured her cardboard wall to the area the bystanders were seated in and barricaded them in their seats making them unavailable. The confederates were not allowed to help the experimenter or give any hints to the participants. Plötner et al. (2015) used a familiarization phase in all three conditions, during this phase, the experimenter noted a puddle on the floor and brought it to the participants’ attention. The experimenter then proceeded to use paper towels to clean up the puddle and leave the paper towels in the middle of the floor and state, “in case something needs to be wiped up later” (p.
Plötner, Over, Carpenter, and Tomasello (2015), investigated whether the bystander effect would be found in young children when they were placed in a room with an experimenter needing help. Participants were sixty 5 year-olds, half of which were male and the other half female, and they were randomly assigned one of three conditions: alone, bystander, or bystander-unavailable. In all three of the conditions the participants were asked to select a picture to color, while the experimenter would paint a cardboard wall. The alone condition had just the participant and the experimenter in the room, the bystander condition had the participant in the room with the experimenter and two confederates, and the bystander-unavailable condition was the same as the bystander condition except the experimenter secured her cardboard wall to the area the bystanders were seated in and barricaded them in their seats making them unavailable. The confederates were not allowed to help the experimenter or give any hints to the participants. Plötner et al. (2015) used a familiarization phase in all three conditions, during this phase, the experimenter noted a puddle on the floor and brought it to the participants’ attention. The experimenter then proceeded to use paper towels to clean up the puddle and leave the paper towels in the middle of the floor and state, “in case something needs to be wiped up later” (p.