The bystander effect is basically that when something is happening and a bunch of people are around to see it, the people witnessing it are less likely to do anything to help because they either think someone else is going to help, or they see other people not doing anything so they think maybe it isn't a big deal (it's kind of based on an incident in New York in the 70s when a woman was murdered outside of an apartment building, and a bunch of people in the building watched it happen but didn't call the police).
I was totally worried that the police would give me a hard time because I had no clue what was going on, but they were pretty decent.
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Date: 2007-08-23 10:52 am (UTC)I was totally worried that the police would give me a hard time because I had no clue what was going on, but they were pretty decent.