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How schools can battle the bystander effect

February 8, 2017
The first 10 minutes of every day at Peachtown are spent in a morning meeting with all our students. Happenings of the school day are discussed, as are mini-lessons in the arts, poetry or current events. Often, these lessons center around how to be kinder people or better citizens, with the central focus on independence, self-reliance and personal responsibility. A person who is confident, strong and comfortable with themselves and others can stand up and make good choices. They look outward to the people around them, empathic rather than self-involved, bold rather than fearful, and decisive rather than hesitant.
A keen sense of personal responsibility is an all-important attribute. It implies integrity: standing by what you know to be right, what you know you should do, or the commitments you have made. Sometimes, however, otherwise responsible citizens turn their backs on people in need; the “bystander effect” is a troubling phenomenon. The greater the number of bystanders to an event where help is required, the less likely it is anyone will respond quickly to aid the victim. This phenomenon was the genesis of the famous studies of the Kitty Genovese case, the brutal 1964 murder witnessed by dozens but responded to by only a few. In the past decade, numerous incidences of rape and murder have occurred while others looked on.
Generally, the bystander effect is framed in the context of the number of people physically witnessing an event. The bystander effect is shaped by three elements: the diffusion of responsibility, or the reduced personal psychological cost for non-intervention when others are present; the fear of making a mistake in judgement and being evaluated by others; and social influence, or the inclination in ambiguous situations to refer to the actions of others for cues (Abbate, Spoca, Spadaro and Romano, 2007).
A study by Garcia (2007) found that an implicit bystander effect could be generated by imagining oneself in a crowd. This effectively primed respondents to behave as if a crowd existed. A recent horrifying Facebook version of what can be considered an implicit bystander effect involved a 14-year-old girl who carried out her own suicide on the social media platform. As reported, a thousand people watched Naika Venant prepare for over an hour to hang herself. Watchers, with the exception of one friend, not only failed to respond to the emergency or her eventual hanging on her shower door, but they taunted, and posted parody videos and laughing emojis (Leonard Pitts, The Miami Herald). Two other young children posted their suicides in the last few weeks as well.
After 50 years of study on the bystander effect, social media is generating a whole new perspective on the problem; the shared witnessing of cruelty and victimization that results from cyber-bullying is a daily event. Contemplating that the bystander effect could be normalized as part of the everyday lives of children is a dismal thought, at best. Just “liking” something makes one part of a collective behavior without any accountability. In a situation like that of Naika Venant, the negligence is immoral, verging on criminal. While only a few states have laws that would apply in such cases, and then only for young children, clearly some action must be taken to address cases such as the Venant suicide. As with so many other issues surrounding social media, we need to wake up and catch up with our changing environment.
One solution is to ensure that schools are producing confident, self-directed young adults, who can take a stand against passive and conformist behavior, and who have cultivated a sense of personal responsibility that translates into an altruistic compassion for others and an imperative to help.
As I sat at my desk writing this article, a group of primary-age children were prompted by a fellow student to begin chanting. I don’t even know why, but soon they were all chanting. In that classic teachable moment, I talked to them about the power of doing what was right, and the strength it takes to go against the crowd — to trust themselves to know what is right. In the face of our anonymous, crowd-sourcing social media, this is a message that will need to be drilled home time and time again.
Einstein said, “The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.” Wise man, that Einstein.
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