The presence of others
- Social factors are any external environmental stimuli which could influence someone’s behaviour e.g. the presence of other people, geographical location, time of day etc.
- The presence of other people has been found to affect the type and degree of help offered to someone in need
- Helping someone in need is an example of prosocial behaviour
- It is logical to assume that when there is a large number of people at the site of an emergency e.g. someone being attacked or someone who has collapsed in the street, then help is more likely to be given
- Research has shown that help is less likely to be given to someone in need when the number of bystanders is high
- Help is more likely to be given when there is only one bystander present at the scene
- This is called the bystander effect
- Latane & Darley (1968) conducted a study using naive participants
- As the participants sat in a room the researchers pumped (fake) smoke into the room to simulate there being a fire in the building
- 75% of the participants who were in the room alone left and reported the smoke
- Whereas when participants were in a group with two confederates only 10% reported the smoke
- The research cited above demonstrates that when people are in a group they are more likely to do nothing as they either look to others in the group for guidance as to how to act or they feel that ‘someone else will help, it’s not up to me’
- When a bystander does nothing to help another person this is known as bystander apathy
Bystander apathy diagram
Bystander apathy and the costs of helping.
Exam Tip
If you want to impress the examiner you could explain that bystander apathy can also be seen in diffusion of responsibility i.e. the more people there are at the scene of an emergency the less likely it is that help will be given. Responsibility for helping becomes diffused amongst the group so that in the end no-one does anything to help the person in need.