Why do people just stand and watch instead of helping?

I was in a shop today with my partner, and a young boy (probably around the age of 11) collapsed behind us in the queue.

Everyone started staring at him and just watching - a member of the public went to tell the woman with the boy that he'd asked staff to contact security, and then stood up again. When we asked if he'd called an ambulance he just said "well the staff are calling security" so my partner just called 999 himself. I have done first aid training myself so I kept an eye on the boy until the paramedics came - the women who were with him had put him in the recovery position and he was conscious and responding to them, but I kept an eye in case his condition worsened. The paramedics turned up (bloody quickly!) and he seemed to be okay, thankfully.

The thing is, whilst all this was happening, people were just gawping - I heard one person say "look, that kid's just collapsed on the floor!" in a voice that implied they were amused. Nobody offered to help, nobody seemed to be paying attention to the security who were trying to move the queue out of the boy's way - everyone was just staring at the boy on the ground as if he were entertainment.

Why do people do this? Why didn't anyone help? It just makes me so sad that people were standing around looking so gormless. :frown:

Reply 1

Alkain1607

11

I don't know, I guess some people respond to situations like this differently. I'd like to think that I would have actively got involved if something like this happened.

Reply 2

Kerch

8

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bystander_effect

Reply 3

DarkWhite

17

Bystander effect. If there are enough other people there who can/are doing something but aren't, then they're in the tribe who have decided it's not appropriate, rightly or wrongly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bystander_effect

Reply 4

tibbles209

14

Yeah, people just want to fit in with the crowd, so if everyone else is standing by watching then they feel they need to do the same. I think in addition to that, a lot of people simply wouldn't know what to do.

Reply 5

manic_fuzz

17

It's annoyingly common. My little brother was choking in the middle of a shopping store and my mum, who was pregnant at the time, ended up attempting to do the Heimlich maneuver on him. The stuck object was dislodged but people just stared for a bit then kept walking while he was choking. I'm sure it's nice to say it's due to the Bystander effect, but it doesn't make it any more helpful :K:

Reply 6

member327593

They dont know what to do - feel under confident - scared of embarrasing themselves doing something wrong- theres other ppl helping already

I find ppl often do want to help so long someone else takes charge and tells them exactly what to do.

Reply 7

kaypc

13

some people don't know what to do and it depends on the incident itself. Some believe they might end up getting hurt themselves.

Reply 8

Oxford2013

They don't do know what to do I guess.

Reply 9

455409

17

Most likely don't know what to do and are afraid if they get it wrong they may have done more harm than good, especially if they believe someone else nearby might be more knowledgable than them.

In the US, it's probably to do with being sued, though i don't think you can be sued for helping here.

Reply 10

ElChapo

18

For me personally, if there are other people around me in this situation. I wouldn't do anything, my reason being that I wouldn't know what to do in this situation and someone older than me would probably know what to do better, I wouldn't wanna rush over to him and doing something that could possibly make it worse. If this was on a quiet street where I was the only one I'd do a lot more because noone else can

Reply 11

Saliency

17

I've been in situations like this before and I just go straight into a state of shock where I can't move, speak or do anything to help for a good 2 minutes. When I look back its totally stupid and I should have helped but I can't help doing it.

Reply 12

Extremotroph

Someone else will take care of it.

Reply 13

Bill_Gates

21

We live in some type of sick hyper self interested society where image is more important than doing the right thing.

Reply 14

Movember

10

Too many cooks spoil the broth.

Reply 15

Kvothe the Arcane

20

Original post by snowyowl

I was in a shop today with my partner, and a young boy (probably around the age of 11) collapsed behind us in the queue.

Everyone started staring at him and just watching - a member of the public went to tell the woman with the boy that he'd asked staff to contact security, and then stood up again. When we asked if he'd called an ambulance he just said "well the staff are calling security" so my partner just called 999 himself. I have done first aid training myself so I kept an eye on the boy until the paramedics came - the women who were with him had put him in the recovery position and he was conscious and responding to them, but I kept an eye in case his condition worsened. The paramedics turned up (bloody quickly!) and he seemed to be okay, thankfully.

The thing is, whilst all this was happening, people were just gawping - I heard one person say "look, that kid's just collapsed on the floor!" in a voice that implied they were amused. Nobody offered to help, nobody seemed to be paying attention to the security who were trying to move the queue out of the boy's way - everyone was just staring at the boy on the ground as if he were entertainment.

Why do people do this? Why didn't anyone help? It just makes me so sad that people were standing around looking so gormless. :frown:

Besides calling 999, what could someone who doesn't know any first aid have done?

Black Mirror irl

Original post by james1211

Most likely don't know what to do and are afraid if they get it wrong they may have done more harm than good, especially if they believe someone else nearby might be more knowledgable than them.

In the US, it's probably to do with being sued, though i don't think you can be sued for helping here.

Was just about to post a comment like this. If when I was 16 and such a situation occurred I'd be the first one there, now I'd hesitate because I know my first aider skills are rusty and apart from how to position the body (recovery position) I dunno what comes next. :frown:

its a skill I wish I kept sharp.

So in the interest of not doing more harm than good all I would have been able to do was call an ambulance.

To reference the second point, there was a story a while back where someone claimed compensation when a passerby helped out and gave first aid (in the uk). The passerby had done nothing wrong and had done everything by the book (as they were found innocent), but you know the saying "if there's a blame there's a claim". I didn't blame the accused for saying they'd never help out again - you shouldn't have to worry being a Good Samaritan will come back to bite you on the bum.

Reply 18

516359

12

Original post by + polarity -

Black Mirror irl

I watched that thinking how true! It was meant to be satire but they didn't have to exaggerate a thing! I hate it when people get their phones out in an emergency situation. If you can't help don't hang around, and you should certainly not be filming - when it became fine to treat human beings in such a manner, is a mystery to me.