The bystander effect
Dorothy Barkin
It is a pleasant fall afternoon. The sun is shining. You are heading toward the parking lot after your last class of the day. All of a sudden, you come across the following situations. What do you think you'd do in each case?
这是一个宜人的秋天下午。阳光灿烂。今天的最后一节课结束后,你正走向停车场。突然之间,你会遇到以下情况。在这两种情况下你会怎么做?
Situation One: A man and a woman are wrestling with each other. The woman is in tears. Attempting to fight the man off, she screams, "Who are you? Get away from me!" You're the only one who witnesses this.
情景一:一男一女在扭打。那个女人在流泪。她试图击退那个男人,尖叫道:“你是谁?”离我远点!”你是唯一一个目击这一切的人。
Situation Two: Imagine the same scenario as in Situation One except that this time the woman screams, "Get away from me! I don't know why I ever married you!"
情形二:想象一下与情形一相同的场景,只不过这次那个女人尖叫着:“离我远点!”我真不明白我为什么要嫁给你!”
Situation Three: Again imagine Situation Two. This time, however, there are a few other people (strangers to you and each other) who also observe the incident.
情景三:再次想象情景二。然而,这一次,还有一些其他人(对你和彼此都是陌生人)也在观察这个事件。
Many people would choose not to get involved in situations like these. Bystanders are often reluctant to intervene in criminal or medical emergencies for reasons they are well aware of. They fear possible danger to themselves or getting caught up in a situation that could lead to complicated and time-consuming legal proceedings.
很多人会选择不卷入这样的情况。旁观者往往不愿干预刑事或医疗紧急情况,原因他们很清楚。他们担心可能会给自己带来危险,或陷入可能导致复杂和耗时的法律程序的情况。
There are, however, other less obvious factors which influence the decision to get involved in emergency situations. Complex psychological factors, which many people are unaware of, play an important part in the behavior of bystanders; knowing about these factors can help people to act more responsibly when faced with emergencies.
然而,还有其他不太明显的因素影响着参与紧急情况的决定。复杂的心理因素在旁观者的行为中起着重要的作用,这是许多人没有意识到的;了解这些因素可以帮助人们在面对紧急情况时采取更负责任的行动。
To understand these psychological phenomena, it is helpful to look at what researchers have learned about behavior in the situations mentioned at the beginning of this article.
为了理解这些心理现象,看看研究人员在本文开头提到的情况下对行为的了解是有帮助的
Situation One: An experiment involved staging scenarios like this and the next situation. In Situation One, bystanders offered some sort of assistance to the young woman 65 percent of the time.
情景一:一个实验包括这样的场景和下一个场景。在情景一中,65%的情况下旁观者会向年轻女子提供帮助。
Situation Two: Here the rate of bystander assistance dropped down to 19 percent. This demonstrates that bystanders are more reluctant to help a woman when they believe she's fighting with her husband. Not only do they consider a wife in less need of help; they think interfering with a married couple may be more dangerous. The husband, unlike a stranger, will not flee the situation.
情形二:旁观者的援助率下降到了19%。这表明,当旁观者认为一个女人在和她的丈夫吵架时,他们更不愿意帮助她。他们不仅认为妻子不太需要帮助;他们认为干涉已婚夫妇可能更危险。这位丈夫不像一个陌生人,不会逃离这种情况。
Situation Three: The important idea in this situation is being a member of a group of bystanders. In more than 50 studies involving many different conditions, one outcome has been consistent: Bystanders are much less likely to get involved when other witnesses are present than when they are alone.
情形三:在这种情况下,重要的想法是成为一群旁观者中的一员。在涉及许多不同情况的50多项研究中,有一个结果是一致的:当有其他证人在场时,旁观者参与的可能性要比他们单独在场时小得多。
Thus, membership in a group of bystanders lowers the likelihood that each member of the group will become involved. This finding may seem surprising. You might think there would be safety in numbers and that being a member of a group would increase the likelihood of intervention. How can we explain this aspect of group behavior?
因此,旁观者的身份降低了群体中每个成员参与的可能性。这一发现可能令人惊讶。你可能会认为人数多是安全的,成为一个群体的一员会增加干预的可能性。我们如何解释群体行为的这一方面呢?
A flood of research has tried to answer this and other questions about bystanders in emergencies ever since the infamous case of the murder of Kitty Genovese.
自从臭名昭著的凯蒂·吉诺维斯谋杀案之后,就有大量的研究试图回答这个问题和其他关于紧急情况下旁观者的问题。
In 1964 in the borough of Queens in New York City, Catherine "Kitty" Genovese, 28, was brutally murdered in a shocking crime that outraged the nation.
1964年,在纽约市皇后区,28岁的凯瑟琳·“凯蒂”·吉诺维斯(Catheri ne "Kitty" Genovese)在一场震惊全国的暴行中被残忍杀害。
The crime began at 3 a.m. Kitty Genovese was coming home from her job as manager of a bar. After parking her car in a parking lot, she began the hundred-foot walk to the entrance of her apartment. But she soon noticed a man in the lot and decided instead to walk toward a police call box. As she walked by a bookstore on her way there, the man grabbed her. She screamed.
犯罪开始于凌晨3点。凯蒂·吉诺维斯(Kitty Genovese)刚从酒吧经理的岗位上回来。把车停在停车场后,她开始向100英尺高的公寓门口走去。但她很快就注意到停车场里有一个男人,于是决定朝警察的电话亭走去。当她经过一家书店时,那个男人抓住了她。她尖叫起来。
Lights went on and windows opened in the 10-story apartment building.
这幢10层楼的公寓楼里亮起了灯,打开了窗户。
Next, the attacker stabbed Genovese. She shrieked, "Oh, my God, he stabbed me! Please help me! Please help me!"
接下来,袭击者刺伤了吉诺维斯。她尖叫道:“哦,天哪,他捅了我!”请帮助我!请帮帮我!”
From an upper window in the apartment house, a man shouted, "Let that girl alone!"
一个男人从公寓楼上的窗口喊道:“别碰那个女孩!”
The assailant, alarmed by the man's shout, started toward his car, which was parked nearby. However, the lights in the building soon went out, and the man returned. He found Genovese struggling to reach her apartment — and stabbed her again.
袭击者被这名男子的喊叫声吓到了,开始向他停在附近的车走去。然而,大楼里的灯很快就灭了,那人回来了。他发现吉诺维斯挣扎着去她的公寓,然后又捅了她一刀。
She screamed, "I'm dying! I'm dying!"
她尖叫着:“我要死了!我要死了!”
Once more lights went on and windows opened in the apartment building. The attacker then went to his car and drove off. Struggling, Genovese made her way inside the building.
公寓大楼的灯又亮了,窗户也打开了。袭击者随后走向自己的车,开车离开了。吉诺维斯挣扎着进入了大楼。
But the assailant returned to attack Genovese yet a third time. He found her slumped on the floor at the foot of the stairs and stabbed her again, this time fatally.
但攻击者第三次回来攻击吉诺维斯。他发现她倒在楼梯脚下的地板上,又捅了她一刀,这次是致命的。
The murder took over a half hour, and Kitty Genovese's desperate cries for help were heard by at least 38 people. Not a single one of the 38 who later admitted to having witnessed the murder bothered to pick up the phone during the attack and call the police. One man called after Genoves
e was dead.
谋杀持续了半个多小时,至少有38人听到了基蒂·吉诺维斯绝望的呼救声。在这38名后来承认目击了谋杀的人当中,没有一个人在袭击发生时拿起电话打电话报警。一个叫吉诺维斯的人死了。
Research conducted since the Genovese murder indicates that the failure of the bystanders to get involved can't be simply dismissed as a symptom of an uncaring society. Rather, the bystander effect, as it is called by social scientists, is the product of a complex set of psychological factors.
自吉诺维斯谋杀案以来进行的研究表明,旁观者未能参与其中不能简单地认为这是一个冷漠社会的症状。相反,被社会科学家称为“旁观者效应”的现象,是一系列复杂的心理因素的产物。
Two factors appear to be most important in understanding the reactions of bystanders to emergencies.
在理解旁观者对紧急情况的反应时,有两个因素显得尤为重要。
First is the level of ambiguity involved in the situation. Bystanders are afraid to endanger themselves or look foolish if they take the wrong action in a situation they are not sure how to interpret. A person lying face down on the floor of a subway train may have just suffered a heart attack and be in need of immediate medical assistance — or he may be a dangerous drunk.
首先是这种情况所涉及的模糊程度。旁观者害怕在他们不知道如何解释的情况下采取了错误的行动,从而危及自己或显得愚蠢。一个脸朝下躺在地铁地板上的人可能刚刚心脏病发作,需要立即就医——或者他可能是一个危险的酒鬼。
Determining what is happening is especially difficult when a man is attacking a woman. Many times lovers do quarrel, sometimes violently. But they may strongly resent an outsider, no matter how well-meaning
, intruding into their affairs.
当一个男人攻击一个女人的时候,判断发生了什么是特别困难的。情侣们经常吵架,有时争吵得很激烈。但是,他们可能会强烈反感外人干涉他们的事务,不管这个外人是多么善意。
When a group of bystanders is around, interpreting an event can be even more difficult than when one is alone. Bystanders look to others for cues as to what is happening. Frequently other witnesses, just as confused, try to look calm. Thus bystanders can mislead each other about the seriousness of an incident.
当周围有一群旁观者时,解释一件事可能比独自一人时更难。旁观者会从他人身上寻找线索,了解正在发生的事情。其他目击者往往也一样困惑,尽量保持冷静。因此,旁观者可能会在事件的严重性上误导对方。
The second factor in determining the reactions of bystanders to emergencies is what psychologists call the principle of moral diffusion. Moral diffusion is the lessening of a sense of individual responsibility when someone is a member of a group. Responsibility to act diffuses throughout the crowd. When a member of the group is able to escape the collective paralysis and take action, others in the group tend to act as well. But the larger the crowd, the greater the diffusion of responsibility, and the less likely someone is to intervene.
决定旁观者对紧急情况的反应的第二个因素是心理学家所说的道德扩散原则。道德扩散是当某人是一个群体的成员时,个人责任感的减少。行动的责任感在人群中弥漫开来。当群体中的一个成员能够逃离集体瘫痪并采取行动时,群体中的其他成员往往也会采取行动。但是,人群越多,责任就越分散,也就越不可能有人介入。
The more social scientists are able to teach us about how bystanders react to an emergency, the better the chances that we will take appropriate action when faced with one. Knowing about moral diffusion, for example, makes it easier for us to escape it. If you find yourself witnessing an emergency with a group, remember that everybody is waiting for someone else to do something first. If you take action, others may also help.
社会科学家越能教我们旁观者如何应对紧急情况,我们在遇到紧急情况时采取适当行动的机会就越大。例如,了解道德扩散会让我们更容易逃避它。如果你发现自己和一群人一起目睹了一场紧急事件,记住每个人都在等着别人先做一件事。如果你采取行动,其他人可能也会帮助你。