Walking on by

[Peter Pedant]

Hi Boys and Girls

Can any one give me an internet reference for the following? Perhaps ter Braak can help, if it is in Nederlands I can get it translated.....

Someone fell into one of the grachten (canals to you and I) in Amsterdam, about 15 yrs ago (and is still there) and everyone stood around watching him/her drown and thinking that someone else had called for help.

Result - a death while everyone watched,a nd noone came to help.

It caused national (Dutch) heart searching at that time and was fresh in memories when I was there in 1992.

(Conflict - in my employment, my co-workers interpreted my shout of 'Call the police!' as ambiguous and possibly meaning dont call the police. Now there is an enquiry this is causing deep embarassment. No-one came. Both the shout and the lack of action are documented.  All the girls are saying, "of course when I'm in trouble I want....." and that includes some (girls and boys) who stood or walked on by, or left the scene and looked as though they were gonna call the police but n fact returend to their work stations and said, there's a fight going on out there to interested listeners. no death. several arrests.)

 

[daddyg]

This may be of absolutely no help whatsoever but there was a famous case in America similair to this where a girl was murdered and everybody thought someone else was calling the polis. I think her name was Kitty Genovese and her story is in the crime library website. It was a long time ago though - 50's or 60's I think.

[Laura-sakura]

Yes thats right daddyg, i had to study that case for psychology a few years back.  It's called bystander apathy and if i can remember correctly they coined the phrase "Genovese syndrome" or something and it's linked to confomity.  The more witnesses to a crime the less likely it is that a bystander will intervene, always thinking that someone else will do it for us or the others are more qualified to help. If we are the only witness it is likely that we will intervene.  Personally I have called the police/fire brigade/ambulance myself when necessary, even if there are twenty witnesses.

[mully]

 wasn't there something on the news recently were a woman had collapsed ,was sprawled at the curb of a busy road and everyone just drove past and ignored her and it was captured on a speed camera not one person went to this womans aid.

im not sure what happened to the woman  if she was rescued or died ,but its such an awful thing that everybodys to busy in their own lives to offer any help. 

[Peter Pedant]

Thanks everyone

I feel much better and I am seeing the MD on the question, that is, please formulate a policy, and see everyone follows it.

Kitty genovese through Google reveals the crime library reference and is very useful and informative.

It is called the Bystander syndrome - I had not realised how completely demotivating it is, to experience it - I have fantasies of seeing the MD having his head smacked in in the work place and going up to him and saying - ' now you know what it feels like!' and then walking away.

Wikipedia has an interesting section on Bystander syndome along with a few references to J Exp Psych and so on.

If anyone can give a ref for Mully's story I would be grateful