From bystander effect to bystander effective

The ‘bystander effect’ has been a staple of psychology texts since the 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese and the New York Times published an article claiming 38 witnesses saw or heard the attack and did nothing about it. While the Times article turned out to have inaccuracies, subsequent research replicated the effect, demonstrating significantly higher rates of intervention when a bystander was alone versus when they were with a friend or stranger.

It’s easy to criticise people who witness but do nothing while a person is being harmed. I would do something to help, we tell ourselves. But would we really, in a real-life scenario?

The question of the bystander effect can be applied to any public space where people might find themselves at risk of harassment and other forms of violence. My own research focuses on the role bystanders can have in creating a safe and secure public transport system. Public transport plays an integral role in connecting our communities and enabling us to participate in society and live full, meaningful lives. It also brings together people who otherwise might not cross paths. There is both beauty and risk in that crossover.

Take, for example, when a young schoolboy was first verbally harassed and then attacked on an Auckland bus in July. Out of over 10 people on the bus, only one 75-year-old man intervened once the attack turned physical. How could that incident have been different if more bystanders acted to support the boy when the attack was still verbal? More recently, two girls were assaulted and robbed by a group of youths on an Auckland bus in August. Where was the supportive bystander action when the girls first received demands for property from the group of youths?

There is a gap between I would do something to help, and I did do something to help.

I don’t think the gap is because most of us don’t care. I believe that most people want to help, to stop harm from happening within our communities, and for people to feel safe using the public transport systems that connect and service our communities.

My recent study found that many people – and especially women – expect to be supported by others and protected from harm, and that expectation helps them feel safer using public transport. However, my research also found few people were confident knowing what to do if someone else was being harassed.

This is something of a paradox; people generally believe in the good intentions of others and themselves, yet people aren’t sure they’d know what to do if they found themselves in a situation that called for bystander action.

I suspect what might prevent bystanders from intervening when someone is being harassed or intimidated is less about not wanting to help, and more about knowing what to do.

Recent research into the bystander effect presents a more promising view of human behaviour than those first 1960s studies. In a 2019 study, researchers reviewed over 200 sets of real-life surveillance video recordings from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and South Africa. They found people tried to help in over 90 percent of public conflicts captured by the recordings. The study also found the more bystanders present, the more likely they were to intervene.

So how do we further bridge this gap between expecting others to help, wanting to help others, and actually helping?

We can start by intentionally choosing to see the humanity in each other. We can signal to others that we’re looking out for each other. And we can reject attempts to accept, and consequently normalise violence – including harassment – in our societies.

It is clear from my own research and the 2019 surveillance videos study that we can harness the bystander effect to protect each other from harassment. The roots of violence that underpin harassment are the same roots underpinning more severe forms of violence like assault and rape. Harassment on its own is harmful to people’s health, safety, and wellbeing and harassment can escalate into more severe forms of violence.

We need to equip ourselves through knowing how to be an active bystander, one who minimises risk of escalating or redirecting the violence to ourselves as the bystander.

It doesn’t take a huge act to make a meaningful difference. There are several ways to be an active bystander that use indirect action focused on the targeted person and ignoring the aggressor.

The ‘5 Ds of bystander intervention‘ is a useful resource to learn the options for effective bystander action focused on supporting the targeted person – only the last ‘D’ directly involves the aggressor:

Distract: Interrupt the incident with an unrelated distraction, such as asking the person being harassed a question like “What’s the next stop?”

Delegate: Ask someone in a better, safer position to help, such as a person in a position of authority like the vehicle operator or security staff.

Document: If someone is already helping, document the harassment by noting the time, the stop or vehicle number, what the aggressor looks like and is wearing, and what the incident involves.

Delay: After the incident, check in with the person who was harassed to validate that what they experienced was wrong and to ask how they’re doing and what they need.

Direct: Call out the harassment. Prioritise safety and only directly intervene after assessing the situation for options unlikely to escalate or put you or others at risk of harm.

None of this is to suggest that public transport providers (such as Auckland Transport) aren’t responsible for keeping their riders safe; an active bystander community is one piece of a multi-layered approach to keeping the people in our community safe.

Next time you’re on the bus, ferry, or train – or in any public space for that matter – try paying more attention to your surroundings, acknowledging people around you, and coming to someone’s aid should the need arise. Rather than normalise harassment, let’s normalise taking seemingly small actions that contribute to a shift in culture where harassment occurs less and less. Where more people can experience a safe and secure public transport journey in which they know people around them ‘have their back’. When we see the humanity in each other and take ownership of knowing how to look out for each other, we can move past the bystander effect to bystander effective.