If you see someone in need, would you help them out even if you might get hurt in the process?
Psychology experiments have often shown that people are unlikely to help others in need when another person is close by. This dismal human reaction is called the “bystander effect,” named for the people who stand by and do nothing. But most of the research on the bystander effect comes from carefully controlled lab settings, not from the real world. And now new research suggests the story is a little different, and a little more hopeful, in real-world scenarios.
In a study published Wednesday in the journal American Psychologist, researchers found that in 90 percent of the cases they examined, at least one person observing a conflict intervened.
Richard Philpot is a social psychologist at Lancaster University in England and the University of Copenhagen. He and an international team of collaborators ...
