The bystander effect is a myth. People don't fail to help because of diffusion of responsibility. They choose not to act to protect their own reputation, even when they care about the victim. Using it as an excuse in schools lets people off the hook.
So there's one other reason people don't intervene that nobody's brought up yet. You had your hand up. Yeah. All right. This bystander effect concept that since I'm not doing it, somebody else will, or since nobody else is, I'm not either. Either of those options. Now, is the bystander effect legit? Is it real? So it's used all the time in education. I'm going to tell you, it should never be used in education. It's a myth. And how it gets used as an excuse for somebody not doing the right behavior. Well, I didn't do anything because the bystander effect. But I can prove it doesn't even hold credibility because if I told you Aaron was your loved one, do you break through the crowd that's not doing anything to get to your loved one in that scene? Yes or no? Yes. What happened to the bystander effect? It was gone the moment you cared about the person being harmed. So imagine if we had to say instead of the bystander effect, oh, you mean the night I chose not to care about the victim? Because that's what actually happened. We put our own reputation or our own image in front of the person being harmed.
