The Bystander Effect

If you live in Singapore or actively access our news media, chances are you would be aware of the case of a woman who was pummelled on a public bus by a man unknown to her while other passengers looked on.

The bus driver also refused to stop and help, and later claimed to have received orders from the bus company to drive on. The man eventually escaped.

Depending on which media you obtained this piece of news, either one or two persons finally intervened to stop the attack.

How often have I bemoaned the nature of Singaporeans now. When something bad happens, we are more likely to stop and stare, and quickly walk away before we get ourselves into trouble too. Or worse, whip out our camera phones and score a snap to use later on Facebook or our blog.

Are we a nation of timid mice? Are we painfully apathetic? Or are we driven by the misfortune of others, which we use as fodder for conversations over kopi or beer another day?

I thought it was just Singaporeans who behave like that - a behaviour nurtured by scaredy-cat parents who taught their children to look away when there is trouble.

I was wrong.

There is a name for such apathetic behaviour. It is called the Bystander Effect, also known as the Genovese Syndrome, named after a young woman called Catherine "Kitty" Genovese who was stabbed to death near her apartment and then raped. This happened in the 60s in the US.

Many witnesses were found - enough to each emerge from their homes with a spoon in their hands to scare away the knife-wielding attacker. Alas, none bothered to step forward to help.

Read the full story of this case here, and you would be appalled by the excuses some neighbours gave when asked why didn't they try to save her or call the police sooner.

Psychologists who studied the tendency of mankind to stand aside and do nothing in the face of trouble said such behaviour is more prominent when there are many bystanders.

Simply because everyone would think that someone in this crowd would help, so I better don't be a hero. Since everyone thought that, nobody moved.

So, if you were ever attacked in public, you had better pray that there is only one passer-by.

I think the Bystander Syndrome is pronounced in modern cities or middle- or upper-class neighbourhoods, where residents are just too busy to tear themselves away from their busy-bee train of thoughts or endless list of things to do to lend a hand.

Catherine Genovese lived in a middle-income neighbourhood whose residents are educated people. And remember my tale about the woman who was attacked by her male partner outside Revenue House while the office lunch crowd looked on?

So there has got to be something wrong with the education system and the way the modern world and its citizens are progressing.

I remember my history guide in Malacca who came to a stop in a neighburhood and said the people here are still so tightly-knit that they will come together to fend off a snatch thief.

I remember feeling a little sad that such community spirit is in shortage here.

Maybe we'll only see a large group of people rushing forward to help when a money truck overturns, spilling its prized contents onto the street. People will surely fly forward to help... help themselves to the money, that is.