A woman is being beaten in the middle of the road; numerous cars and pedestrians pass by, yet no one intervenes. The police forcibly throw someone into a car; someone is being treated unfairly at work, and we stay silent. These examples lead us to an interesting psychological phenomenon — Diffusion of Responsibility.
Diffusion of Responsibility occurs when an individual who should make a decision or take action waits for someone else to do it. As the number of participants in a group increases, the likelihood of anyone taking action decreases, as everyone expects someone else to step in. In other words, everyone is waiting for someone else to do something, and because everyone waits, no one does anything—a paradoxical situation.
This can also be illustrated with larger examples from real life. For instance, during World War II, those who committed atrocities defended their actions in court by relying on this phenomenon. They claimed that they were simply following orders and did not consider themselves directly responsible for the violence. If something was wrong, wouldn’t someone in such a large group have objected?
In 1968, John Darley and Bibb Latané conducted an experiment where they simulated a scenario where someone needed help. When the subject heard someone crying for help and knew they were the only witness, they intervened 85% of the time. However, when the subject knew that a second person also heard the cry, the help rate dropped to 62%. In situations where four people were aware of the cry, the help rate dropped by half—to 31%.
Therefore, the more responsibility we feel, the more willing we are to help. So, within the collective or state we live in, what are we responsible for? Does a dog that killed in Zaqatala fall within our zone of responsibility? Democracy is not only about receiving rights and freedoms but also about being able to bear the responsibility for them.
From this perspective, the authoritarian behavior of restricting social gatherings and damaging social relations becomes more understandable. The more disconnected individuals in a society become from each other, the weaker their sense of shared responsibility grows. Consequently, the woman beaten on the street remains helpless.
Comments
Post a Comment