magazine issue 8 2014 / Issue 22

Living in a safer world: Offering help when surrounded by others for the sake of reputation

• written by Marly van Oirschot & Marco van Bommel
• edited by Dylan Selterman

Although everybody can be susceptible to this bystander effect, and the effect can be very strong, there are fortunately some strategies to attenuate this effect. Schilder (2013) mentions in her recently published article three of these strategies. First, as a victim, you have to make the situation clear to the bystanders. If bystanders do not understand what is going on, they can rationalize that there is no emergency, and believe that they therefore do not have to offer help. Second, you have a bigger change to receive help when you make bystanders feel responsible. One way to do this is by addressing bystanders individually. Finally, it is best to address those people who have ‘helper’ characteristics (e.g. tall and heavy people).

Despite the efficacy of these strategies, they all require you to have knowledge about the typical bystander effect. Moreover, the victim must also be able to perform these strategies. Perhaps there is a more structural solution, which does not require prior knowledge. Related to Schilder’s (2013) second strategy, the feeling of responsibility, recent research by Van Bommel and colleagues (2012) suggests another solution for the reluctance to offer help. They argue that having increased public self-awareness reverses the typical bystander effect. People who are aware of their public image focus more on the impressions they make on others (Prenctice-Dunn & Rogers, 1982). Moreover, they believe they will be held accountable for their behavior, and the presence of many bystanders will increase this feeling. Being aware of the reputational costs and rewards of your behavior makes you motivated by concerns of what others may think of you (Van Bommel et al., 2012), and you want to make sure that others don’t think badly of you. Moreover, helping those in need is likely to increase one’s status (Hardy & Van Vugt, 2006). Therefore, if you behave well, the presence of others can provide you with an opportunity to promote your status. It stands to reason that helping somebody to increase your reputation is more effective when many bystanders are present than just a few. Therefore, people will be more inclined to offer help in the presence of others. Evidence in support of the position of Van Bommel and colleagues (2012) can be found in research showing that your willingness to offer help can increase when your group identity becomes salient (Levine & Crowther, 2008) and by the fact that you are reluctant to offer help when other bystanders are not able to see you (Darley, Teger & Lewis, 1973). Hence, when others cannot see you, they cannot hold you responsible.

Let’s run you through the study by Van Bommel and colleagues (2012). During the experiment, participants were divided into one of 4 conditions, and they read messages on an online support-website which offers visitors the chance to help people with their problems. In the four different conditions, bystanders were either present or not, and the participant’s own presence on the forum was salient (by having a webcam positioned at the participant) or not-salient (no webcam present). So, let’s imagine you are seated in a separate cubicle with a computer. In front of you is a webcam, and you are asked to read messages on the online forum. You read that the forum is visited by many people. The computer automatically selects messages that have not received any response yet. These are personal stories from people in distress. For example, one message is about someone who just had a very bad breakup. You are free to give a response and help the writer of the message if you want to, or continue to the next message. Now the question is: Would you help the members of the forum? Chances are high that you would indeed offer help. Having a heightened public self-awareness (by having the webcam positioned at you), will promote your helping behavior in the presence of others. This shows that the presence of other bystanders can promote, rather than undermine, helping behavior. So, being in a situation with many bystanders doesn’t necessarily have to be detrimental to the person in need, it can also be beneficial. As expected, the classic bystander effect was found when people’s public self-awareness was not increased. Indeed, if you do not believe your presence is more noticeable, you are less willing to offer help in the presence of many bystanders. Van Bommel and colleagues (2012) explain these findings by mentioning that people will only change their behavior when they believe other bystanders will hold them accountable for their actions.